but without IV supporting those things right now that's pretty much a dead end, and the lack of support rubs off on me and makes me disinterested too.
That's the way all/most community projects for a gaming company go, though. I once did a map for the Homeworld universe for Relic (on their forums, my alias there is Norsehound) and part of the reason I didn't go through with the 'more accurate' version was because of lack of input from Relic. I got one or two posts stating their interest, but since then Relic has moved away from creative IPs to being the lapdogs of Games Workshop, and so no interest in Homeworld. Everyone loved the map though.
I think the only gaming company (that I know of anyway) to encourage community development is Valve.
Very insightful, TGF.