I'd choose the first one for modern GPUs. Also it'll be simpler to optimize in the future (for example replacing by a single texture but with different parameters/colors) as we don't need to so many textures different only in some colors.

Bituitos? 

Problem: The replay folder format YYYY-MM-DD_NNNN uses a per-machine sequence counter. The same multiplayer game has a different folder name on every participant's machine and different games having the same name. This makes it harder for cross-player merging of replay data (rating aggregation, replay sharing, debug traceability) without parsing every commands.txt to extract the matchID. Proposal: Change the new replay folder format to YYYY-MM-DD_<matchID>, using the existing matchID already written into commands.txt. Date prefix preserved for chronological sort; existing replays unchanged. matchID already exists, is generated by the engine for every game (multiplayer and singleplayer), and is identical across all participants of a given match. Use cases: Replay-sharing site https://replay-pallas.wildfiregames.ovh: matches uploaded by different players collapse to the same identifier instead of being renamed. Mods (e.g. local ratings): users can merge rating data from co-players without name-collision workarounds. Bug reports: devs can ask for a specific replay by ID and the user finds it directly in their folder list.

Hey, are there specific maps made for this mod? I think standard 0ad maps won't do the sci-fi setting justice.  Something like space station maps, charred moons and toxic planets could be more appropriate for the mod. 

Why Bituitos? As far as I can recall, he's mostly famous for losing most of the Arverni's kingdom and vassal states to the Romans. I'd think if you wanted a powerful Arverni noble (you know, who isn't Vercingetorix or his dad), his father Luernius would be better, though less is written about him. Still, their territories were kind of at their apex under his rule, weren't they?