Requirements analysis for an improved "WorldBuilder Cleaner" program

I'm dying to do some Java programming over the Christmas Break (late December to early January for me) and figure that an editor to help with series map creation would be fun. TheMeInTeam has a nice thread telling how to edit WorldBuilder save files by hand, and there's a WB Cleaner that automates a few things, but

• the cleaner doesn't do everything you need to do for a series
• it's organized around specifying specific groups of save file features to edit rather than around a "user-centred" approach
• the author hasn't logged in for over a year.

So like a good little software engineer, I'm going to ask people to help with a "requirements analysis" -- an outline of what the program should do, from the perspective of people who don't want to dive in and learn all the gory details of the file format. Here's a list of what I've thought of so far, which I'll edit in response to people's comments:

1. There's no need to do anything that's already easy with the in-game worldbuilder.
2. Standard map series edits should be the default:
   • Allow choice of all difficulty levels and all game speeds.
   • Remove all AI units so that choosing difficulty level gives them their proper extra units.
   • Keep the human's units so the game always starts with the warrior/scout in the same position as the initial screenshot people post.
   • Un-reveal all tiles revealed by in-game WB map edits, such as happens if someone moves around starting units. You can do this with the in-game WB but people sometimes forget.
   • Optionally produce separate Noble, Monarch, Immortal, and Deity saves so the AIs get their proper tech advantages, which involves adding or removing AI starting techs depending on what difficulty level the WB save was created with.
   • Since saving a WB file in-game leads to allowing all the civs to be played, default to setting only the first one playable.
   • Optionally produce separate files for each leader
     • possibly needed for the PYL series? something to do with proper starting techs?
     • I imagine this also needs a cross-product with all the separate difficulty levels
     • Advanced: allow choosing any subset of the leaders to be playable. For a map series this is likely to be only one, but on rare occasions it's not the first one.
3. Earth maps are popular but subject to many complaints and requests for specific changes:
   • Allow selection of any civilizations to be included. This would be based on the Earth 34 map, but since that's far too many AIs for some of us (and seems to require changes to the .ini file if I understand the .zip file correctly), there'd need to be a way to select fewer.
   • For each selected civilization allow a choice of one of its normal leaders e.g. Churchill or Victoria instead of Elizabeth for England.
   • Allow turning on or off various popular map edits such as
     • Remove certain mountains in South America.
     • Match Central Africa (Mali) more closely to the real Africa (fewer jungles, surrounded by forests, and more deer representing the various kinds of herd animals).
     • There are various other threads with suggestions, e.g. LearningCiv's and Harv's.

Comments, questions, advice, additions, all welcome!

I suggest:

-Option to remove ( or replace by other ) resources in bulk. You might want to make a medieval scenario ( for a example ), where coal, oil and aluminium make little sense and want to simply erase them from the map/replace them by other resources.

-Option to replace tile types in bulk. Say, change all mountains on the map by hills ( already had a request for a PBEM game that required that )

-Option to replace/remove overlays in bulk. Say, you want your map without jungles or with all the forests with snow on top ....

-Enable/Disable game options and change calendar/Starting date/some other stuff I'm not remembering now . Give a look to the link I quoted in TMIT thread in the first page for more details ( it is from the person that made the Firaxis internal guide on how to use the WB )

-Lock/unlock level, speed or options ( again see the thread I refered in the last option )

-Options to change all the stuff in BeginPlayer area ( idem ). Nothing like making a civ that looks Aztec but that fields Preatorians The city list option is interesting too ...

The idea you have to make various WB files from the same map for various leaders already in there will probably require code to generate a position for the human warrior/scout for those civs that weren't meant to be played with the human That code could also be used for a option to make all the civs start with the non-settler/worker units in a random tile inside the BFC ( excluding the starting spot OFC ), that would be useful for MP.

P.S Feel free to send me alpha and beta versions. My java is not that good, but i think I can give a hand

Nothing to add input wise, I'm not really experienced with the whole worldbuilder editing stuff.

Just wanted to say good luck with the project . I think it will be a real help for those settling up these games.