1) Somewhat. You should be able to modify the script more to your liking by editing a couple lua files.
First open "FECsummary.lua", and change "WAR_MINIMUM_STARTING_TURN = 76" to something like "WAR_MINIMUM_STARTING_TURN = 0", or whatever you'd prefer. That will allow open warring to occur within Axis/Allies restraints.
To then disable scripted diplomatic actions, open "FecScript.lua". Go through and delete all the table entries for "g_Major_Diplomacy" and "g_Major_Minor_DoW" so that they both match the "g_Major_Minor_Peace" table (which is already empty).
So when you're done it should look something like this:
Code:g_Major_Diplomacy = { } g_Major_Minor_DoW = { } g_Major_Minor_Peace = { }
To allow completely open warring, without breaking other things like the calendar/tech tree, would require more complicated changes. You could try deleting all the lua files, and see what happens. I guarantee the calendar will break, but the tech tree is something that I'm unsure about.
2) Unfortunately, I'm not too sure what it definitively takes to get Japan working. I have gotten Japan to be playable before by deleting units that they spawn with. So my thought is if a unit spawns on a portion of the map that is viewable by Japan at the start, then deleting it would probably help.
thanks im now able to declare war/peace as well as make friends w/ impunity. tech tree works fine as well. will edit if game crashes or if smething goes wrong.
nbeav54