There has been a bit of a discussion today starting from this post in the main TOTPP thread. @techumseh asked for the ability to generalise the pikeman bonus to be added to the TOTPP. What he wants can already be achieved with Lua (especially thanks to the combat calculator work @Knighttime did), but the argument was made that having the feature directly in the rules will make it more accessible to scenario designers. I certainly agree that the current state of the Lua Scenario Template does not allow a new programmer to make combat changes.
I made a quick check today, and having extra "@" sections in the rules.txt doesn't appear to cause any problems in the game. (I haven't done much more than load a game with an extra section, but this idea would work with a separate file anyway.) I already have a module that can read the rules.txt file for the scenario, so why not just add extra sections to the rules.txt to control certain aspects of the game? This would be a very familiar way of controlling the game, but wouldn't require @TheNamelessOne 's attention.
I'm willing to program the features in if people want it, but I'm going to need experienced designers to determine what should be included and how to format it.
I made a quick check today, and having extra "@" sections in the rules.txt doesn't appear to cause any problems in the game. (I haven't done much more than load a game with an extra section, but this idea would work with a separate file anyway.) I already have a module that can read the rules.txt file for the scenario, so why not just add extra sections to the rules.txt to control certain aspects of the game? This would be a very familiar way of controlling the game, but wouldn't require @TheNamelessOne 's attention.
I'm willing to program the features in if people want it, but I'm going to need experienced designers to determine what should be included and how to format it.