I want to give a quick update of what I've been up to this Spring Break. I began with trying to get the unit XMLs done, but one thing that came to my attention is that we already have some unit files on the SVN Repository. Looking at downloads on that site brought the Leaderhead XML to my attention, which is when I realized that it was outdated and a bit flawed. So I retooled it and some people will not agree with the steps I took.
Aside from changing the leaders of Civs that are outdated because they are no longer in power--Taro Aso, for example--I went ahead and coded leaders based upon their actual political positions, not as generalized versions of political trends in their countries on the whole, which is what people like Matt advocated doing. So in other words, Obama is now Charismatic and Organized, not Aggressive and Imperialistic, and his favorite civic certainly is no longer Police State nor my equivalent for this mod. (With traits; I can understand the other side's argument. They will never sell me that any but the most far-right or far-left American politicians want to make it a police state, and even most of those politicians would never admit as much.)
There are a number of reasons for my doing this; here are the main ones.
*The "historical trends" logic other people have brought up isn't correct in the truly broad perspective any more than a single politician's career necessarily sums up more of his nation's politics than that time when he's in office. Matt asserts that the USA has been a globalist, warmongering power (albeit one that tries to do so with a smiling face) for a long time, but if you look at its whole history, it gives lie to that claim. The USA really wasn't an involved, imperialistic nation in world affairs until Teddy Roosevelt made it one, and until the second Roosevelt it generally lapsed back into isolationism. The truth is that individual leaders can fundamentally change the course of a nation's history, and while it's true Obama has run into a lot of opposition in changing as much as he wants, read on for more factors.
*I really don't want a predictable scenario. Some historical things are nice--I want as many Great Wonders of the world included as possible, though some of their stats probably need to be changed from the core game--but more on those sorts of things later. However, I don't want a world scenariio based in the status quo, in which nothing interesting can happen. It might be interesting, for example, to see South Africa becoming a potential empire under Zuma's leadership (and with the strong possibility that he wouldn't even be the particular African leader to start the war; just the one who wins it due to his country's better infrastructure), or America once again pulling ahead of other countries technologically, after researching more alternative energy sources.
*The historical trends approach Matt advocated can be more easily accommodated just by changing how nation's start out. If you want for America to have a huge capacity to wage war, give them a lot of planes, gunships and nukes at the start. (However ground units, should be fewer than some other countries, since America's army is voluntary and professional.) Europe can start by having more culture than the USA via its older history and large amounts of Wonders, while its leader focuses on building science and economy (even military) to a point that matches that of the US.
Make no mistake, though, the above can be countered. I respect the other side's opinions about the matter; I even understand them. Finally, I realize there was a vote on the matter and I'm going against what the majority of users decided. Yes, I also said when I took over leadership from Nik, that I disapproved of him saying the mod would follow his ideas, regardless of what other people voted upon. So why am I still making this change, at least for the moment? Because of my final reason for doing what I did, one that I think vastly overtakes the others in importance:
*Basically, I feel like I'm the Little Red Hen at this point. To say that many of the former members of this development team might not be working anymore is putting it lightly--many of them aren't even talking. I have addressed them in posts and PMs, and not only are many of them not responding, but quite a few haven't even posted since their last posts here. It is this, above all else, that made me decide I was at liberty to make whatever changes to the coding I wanted--provided I know how to do it, of course. The fact is those leaderhead files were tentative and outdated; nobody else was stepping up to fix them in any way, shape or form, and when I see what seems like the whole mod bogged down in a similar quagmire, I figure it's time for somebody with a decisive vision to singularly charge through whatever is holding things up and get to the root of the problem. This was no mere ego trip--I did more work researching current leaders on Wikipedia than I did for any homework assignment, and editting wasn't exactly easy, either. But I did the work because I actually care enough about my vision to sweat over it and make it come true.
Disagree with me? I welcome you to take it up with me here; it would be a great relief after a long period of little-to-nothing getting posted. Come help finish this mod, and your opinions will again be addressed. Right now, I'm only addressing my opinions, because I'm one of the only ones here, and I'd change that situation if I could; believe me.