I have an idea for quickly debugging the very basic "is my mod running at all?" question. But, I don't know modding enough to know how to do it. Here's the idea, which I've used before in many applications I've written where debugging is problematic:
Would it work? Does it "solve" a real problem? (i.e. do people other than me run into situations where the mod doesn't crash the game, but still doesn't work either?)
If it is feasible, what would be the right set of unobtrusive changes?
Change some very innocuous item in the game that a user would typically see very early in setting up a game. Perhaps change some generic leader text from the normal, and add "Mod xyz start:" directly into the text for a message one sees early on.
But, make two changes, in case the mod is running but fails midway through. Put the first change as the very first item in ones list of XML items, and the second as the very last one. Thus, if both are available, there are no simple typos or whatever preventing basic functionality.
These two items would be left in the XML for debugging until the mod is "show-worthy", and they they would be removed or commented out.
Would it work? Does it "solve" a real problem? (i.e. do people other than me run into situations where the mod doesn't crash the game, but still doesn't work either?)
If it is feasible, what would be the right set of unobtrusive changes?