warpstorm said:
...Python allows malicious scripts. Even moreso, the dlls from the AI SDK can do ANYTHING to your system. At least with the Python you can see the source code.
That's no small claim you're making there. This could be a big problem. What do they say about it at Firaxis?
(Considering how chaotic the modding community is for Civ3--there's like a new scen posted every f-ing day!--the idea of a screening process for mods could clean things up a bit but it could also lead to complications like, how complex does a mod have to be to merit being looked over by fansite staff? What happens if modding becomes incredibly popular (due to the the high degree of modability) and there's a an overwhelming number of scens waiting to be screened?
Modding Civ3 is already a tedious process but outside of modding flcs, it's not so bad (unless you have to write out hundreds of civlopedia descriptions for a massive scen as is the case with me at present). Of course gameplay (i.e. the part where you've already modded everything and have to get down to actually working out map placement, appropriate values and put in hours of testing, etc.) is another matter. This is mainly because nobody really knows the internal workings of Civ3 except the people who actually designed the program, so the modder really has very little clue as to how the AI, for instance, will respond to the modded aspects of the game.
Civ4 will (supposedly) eliminate this problem.
But it introduces another problem: now there's TOO MUCH to mod! Designing a fully modded scen (i.e. one that makes full use of all this flexibility) will require HUGE amounts of time. This would seem to contradict the direction the vanilla game is taking (i.e. simplification). Modding Civ will go from an interesting bit of tweaking to a programming nightmare. I haven't actually created a single full scen for Civ3 because of time constraints; I have to resign myself to helping others with their stuff or just mess around with the game for fun (granted, another reason I don't mod much is that I'm afraid of running out into the street in a rage and slaughtering some innocent civilian(s) after having spent hours testing the stupid Civ3 AI only to end up at square one when what I thought worked doesn't).
Don't get me wrong: I wished for this and I definitely don't regret getting what I wished for, but I--like most people who are out of high school or retired--also don't have much time to do this stuff. If it's just
as is, without intermediate programs to facilitate and speed-up the process, hard-core modding will be inaccessable even to those who have the ability to do so.
...Well, I suppose programmers in the modding community will come up something (it's just that a lot of stuff tends to be buggy).
Oh, I think someone mentioned that the modability of Civ4 is for player benefit (or something along those lines). To this I say: nothing in life is free; if it's there it means it was cheaper for the creators of the game to leave it in. The only thing done for the players is that fact that they didn't decide to hard-code everything upon completion so as to avoid few headaches (according to Firaxis spokespeople at least).
