Python is neat. 

Another issue with C++ modding is that for people who don't know it yet, it is a very hostile language. You're going to accidentally create a lot less buffer overruns and memory leaks in almost anything else.

As long as we get some nice documentation about the game's functions and similar, it'll be fine. At least for the most basic things so we don't have to start blindly pocking things.

Blindly poking things is the only true scientific method.

It sort of looks to me like you're trying to do two things here: allow unlimited tinkering with the existing game (for which changing python files is a great idea), and allow someone to build something from the ground up on top of your engine. For the latter, surely people would need to be able to compile some code? I mean no disrespect to Python, which is a great tool for a lot of jobs, but I'd prefer some dlls with well thought-out public functions and a simple example project.

Also, isn't the Supcom engine designed for top-down when there are loads of units on the screen? Or am I missing the point there?

Have you seen the Unladen Swallow project for speeding up Python? Planning on making any use of it?

I like the direction this is going, and hope there will be people taking advantage of it. When I consider that tower defence was made in a map editor, the sort of flexibility you're offering is tantalizing.

Well, the cheat system in GC2 has some of that functioality...... adding unit summons and terrrein morphing to that would go a loooooong way.... plus, you wouldn't have to create a new UI.

This is beautiful.

I can tell you now what people will ask for in an expansion though.

(i) More spells

(ii) More creatures

(iii) More races + equipment / armour

(iv) More content

Basically ... they'll be after more canon content.

I am no pro in programming, but is it possible that making a game that cabn be fremade into any other kind of gamecould be taken by say EA and remade to a new game using your hard work and sold to make a new profit?

Just curious....

Surely the EULA of Elemental will include something in the lines of "You cannot make profit of it". Appart from something related to modding copyrighted things.

I actually read through the Python docs last week just for the coming Elemental release. If you're a decent programmer, you shouldn't have much trouble adapting. Python has some oddities with default values being persistent across method invocations, but if you think of them as similar to class level instance variables it's not so bad.

I don't quite grok the lambda stuff, but it doesn't look like it's a critical language feature. If you come from a Lisp background though, I'm sure it makes perfect sense.

Python's author lives in the 1980's in some ways though that I found amusing. He recommends no lines over 79 characters in length. Come on man, join the 1990's where we have more than 640x480 resolution monitors... . I don't think I've worked anywhere in the last 8-9 years that didn't have the recommended line length at 100 or 120 at this point in their style guide. Python's naming convention recommendations are very much different from the more dominant C/C++/Java/Mono/C#, which sort of struck me as an odd convention just for the sake of being different.

Will the AI code be public knowledge then?

What I want to see is a turbocharged version of the sins dev exe at all possible. The key features of that are the console and the real-time reloading of game assets. I want that and even more importantly, (and this may just be a pipe dream but it would be the best tweaking interface ever), the ability to select a square and be able to open any entity on it in a nice text editor, so for example if you see something has 10 times the damage it should be doing, just pop open its file and fix the relevant value, or why I want this especially in elemental, the ability to open the files for each component, so you know which files could contain the error and don't have to wonder which item in a set a character or unit has, just have it open to the appropriate files, so you can know that the problem you see is contained to the files you have open. The only other thing it'd need that sins developer mode doesn't have is the ability to make new items and have them appear in the session you're in so you never need to turn the engine off for all but the most advanced coding tasks. But in all honesty, the sins dev exe with the ability to load files that were made while the engine was running would be plenty for me, the rest would just be awesome time saving features, but still great to have.

I love the dream though, that'd be totally sweet to see.

Yeah, what Wintersong said. There's usually license notes that prevent you from making a profit off mod work. So EA could do that, provided they don't sell it. (They recently added that restriction to World of Warcraft addons when pay ones started appearing.)

Pretty standard practice to not allow paid for mods of a game.

ok cool then.

When can I try this game????  LOL