First,

Thank you for making a wonderful game. The game is good and fun, and I enjoy it.

A number of us have had growing concerns about modding support in the form of scripting. It seems likely to us now that the AI will never be exposed to Python; it just doesn't make sense to us that Stardock would write 5,000 lines of code in C and then convert them to Python.

As time goes on, the codebase is going to get bigger. Our ability to do total conversions and make interesting maps relies on being able to script events and tweak the AI to take advantage of new features. Right now, Elemental has a *great* set of tile editors, and nearly all of the game data is available in XML for modification. But modifying data is one thing: what happens when we want to change the combat system itself?

There are probably about six people on this forum who care about scripting support right now. We're not a loud voice, but we're starting to wonder if the things we want to make are going to be possible in Elemental. At some point, each of us wanting to do our projects will have waited for as long as they can, and then we'll have a choice to make: stick it out, or move on. Other companies are also releasing good products with mod support. Stardock is amazing and we're here right now because we want to work with Stardock's products.

It may seem like "scripting," isn't a big part of modding because there are few scripters. But there are also few model artists. Scripts and models and textures get shared between projects. The work that some of us do ends up being work used by hundreds of other modders, from fullscale conversions to tiny little mods wanting to tweak a couple things, and that ends up being enjoyed by thousands of users.

What we'd really want now is just to hear what the plan is, and if scripting is a priority for Stardock, if there is a timeline for implementation? Does Stardock have a Python guy?

That's all.