Hey, so uh, I was wondering if we could get a tad bit more mod support:
as it stands, to create a 'mod', you must replace the images of the game with your own. Sure, this is great and all, but this means that you, as the end user, must manually keep track of what you have changed, and make backups and all.
My suggestion is fairly simple.. hopefully - A new directory, similar to the current data directory (well, really the current one is just ai war/, but bear with me) under the name 'mod data' or something. Basically, in this directory, you would place your ship skins, etc in the same path as otherwise used, but not overwriting anything. The game, in theory, would search for these paths first when loading data, and then default to the ..default data if there is no modded version.
As stated above, the ability to keep track of things is vastly improved. But also, this creates a much simpler method of installation/removal of mods - merely rename directories, and you can switch around the mod you have installed for example. Removing it could be as simple as deleting the entire folder.. Finally, with all this comes the ability to share mods considerably easier. No longer will there be complicated install instructures (put this here, that there, that over there, throw this in the cupboard, etc), its just 'unzip to your mods folder' and presto!.
Basic summary - Add a step when acquiring data to look for a modded version in a special folder instead.
