hey
heres a quote from the faq

Q. Does the Iron Engine support modding? A. Absolutely. Ironclad fully endorses the modding of its games for non-profit purposes. The Iron Engine is completely data-driven, has an embedded Lua Scripting Engine with console access, and is supported by the Forge Tool Suite. Modding instructions and the Forge Tool Suite will be provided.

hope it was useful
cheers

The FAQ doesn't really help in specific areas; I have some questions if you don't mind:

Are we going to be able to import our own ship models into the game without a thousand-dollar software kit? Something like an .obj file converter to whatever you guys use would be nice.

Will the User Interface be customizable?

Will we be able to define different gameplay types (pre-made or custom ones)? (for example, Homeworld had different gameplay types outside of "killing the mothership", like "capture a capital ship" or "collect the most resources").

Will we be able to stage our own single player missions with triggers and everything you guys used to do your single player campaign?

Some of the first things that popped into my mind.

This is great! I love modding .

I guess nobody else ever wanted a game like that

I'm talking gameplay not story (if you want the story behind my idea, watch BSG). Changing the game to not be about empire building at all but simply about guiding a single fleet through the galaxy, trying to survive by any means possible to achieve their final goal, is a rather big change of pace from the original game I think...

I also don't think it has been done before in a game, but with Sins' engine it should be doable. Basically a game akin to Nexus but without a strict mission structure and in its place a final "goal" that you can try and achieve in your own way through this dynamic universe with your limited resources.

Came up with more stuff:
I think the basic concept would be fun enough to play through on its own but it could always be enhanced in various ways such as having a complex diplomacy system involved when meeting other survivor fleets in an attempt to make them part of your own, or the requirement to keep the civilian population of the fleet happy and reproducing, the trick being their needs in commodities are vastly different to what you need to maintain a decent army against the cylon attacks therefor keeping them happy limits your resources in other areas.

There could also be various events that trigger optional side missions that if completed give clues for the whereabouts of Earth or other lesser objectives such as rich for resupplying planets.

Then you could have various "hero units" that greatly help in certain situations if they have remained alive so it's a sort of risk to throw them in every battle because if they die you could find yourself in a very tough position later on. For example, if Starbuck dies, you can expect to have many casualties before finally putting Scar down, or even being unable to do so and so decide to "jump" elsewhere to avoid him (and lose the potential reward of that side mission). Just an example.

Perhaps it could even have elements from Sid Meier's Pirates! in that Captain (or Admiral, if you convince other fleets to join you) Adama gets older throughout the course of the game therefor you have a sort of time limit for your goal and in the end a high score board taking in account your current age, size of fleet, civilian population numbers and status, side missions completed, important characters discovered (could be some of the hero units mentioned earlier), rescued etc.

Well some of it could be possible, the basic needs for that system may already be in place for the campaign of sins. Anyway like I said just the basic concept alone would be fun enough, but if possible more can be better. Not required though.

Were I able to tapdance...
I read in another thread about pure AI civilian ships, etc. I also hope additional custom races can be added; that would add another flavor, and surely not tax the engine, merely the initial loading time.
Another game I've experience modding had the capacity to add up to 5 additional AI races; those added a lot more flavor, as well as a lot more things to take ones agressions out on too heh heh heh.

In time after release and a patch or two I'll find others with skills; we'll (I at least) try to make as much new and fun customs things as possible; I have a feeling this is the game I've waited years for.