I think that a borg could beat nethack. I believe some people may already be working on it. In nethack, most advanced characters die to careless moves and boredom. For example, a borg player would never fall downstairs while wielding a cockatrice or choke on his food. A borg player will never put a wand of cancellation in his bag of holding. A borg player always knows his prayer timeout.

I think that a C++ only API is fine. Anyone capable of writing a decent AI would be able to learn C++ if they didn't already. (Or make the API be in the same language the game is written in - whatever that is.)

The problem with a scripted langauge is that they tend to be really inefficient (slow runtime), or they don't offer enough flexibility. For example, Dungeon Siege has a pretty powerful scripting language, but it still isn't enough.

Also notice that offering an API doesn't require compromising CD keys. You can require everyone's client to link to a library that performs a CD key check.

All these proposed changes to the game are very interesting, BUT..

I find it difficult enough, as it is, to work out how to play without a printed manual.
If it was any more complicated, I would give up.

I hate and ignore PDF manuals.
They are too expensive to print out.

The meager beginings of our own newsblog we have at the Jedi Republic Star. But growing it is...

http://jedi-republic-news.joeuser.com

Interesting