Here's my biennial post thanking you for this awesome mod :-)
Thank you!
It's been two years, huh... Two and a half even. A wild ride, when you frame it like this. I really gotta return to developing this mod, so much progress can be achieved in so little time
![Tongue :P](http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/Smileys/aaron/tongue.gif)
I've probably asked this before and gotten an answer, but is there some reason the suggested tweaks stuff isn't just the default? It's a bit annoying to do by hand, and especially the profession names and enemy buffs seem pretty reasonable to me!
It's just that I have always considered them somewhat controversial.
To talk about the profession names specifically, the modded names can obfuscate the default ones, making connecting skills to weapons less intuitive for those who try to get into the mod while using as little documentation as possible. It's a criss-cross reason with why/how the Features section refers to default profession names, when mentioned, and weapon list categorizing Lasher (aka Flailsman) weapons as "lash" type.
Another reason is the whole merging compatibility shtick I'm still trying to maintain. Having the tweak layed out like that allows the player to easily add it into whatever modded creature files they are using.
It would be reasonable, however, to at least add an optional folder with
creature_standard.txt where the tweak is applied in the Standalone version; and include it in the Light Edition by default. Marked that on my to-do list!
As for enemy buffs and goblin ambushes, I really think that's just not many a player's cup of tea. There's a good reason Toady removed ambushing from the goblin civs. Meanwhile, skill buffs are not without their oddities, such as histfigs getting mismatched or incomplete equipment oftentimes due to accidentally majoring in multiple weapon skills, or a skill their civ doesn't actually make weapons for, which they acquire as an adventurer; there's also the whole exploitable dissonance between dwarves and other civilized races which is its own can of worms. More obviously, they can make the game much harsher, which is not the mod's core intent - that just being more fun and balanced combat. If I could, I would do away with the enemy skill buffs altogether in favor of handicaping player militia grinding, but with the current tools such as they are, that solution is unfortunately worse. The gist is that the mod's features are actually at their best in low skill on low skill fights, because DF's high skills throw all balance and laws of physics out of the window. But high skill on high skill is the next best thing, because it's symmetrical at least.