This has already been somewhat talked about on several other threads, but I think it is time to centralize the promotional and administrative efforts of this project here. It is pretty clear that Sins is nearing the end of its supported patches (or is at the end), but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact for active modders, this is the time for mods to truly be completed as we no longer have to worry about game updates making our work obsolete. But ask anyone who has played multiplayer and they will tell you there is still a long way to go.
Thus I think we need to plan, create, and push a patch, created by the community, but just as official as another update (likely meaning available via Impulse). This seems to already being done by another Stardock game, Demigod, but in fact our job is technically much easier. Virtually all the balance problems can be fixed with changes to the data files, which are substantially easier to modify and distribute than changing the source code.
So for the plan. First of all we need a system for deciding what needs to be fixed and how so. In other words, we need a form of showing consensus. I will post my ideas later, but this patch will never appear if we don't agree on something. We also need to find out if Ironclad is in fact planning another patch for the game, in which case we will simply hold our efforts until it is released and we undoubtedly find other things that should probably be changed.
The create part is already under way, with ideas for what a community patch might contain already being discussed here. The actual implementation will need volunteers to create a mod that makes the agreed on balance changes, as well as people to test them, but I doubt that will be all that difficult. We also need to decide if we will only make patches for Diplomacy (the final version of the game), or for all three versions of Sins, and get people to port changes for both where relevant.
The push part will need to involve promoting the patch to other members of the community and at least Stardock (preferably Ironclad as well, after we find out if they are done with official patches). I believe there is a decent chance of getting it accepted, given that Stardock has allowed it with Demigod, but we need to show that we are a dedicated and responsible enough community to handle it, given we are asking them to support changes to one of their most successful products.
I will edit this post as needed to handle any further needs that may arise.
