Note: you're free to disagree with me, but I'd rather hear what you think and why you think it than hear about how I'm all wrong because X.

Civ5 has much better documentation in my opinion (than elemental). (didn't jon schafer write it, even? hah)

I think animation will always be a hurdle to overcome, at least I find it quite difficult to work with.

Personally I think Elemental's xml data is easier to read than Civ5s, due to the back to back referencing in Civ5 (add building to research, add building instead of elemental's which does it in one step). Note I'm just talking about understanding the content here, Civ5 still wins out due to the db approach.

Ultimately the lack of scripting and the lack of flexibility makes Elemental a very uninteresting choice for modders.

I have to make one HUGE request: bring back the mod directories. The idea of modular modding is great and all, so leave it in. But why oh why had the mod-directory to go? For Total Conversions it is so much easier to have an isolated xml base.

Just look over at Civ5 - it is such a mess and work to disable all the stuff that's in there to setup a blank modding base to get you going.

So overall it would ease the creation of TCs and also would make it easy to create Mod-Mods.

EDIT: actually I've some more requests:

1. I want to be able to define item categories and set how much of it a unit (be it hero, soldier-unit, creature or whatever) can wear. For example: Definition of item category: Backpack. Then max number of Backpacks worn on all units: 1

2. I also would love to be able to define unit categories and also items that grant item categories. So for example: Humans start with unit category "Human". If the players equips his human soldiers with bows they receive unit category "Archer". Should thy also get a horse to ride on they also become "Cavalry". All those Categories are linked together. Now we can also define Weapon/Attack/Spellboni against certain unit categories. Please allow boolean logic. Like Damage Bonus against: "Cavalry" OR "Archer" NOT "Dwarf"

3. Provide support for moddable talent/promotion-trees (comparable with Diablo2+, AOW, Civ4+) also not just for heros, but make it possible for the modder to add it the every creature he likes it to. Also grant the possibility that certain Items grant access to skill-trees when worn. For example: the holy medal of Empire grants the access to the skill tree: "Empires Choosen", or for example the Thief-Hero Kazilian starts with access to the Rogue-Skilltree. The normal stats should either be able to be auto-leveled or disabled altogether. Of course if the modder so wish he can still use the old stat system as it is now or link it like: Skill "Dodge" needs a minimum Level of 4 and minimum Dexterity of 19. Just as an example.

 4. Ability-Effect Triggers. We need special triggers to call spell/ability effects. The ones I have in mind are: On attack (attack-animation is sufficient as trigger), On hit sth (you have to attack and actually hit it, but it's not necessary to damage the target), On damage sth (you have to attack and damage the target to trigger), being attacked (you have to be target by an enemy, you don't have be hit at all), beeing hit, beeing damaged

5. Ability and Spellchargers: please add forms of charges. Like ability "Mighty Blow" can be used 4x times a battle. Or "Battle Cry" can used without limit but with a 3 battle rounds cooldown. Also let certain abilities / spells cost resources. Like for example "Rune-Shaping" costs 4 Metal to use.

Oh that's good to hear. After the release of Civ5 I haven't bothered with modding / playing Elemental so that slipped past me.

With good support of a scripting language like Python oder LUA not that much of a problem. But it costs a lot of resources that way. So many mods in Civ 4 run so slow because of extensive loops via Phyton. The more is embedded straight into the code and accessed via XML as "switch flipper" - the faster and more stable will modifications be.

If you are talking about the Modders Guide for Civilization V, I wrote it.

I haven't said that one has to exclude the other. You can have both - easy to use tools and tools for the ambitious. Doesn't has to be an either/or.

Any modding ability worth anything has the ability to lead to bad mods. There's mods for WoW that slow the game down, are buggy, and cause general weirdness.

There's also mods that are so good that they became something other games had to include in the stock UI to keep up with what players demand in a modern game. There's mods that fixed Blizzard oversights and made some kinds of content realistically doable before Blizzard could get around to fixing it (or in the case of the one I wrote, fixing a simple annoyance).

Most importantly, players have a lot more options to find what suits them and makes the game fun for them. Powerful tools and an active community do that, while weak tools aren't really worth the effort to create.