Yeah, I've long seen scripts that automate stuff to be a drain on the game. I take the time to run my empire within the mechanics of the game, and see some asshat pumping out !@#$loads of crap because he has a script run his empire for him. I don't care if your scripts need intervention. They still circumvent the gaming mechanics. How would you feel if someone suddenly started using scripts to maximize food trade income on Battlemaster? or to automatically keep the tax at the maximum without causing the region to revolt? There'd be a !@#$storm about that, so why is this different?
Firstly, it is likely someone already does that in BM. Secondly Dave approves of scripts, or at least the concept behind them, which is why he is working on a API for them to reduce the server load inherent in having to use web page scraping techniques. Somehow I doubt he would be putting in such effort if scripts didn't fit his vision of the game.
