Almost all hosts, I play with, I'm 100% certain they know it exist and that i use. Absolutely nothing is made in attempt to hide it's existence, even the contrary. So that point is totally made up. As for the game-play impacts, sure it have a impact. It's negligible on the scale of a game as there is much more important stuff, especially in complex games like 4v4, so the priority, as i see it, would actually be user experience, and prize players decision making over them being good clicky clickers. I have this thoughts because you mention the autociv active pause that is the perfect example of wanting to @#$% on great UX improvement feature for some imaginary competitive standards rules. It's a free game, goal is fun, nobody have stake on game outcomes. There will never be 0AD Esports in the foreseeable future. But if you feel you cannot bear that someone is using any feature, then you should host with rules that prevent its use, or any other rule you want. Basically same conclusion then the billions debates before this one. And it's a great way to have a middle ground for disagreeing people.

Wait a minute! Where is the one-boob armor in female form? I feel cheated. 

If someone were to make some mods isolating some of the features (and people can enable whichever features they'd like to see via mods), that would be super cool. Doing so might also create a basis for some pull requests down the line. 

It would be interesting if we could have a discussion about the linothorax. I'm of the view that it was white-washed leather rather than linen, where the quilted linen corselet came later. The term "linothorax" is so cool though that I'd still want to use it.  

I was thinking it would be helpful if players could use multiple names or "tags" attached to their main name to indicate the kind of assistance mods they're using. Concept: Imagine being able to add tags to your player name like <MyName> + <BotEco> or even add multiple tags like <MyName> + <BotEco> + <Micro>. This would instantly tell other players what kind of support you're employing during the game. <MyName> + <AutoCiv> + <kateMod> + ....  

happened

Helllo, If a bot performs tasks on your behalf and this feature isn't available in the vanilla version, it's considered cheating. Other players don't have the option to do the same. I don't want to play against cheaters, whether they're weak or strong; it's the same. I'm convinced that someone who focuses on rushing with their cavalry will manage it better because they won't have to click on these buildings and produce, or even think about it. The player without the mod won't have this advantage. If QuickStart were in the vanilla game, configurable and accessible to everyone, I wouldn't like this feature, but I wouldn't oppose it. I also think that issuing commands during pause is a form of cheating for those with autociv. I find it comfortable with all the pauses in the games. The goal isn't to issue 50 orders but just 1 or 2. Should issuing orders during pause be in the vanilla game? I'll let you debate that. People don't ban it ,because they don't know it exist.  If tomorrow a super developer creates a bot that plays entirely in your place, performs excellent military maneuvers, automatically sends resources, and starts transitioning farms on its own, would you still find that acceptable?