Well, Im neither a pro at this game, nor have I been around for long, but I still want to add my thoughts.
1. Is proGUI a "cheat"?
According to wikipedia: "Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier."
Now, I never played with proGUI, so all information I have is from @Atrik in this thread, but to summarize what he said the mod does:
It gives players the ability to produce units from buildings without having to select those buildings.
It gives players the ability to designate a desired ratio of certain units, which is automatically sustained (by re-training only unit types, of which the player lost some or only training them in said ratio while booming).
The player can choose a certain amount of resources to be kept, which wont be used by the automatic queuing system.
Did I get that right?
If I did, that is certainly an advantage beyond "vanilla 0ad". Because any tool, how insignificant it may be, that only one player has, is an advantage.
Now, I believe "vanilla 0ad" should be considered the "normal gameplay", which makes proGUI a cheat.
2. Does it matter?
Well, there is a forum post about it, so it seems to matter to some people. I personally don't believe it matters, as the advantage is not big enough to be insurmountable through skill, and the advantage lessens the better you get at the game.
3. What could/should be done?
Any tournament or competitive game should clearly state before, which mods (if any) are allowed and which aren't. Of course. But the same goes for 1v1s or teamgames. If you don't want to play with someone who uses proGUI, don't. Nobody forces you. But the same way, nobody can force another player to disable proGUI.
The only real problem I can think of is, if somebody is being dishonest about whether or not they're using the mod? Is there a way to check for the host of a game, whether the players are using the mod?
4. Anecdotal thoughts.
I don't use any mods that alter my gameplay (with the sole exception of the "delete no warning"-option from autoCiv), no Quickstart, no building hotkeys, no guis, I don't even use the default 0ad autoqueue (normally... Corrals are impossible to use without). Because I actually like to look for the idle barracks. It's part of the game for me.
But since it's still very much possible to defeat an opponent who uses all of those things, I really don't care how other players play this game to have the most fun.
