Hello,

I'm a computer science undergraduate student with a great intrest in games, artificial intelligence, multiagent systems and of course strategic video games.
There are numerous questions in both AI and multiagent system that I believe should be researched in practice, and generally it seems to me like that a game such as Civilization can provide some nice environment for those experiments.
Question is, what tools do I have to test those kind of things? Can I use the API for modders inorder to override the AI module completely? Can I limit the game to some simpler, easier to research game? Can I tinker with things such as such as the diplomacy module?
Generaly speaking, is there some distinct advantage of using a Civilization game over writing a simplified environment by myself without the fancy graphics and logic backbone?