So far this looks great, but I'll definitely be wanting to modify the code directly to change how things work and add my own features. I'm not a great programmer, but I can do some small things, and have a great team behind me on top of that.

Is the whole thing completely encoded to the point of being unable to edit the php directly? Or will I be able to modify things like the announce file myself?

You can't edit the php files, but the system is all template based so you can modify the html templates for practically all pages.

And if I wanted to add an addition field to the torrent details, such as 'director' or 'author', is that possible?

I wouldn't have thought so, that would probably include editing php files.

This requires: 1) edit php file(s) 2) Modify database.

The best way is, request it as a feature.

Thats exactly what I wanted to know, thank you Xam.