Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Some remarks (bugs?) and an update of greek city names.

[Rizos Sakellariou <rizos@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> Rizos Sakellariou wrote:
> > 
> > > > I wonder whether it is sensible to allow a player ending up with
> > > > negative points in the technology being researched. This may occur
> > > > when a penalty due to diplomacy/free_tech/conquest_of_city is subtracted
> > > > from the player's current research points
> > > 
> > > I believe this problem has been fixed.
> > 
> > Nope! I've downloaded and compiled (without too much hassle although 
> > on Solaris!) the Nov.30th version and the problem still exists.
> > Anyway, i fixed it - what is really needed is to modify 
> > do_dipl_cost, do_free_cost, and do_conquer_cost 
> > in server/plrhand.c as follows:
> 
> Well, its fixed to the extent that the server option "diplcost" 
> now defaults to zero, if you start a new game. 

This means that (if the diplcost is set to anything else than 0)
one can still end up with negative points and eventually with an overflow
as i mentioned in my first mail. This is not smart...



> The original purpose of diplcost seems to have been to _reduce_
> the advantage of trading techs, and your patch would seem to
> make it no longer work much in that respect.

One could argue that zero-ing the current research_points is 
a sufficient penalty. Even more, this can be used by the players
in order to find the most appropriate time to conclude a treaty...
In any case, my suggestion here is that the overflow should be avoided,
a lower bound would help, and i thought that 0 is a reasonable choice.

Do negative research points ever appear in the original Civilization?



> > > > On some occasions, when a diplomat reaches a city and the popup menu
> > > > appears and a selection is made, there is no action after that (meaning
> > > > that nothing occurs and no message appears explaining why).
> > > 
> > > I suspect this problem has been fixed as well.
> > > 
> > 
> > i'm not sure - it seems to me that it occurred again... but have to check
> > that further...
> 
> I agree with Mitch that this is thought to be fixed, so please
> do report any remaining problems.

Yep - it occurred again. A diplomat moving on a river and then reaching
a city. The message is that the diplomat can't attack there (city built
on plains) but can move to the next square (again plains)...

Try http://www.cs.rice.edu/~rizos/lala.sav, connect as Elizabeth

and try to move the british diplomat in Athenae (following the shortest path).

--rizos