[Freeciv-Dev] Re: freeciv suggestions

[don@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

I wrote a couple of days ago. Thanks to everyone who responded (I'm not on
the mailing list, and with the web site down I couldn't check for archives).

[message popup being inconsistent]
David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Yes, I actually did this deliberately, though I was a bit uncertain 
> because you're right that its not consistent.

I always want both center and popup, so I can see where on the continent
the city is. But I agree that having the two be seperate is probably the
correct although inconvenient behavior. Unless maybe a third button "center
and popup" (although buttons are cheap, it seems to be a bit out of place).
The only other option would be to make one of the two be the "center and
popup" button.

[city disbanding units and not allowing the player to pick which one]
David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Hmm, I don't see how this could be done, due to freeciv's multiplayer
> nature:

> What you can do is detect these problems beforehand, and manually

The actual circumstances are that I'd just taken over a city by means of a
revolt, and inherited a bunch of junk that was in the city. It was the end of
the turn when I took over the city; I must have changed the attacking unit's
(a helicopter) homecity because the city it was from was overextended or
something. But all the city's units where actually in the city. I would have
preferred to keep the helicopter (which was disbanded) rather than a rifleman
unit that was in the city because I'd inherited it.

I know that which unit is disbanded can affect other operations or
calculationss, but given that the entire turn-done process happens only after
I press the turn-done button, it can't be that time critical, can it? Or maybe
make all other decisions as if the problem didn't exist, until as a result of
the "choose", suddenly unit(s) disappear. I was thinking of a popup window
that says "one of units A, C, or D must be disbanded. Choose." where A, C, and
D is the set of units which are overextending or whatever. Barring that, how
about a priority system, where "lesser" units are preferred for selection for
being disbanded. It could be by cost or an arbitrary table of military value.

I presume different units put different loads on cities; it could get
complicated if disbanding one small unit wouldn't solve the problem but
disbanding one big unit would. In that case, cost would not necessarily be
what makes the player happy; I'd rather lose three riflemen than one armor,
because riflemen are weak immobile chumps. But that's my opinion.


I've come up with some more ideas. (groan)

First of all, perhaps making the enter key on the keypad end the turn isn't
the best idea. The keypad is necessary to move diagnally, and it's a bit too
easy to accidently end the turn. (Whereupon I check when I saved last...)
Perhaps a confirmation if it's really necessary?

Secondly, it seems to be possible to activate units with 0 moves left via
city menus, but not directly. A previously moved unit may need to be given
future movement commands. Of course, I hadn't thought until now of looking at
which city it was from, finding that on the city report and popping it up, but
I guess that would work... While I'm thinking of moves, the options are great -
the "Solid unit color background" option would be even better if there were
"0 moves left" or "at least 1 move left" options also instead of just "yes" and
"no". Just a thought.

Is disallowing buying units in a city (which was in disorder at the beginning
of the turn but isn't currently) on purpose?

It seems a waste to discover or build "Future Tech 42" or something. But at
least the game doesn't bomb out. (Well, hasn't so far..)

In the City Report, a Sort By: city name|product option would make it easy to
survey global production.

There doesn't appear to be any way to disband a city. As useless as that may
seem, sometimes I wish I could change otherwise optimally-placed cities
(or perhaps placed by another player) into port cities and since there's no
way to cut a river into the land (although I'd happily put an engineer on it
for 20 turns if I could) blowing up a city and replacing it with one nearby
wouldn't hurt much on a global scale, especially if there were a particular
percieved advantage.

I hope none of these things come up on a regular basis or anything, just wanted
to throw out ideas that may not have occurred to developers who were too busy
debating on whether the AI's should let the wookies win sometimes.

Thanks for cc's.

And let me say again freeciv is really a great game.

Don