[Freeciv-Dev] Freeciv gameplay

[Daniel Burrows <Daniel_Burrows@xxxxxxxxx>]

  Hi.  I've got a few comments on the gameplay of Freeciv.  I've had it sitting
around for a while but I never really sat around and played a game from start
to finish, I just tested specific features to see if they worked.  Yesterday
I finally sat down and played a game; it didn't finish for reasons which will
shortly become obvious :-), but I got to a point where the end was obvious.  I
played it using the Freeciv server and GTK+ client, version 1.7.2, with m
magic-cookie patch and the tileset distributed at the same website as the
GTK+ client (the one with the flattened mountains :-) )

  I played Civilizations I and II extensively, and while I'm not an expert at
them, I got fairly good. (I think I beat the computer up to Prince or King
level)  I assumed, since freeciv generally follows them even where the
original design is questionable, that my experience would translate into
freeciv ability.  How wrong I was.  In any event, I started the server up
with 4 easy AI players and myself.  I got a really nice bit of land, lots of
resources, a couple choke points where I built cities, and so on.  Everything
proceeded fairly well in the beginning, but I did notice some annoying changes
from the original Civs.  The worst offenses (IMO) are interface issues:

* freeciv does not inform you when a structure is completed in a city.  Instead,
 the city switches to another, apparently randomly chosen, structure.  This is
 extremely annoying; in the older Civs you had to deal with every single city
 improvement individually, but in freeciv you have to click on every city
 to find which ones completed!  I realize that in a large empire, popup boxes
 might be annoying, but at least marking cities which completed a structure this
 turn on the City List would be very useful. (the ability to change production
 target before spending extra money on something you don't want is also
 nice)

* freeciv does not inform you when a city enters disorder.  I discovered late
in the game that the reason my research, trade, and production were stalled was
that most of my cities were in civil disorder!  Not only that, but
distinguishing between the different happiness levels from the City Window
is very difficult. (although this may be an effect of the specific tileset I
was using, and the City List is excellent for checking this)  On the plus
side, I really liked the way that when luxury taxes are increased, the list
is immediately updated to show which cities enter or leave disorder as a
result.  The City List is an excellent tool in FreeCiv, much more so than in
Civilization, and you should probably mention it in a "beginner's tutorial" if
you ever write such a thing.

* Notifications.  There are many times when Freeciv displays fairly important
messages in the info box at the bottom without much fanfare.  I'd like an
option to display various types of messages in a popup box so that I don't miss
them.  For example, tech achievements; I don't always remember what I'm
researching at any given time, and often the science box appears to tell me to
choose a new tech, but I don't know what I just discovered until I look
in the message region.  Civs I and II pop up a dialog, which is sometimes
helpful and sometimes annoying. :-)

* Unit movement.  I had 'smooth movement' or some such item selected, but units
still simply disappeared from one square and appeared in another.  This wasn't
so bad for my own movement, but it made the AI's movements almost impossible
to follow.

* Combat.  This is related to the above problem, I suspect.  When my units
were attacked (or when I attacked another unit), there was no indication of the
battle.  The vanquished unit simply vanished from the map, and the HP bar
of the victorious unit dropped.  When an AI player was attacking me, I often
didn't even see the unit that attacked.

* Players.  The flags for each country are cute, but it's much easier to
quickly recognize a solid color.  I found it difficult to distinguish between
the various players.

* Balance.  In 1500 BC (or thereabouts) musketeers were dropped outside
my cities.  This doesn't seem so good to me.

* City displays.  I'm not sure here, the pictograms in CivI/II were useful for
getting an at-a-glance image of a city's production, but the numbers are nice
too.  Maybe you should include both in the popup window?

* City List.  It's wonderful, but I noticed two problems: first, when you
Change what a city is building, it deselects the city.  I don't like thi
behavior since I might want to do several things in a row with a city.  Second,
clicking on Buy doesn't give you a confirmation dialog, so if you might not
have wanted to buy the item after seeing the cost, you don't get a choice.
(could you just call the city_buy_item routine?)

* City tiles.  CivI and CivII indicated graphically whether a city had
defenders.  Freeciv doesn't.  I suppose you can argue that you shouldn't
know this about enemy cities, but you should at least be able to see the
defensive status of your own cities.

* Science report.  Is that list at the bottom of the dialog a list of techs?

* Aesthetics.  I think that a lot of things in the GTK+ client need to be
redesigned to be prettier.  For example, the science dialog: it looks too
wide--almost all of the space is blank--and at the same time too cramped;
in particular, the Goal and Researching buttons need more padding--and
especially more consistant padding. (the padding on the top is about right but
they're shoved right up against the widget below them).  Also, there
should be a "--Known technologies---------------------------" heading above
the list box.  On the other hand, the city list is quite nicely done.

* Client control of server.  This is a big architectural change, I assume,
but the client should have a way to start up a server and control it to
some extent.  The server should still be a separate process; perhaps the
first player that connects would be considered the 'admin'. (magic cookies
would help for authentication here, although that player would usually
be local)  This is probably more of a 'wishlist' item..

-- 
  Daniel Burrows

  Nothing is hopeless.

  PROOF:
(a) Assume the opposite.
(b) If something _is_ hopeless, then its condition can only improve.
(c) If its condition can only improve, then there must be hope for it.
(d) Therefore, nothing is hopeless.  QED.

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