[Freeciv-Dev] Catching up + Some thoughts - comments sought

[Kris Bubendorfer <Kris.Bubendorfer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I've been rather quiet lately, due to PhD pressure.  However, I want to catch 
up on the state of play - hence this long email.

1.  There was some talk about making the civil war random rather than 
absolute.  Has anything happened over this?  It certainly was my intention 
when I wrote the civil war code that there be a `chance' component (ala civ2) 
- but the code was complicated enough, so I left it out at that point.  So to 
ask again, has this been changed?  If not, I am happy to do it - and I prefer 
the following ideas:

  - Some governments are more susceptible than others, say.

        Anarchy         90%   
        Despotism       80%
        Monarchy        70%
        Fundamentalism  60% (In case it gets implemented one day)
        Communism       50%
        Republic        40%
        Democracy       30%     

  - Each city in revolt adds 5%, each city in rapture subtracts 5%

Unless someone can out exactly how civ1 and 2 do this, the above seems like a 
reasonable approximation.  Comments sought...

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2.  I also always intended to make spies and diplomats have different counter 
espionage abilities when I wrote the spy code.  However that didn't happen 
either.  Personally I don't think a diplomat defending against a spy should 
have the same chance of defeating the attacking spy as a defending spy would.  
Likewise, a defending spy should be better against an attacking diplomat.

So, how about Spy vs Diplomat giving a 50% greater chance to the Spy.  If the 
comments are favorable I'll write a patch.

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3.  Still on spies and diplomats - Whoever changed the AI to build them needs 
to look at the algorithm priorities again.  In my first game in ages against 
the AI, it was often building diplomats instead of defensive units in cities I 
was attacking.  The point being, I had not built a single diplomat or spy in 
that entire game - so they were not needed by the defending AI.

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4.  Another project I had in mind when I did the tradecities stuff.  You may 
have noticed that in Civ2, you can gift/trade units.  Think of the advantages, 
if you ally with somebody who has Leonardo's If there is spare capacity, you 
could cycle your units through your ally to get them upgraded.

I still want to add this, but seek objections first.

This is how I propose it will work.  

        - If the unit is in the field, make the closest of the recipients 
cities the 
home, the unit stays in place.

        - If the unit is in a city, it will be teleported to the nearest of the 
recipients cities.

I realise that people hate teleporting, but Civ does it.  Later on when the 
alliance code from Falk and Paul is in, the gifted unit could remain in the 
original city - providing there was a treaty in place.

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5.  Anyone want to change the AI to use the diplomats aggressively (for the 
higher levels)?  I'm scared of the AI code, but a recent game of Civ2 reminds 
me that the Microprose AI does steal tech etc...  John was intending to do 
this, but seems to have undergone spontaneously combustion after writing what 
is now the `Hard' AI.

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6.  I was looking at the authors file in the CVS.  There are coders for 1.8, 
and a exclusive list of those past contributers.  I've been writing patches 
since 1.5.4, as have many others like Greg Wooledge, Trent Piepho to name a 
few of the many.  Basically I'm complaining at the loss of the coders section 
for previous editions like 1.7.0 etc.  I'd like to say this isn't from vanity, 
but it is useful to know who to contact over some code or other that came in 
with previous releases.  For example, someone may want to know why I coded 
something the way I did when I wrote the spy code - say poison city, or 
investigate...

I realise the information IS in the change log, however it is often hard to 
spot who is the primary implementor of stuff.  For example John Stonebraker == 
AI, Me == Spies etc, Mitch == capabilities etc...


Finally ---

We all deserve a pat on the back as far as I'm concerned.  That recent game of 
Civ2 reminds me how far we've come since 1.5.2.  I personally found freeciv 
way more playable and consequently more enjoyable.  Especially the goto-click 
and being able to change research etc...


-- 

Cheers Kris...