Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Re : Galleon...

[Greg Wooledge <wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Pfitzner (dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:

> Can you work out whether Triremes/Caravels should the 
> FieldUnit flag according to Civ2?  (Via looking at the above 
> happiness effects, presumably.)

Well, the first thing to note is that Freeciv's rules for unhappiness
under Democracy are different from Civ2's (or at least what the Civ2
manual says -- I've *never* been under Democracy in Civ2).

Page 71:

    In Republics and Democracies, each ground unit or naval unit not in
  a friendly city or fortress within three squares of a friendly city,
  and each bomber, Helicopter, or missile unit regardless of where it is
  located, might create unhappy citizens.  You can think of it as units
  "in the field".  Because of their routine flight training, most air
  units are always "in the field," but the protective role of fighters
  makes them an exception to the rule.

This refers to the ability of fighters to "scramble to defend the city"
when attacked by bombers -- something Freeciv does not currently do.
(See below.)

The manual continues:

    In a Republic, the first unit in the field does not cause discontent.
  Each subsequent army in the field creates one unhappy citizen.  If
  your civilization is a Democracy, each unit in the field causes two
  unhappy citizens.  Units with an attack strength of zero (that is, an
  ADM rating that starts with zero, like Transports and Engineers) do
  not cause unhappiness in this manner.

By these rules, Caravels, which have an attack strength of 2, should
cause unhappiness when not in a friendly city (can ships ever be in
a fortress?).

Moreover, if we're trying to follow Civ2 rules precisely, then the
special case which causes "non-aggressive field units" to generate only
a single unhappy citizen under Democracy should be removed (such units
should generate 2 unhappy citizens).

On the Fighter issue, page 106:

  AIR BATTLES

  Only Fighters and Stealth Fighters can attack Bomber or Stealth
  Bomber units.  In fact, Bombers and Stealth Bombers prevent enemy
  units (other than Fighters and Stealth Fighters) from even entering,
  much less attacking, the square they occupy.

    When a Fighter or Stealth Fighter attacks a Helicopter unit, the
  Helicopter's disadvantage is represented by reducing its firepower to
  one and reducing its defense factor by 50 percent.

    When a Fighter or Stealth Fighter is stationed in a city that is
  attacked by a Bomber or Stealth Bomber, the defending units scramble,
  gaining a defense factor four times their normal value.  However, they
  gain no additional protection from SAM Missile Batteries (because the
  SAMs don't want to down their own planes).

And while I was reading that page, I saw this:

  AIR DEFENSE

  When an AEGIS Cruiser is attacked by air units, it gains defense
  bonuses: The defense factor is tripled against plane or Helicopter
  attacks, and it is increased five times against missile attacks.

In Freeciv, AEGIS Cruisers get only double their defense power versus
all air/helicopter units.

-- 
Greg Wooledge                    | Distributed.NET http://www.distributed.net/
wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx             | because a CPU is a terrible thing to waste.
http://www.kellnet.com/wooledge/ |