Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Nationalities

["Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alexandre BERAUD wrote:

> And what about an option to disable it while multiplaying ?

Nice suggestion.  (OTOH, I was thinking in terms of characteristics that
would serve as hints to the AI, rather than any actual
advantages/disadvantages that would affect a player's ability to compete if
he picked a given nation.)


> I remind you once again that CivII used to have differences between
> nationalities, and I even think that these differences were not
> strong enough. If these rules could be fun for Orcs and Melniboneans,
> why not for human nations ?

It would certainly be useful for human nations like the Huns, Vikings, or
Assyrians, who weren't particularly well behaved (at least not during the
periods for which the are most famous).


> (I think I'm gonna get burned in a couple of hours)

Not by me. I think we should try to strike some kind of balance between
modern sensibilities and a realistic view of history.  One way would be to
have the rulesets code all the modern nations as being "neutral" with
respect to aggression, reliability, etc., and code disappeared nations
however we can agree to view them.  The first is reasonable, because we've
presumably seen *all* modern nations behaving well at some period in their
history, and we can avoid stepping on people's toes or propagating
stereotypes by giving all the benefit of the doubt.

Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas