Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Ideas and a bug...

[Nicolas Brunel <brunel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Right - to start off with I would like to comment on how well FreeCiv is 
> coming
> on. It is almost as good as the original game (Civilisation II) and will soon
> surpass it.
Thank you !

 Anyway onto the ideas:
> 
> 1. The complaints about the easy AI being too hard are well grounded. However 
> I
> believe there are other ways to improve the situation. Every time I started 
> the
> game with five AI players (hey I felt like a challenge) I noticed that there
> was only one island on which everybody was. If the terrain generator was
> slightly improved so that it generated several different islands defense would
> become less of a problem.
> 
Here is what explain generator gives in the cvs civserver:
  1 = standard, with random continents;
  2 = equally sized large islands with one player each, and twice
      that many smaller islands;
  3 = equally sized large islands with one player each, and a number
      of other islands of similar size;
  4 = equally sized large islands with two players on every island
      (or one with three players for an odd number of players), and
      additional smaller islands.

It can already make you happy.
There was 3 differents generators in the version 1.7.2 of freeciv.
To set this option, type in the server before starting the game :
set generator 1,2,3 or 4 ( for version 1.8.0 )

> 2. Perhaps some units and technologies need to be added beyond the present 
> level
> of advancement (as in Civilization: CTP). This would give the game some added
> depth and reason to continue investing in science after the year 2000.
> Personally I feel that there should be more science advancements available 
> than
> can be researched in the entirity of the average game so that the race for
> technology is always present.

Till now, we have respected civII tree of knowledges (except for
fundamentalism). To stick with this guideline, new knowledges have to
be optional. It isn't yet permitted by the mechanism of ruleset.

> 3. Perhaps in line with the above idea there could be an option to research
> custom units so units could be designed in the game (NOT before the game
> starts) and used. Of course balance would have to be maintained - for example 
> a
> high attack rate could be balanced by a low defence rate or a very low 
> movement
> rate.

That's much more difficult. The principe of freeciv is to search for new
knowledges which allow new units and buildings to be build. Knowledges,
buildings and units are defined before a game is launched. If you wish to
design your unit, it's a deep modification to the games rules. That won't
be easy to do.
> 
> Finally I have a slight bug to report. When I first used the program I was
> using the KDE with the kdm being used instead of xdm. With this none of the
> mouse menus worked - ie. I could not change the technology I wished to
> research etc... The problem was easily solved - I switched back to using xdm
> but the problem could cause problems for those who use kdm and put them of the
> game (unless it was just my machine)...

Have you tried to desactivate numlock ?

Best regards,