Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Suggestion/ideas

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Aug 17, 1999 at 10:27:07AM +0300, Mika Korhonen wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Tuomas Airaksinen wrote:
> >*Good diplomacy with computer players, like in civ2 (of course better
> >recommended ;) )
> 
> I guess this is being done. (AI client project?) From my point of view this
> is the thing I don't like to play FreeCiv alone - there isn't (yet) any
> possibility to be able count on your neighbours in any respect. The
> computer players lack the skill to negotiate being some kind of destroyer
> robots of different levels :) 

        I'm certainly interested in working on it.  There are a few
problems, mostly concerning perceived behaviors.  Under what conditions
should the AI offer to trade advances?  Always refusing isn't helpful,
always accepting gives human players a tremendous advantage, and the middle
ground isn't obvious.
        In Civ1/2, you had a serious problem with AI players making a mad
scramble to trade techs with each other once the human player started a
space ship.  While this makes some sense in the context of "winning the
game", it was terribly unsatisfying to the human player who saw a lead
evaporate "for no good reason".

> >*Trading with computer/human player (cities, land, money and so on)
> 
> Trading gold (money), advances, maps has already been implemented, right?

        There needs to be quite a bit more structural code put into place.

> Defining 'land' is in a way meaningless unless you mean e.g. moving the
> troops off the land you buy, but who'd then stop them from returning? Well,
> maybe there's some point in this anyway (two cities close to each other
> rivaling for resources). Cities? -Why not? Units?

        Tiles within a city radius have a definite and legitimate claim.
Tiles legitimately claimed by multiple tribes are where the fun starts. :)
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"When I was young, the sky was filled with stars.
 I watched them burn out one by one."  -Warren Zevon