[Freeciv-Dev] Re: patch: Airbases

[Jeff Mallatt <jjm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 1999/09/20 09:00 , Sebastian Bauer wrote:
>This patch adds the airbases special known from civ2. I added two
>new flags called "Airbase" in the units.ruleset and techs.ruleset.
>I've not created new gfx but the gfx can changed via tilespecs of
>course (which is probably neccessary)

Great!  This was on my list of things to do -- now, I don't have to :)

>Please somebody check if this matches civ2.

Here are the details about Airbases that I compiled for my reference when I
was planning on implementing them:

  Requires: Radio.
  Can be built wherever Fortresses can be built.
  Shortcut key to build: 'e'.
  Should be accessible from the Orders menu, just after Build Fortress.
  Is built by Settlers/Engineers.
  Airplanes can land there; Paratroops can depart from there.

>A thing I wasn't
>sure was the number of turns needed to build an airbase. I
>did it like fortresses, but this is probably wrong?

It seems correct!  In a quick test in Civ2, a single Engineer could build a
Fortress or an Airbase in two turns, and a single Settler could build a
Fortress in three turns.

>I also don't know if Settlers can build these Airbase,
>actually only Engineers can build them.

I think you should allow Settlers to build airbases.  If the tech tree
happens to disallow this, that's fine -- but if the tech tree allows it,
the code should allow it.  (Also, the Civ2 manual says that both can build
Airbases.)

Since it looks like you've implemented this as a flag in the units ruleset,
it's completely flexible!  Maybe just set the "Airbase" flag on Settlers
(for purely pedantic Civ2 manual conformance).

jjm