[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Nations policy version 2

["Per I. Mathisen" <Per.Inge.Mathisen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:
> Comments are always apreciated.

This is a difficult issue, and I think that the best way of solving it is
to avoid it. Nations and nationalism is a modern phenomenon, and any
attempt to provide guidelines for what constitutes a "nation" for a game
that stretches over millenia is doomed to failure.

It is a problem that freeciv uses flags with ancient nations, since these
did not have flags. The result is a bad mix of ancient and modern that
should be avoided. I do not know how to solve this. Perhaps use flags with
letters on them for ancient nations.

I suggest the following guidelines instead (for freeciv main distro):

 1) Each nation represents one historical period or historical theme
    (Vikings only medieval cities, Germans only modern cities, for
    example). No mixing of historical periods or themes inside a freeciv
    nation (not St Petersburg and Stalingrad, for example).

 2) All city names must be unique. No nation can use a city name
    already used in another nation. No nation can use two names for the
    same city (not St Petersburg and Leningrad, for example).

 3) A nation must have at least 3 leaders. These should be well known,
    but modern nations should avoid infamous or controversial 
    personalities. There should also be female leaders.

 4) A nation must have an easily dinstinguishable flag and at least
    20 cities.

I also think the nation selection dialog should be divided into
"historical", "modern" and perhaps "fiction" sections (the latter  
for klingon and other inspiring non-historical, non-modern nations).

To illustrate the difference between historical and modern: Russian is
modern, Soviet would be historical. Viking is historical, Norwegian would
be modern. Etc.

Yours,
Per