[Freeciv-Dev] It's a game already!

[Daniel Burrows <Daniel_Burrows@xxxxxxxxx>]

  There's a misconception (at least, I think it's a misconception, someone
correct me if I'm wrong) that I've seen cropping up from time to time on this
list; in the last week or so it's gotten totally out of hand.  This is the idea
that Freeciv is in some significant way a model of reality or of historical
developments of civilizations; that it has any more to do with national politics
than chess has to do with battlefield tactics.  Not only is this idea false and
generative of a huge amount of needless discussion, but it's actually dangerous
in the long run to the *GAME* of Freeciv.

  Consider, as a random example, the basic foundation of the game.  In essence,
you are the ruler of a civilization and must guide it through several milennia,
discovering various important pieces of technology along the way and improving
the form of government as you go.  At any time you can direct any "unit" of
the civilization to do anything you want.

  Now, can someone name:

   -> One civilization which has had a single ruler for 3,000 years;
   -> One civilization which had, in the stone age, instantaneous communication
     over extended distances, communication which was far faster than even the
     fastest horse;
   -> One civilization which had military units all of precisely equal strength,
     represented by small square-shaped icons on a board;
   -> One civilization in which building a special wall in one city caused all
     cities to suddenly acquire masonry defenses, or in which building a pyramid
     allowed all cities to forgo the need of a granary

  To 'fix' every non-realistic feature of Freeciv, at least the above details
would have to be changed, probably the speed of movement of military units would
need to be made more precise (in fact, it would probably be better to eliminate
the tile-based geography or at least make it hexagonal), military units would
have to be made less discrete -- instead of having one pikeman you'd have a
unit of 30 pikemen -- communication at the beginning of the game would be
horrendously slow, and units (especially towards the beginning, but also
towards the end as well) would often do their own thing while waiting for
orders, or even act against your orders, and the game would last for only up
to 80-100 years, ending with your death.
  Now, this would be much more realistic.  But it wouldn't be nearly as much
fun.  If I want reality, I can go outside (well, I guess I can't have the
reality of commanding conquering hordes, but you get the idea.. :) ); if I'm
playing Freeciv, I want to play a GAME.

  To bring this around to a somewhat more current point, there is nothing, I
repeat, NOTHING, wrong with having the same city in two civilizations, or having
two civilizations from different time periods in there, as long as the city
is named differently enough so as not to horribly confuse the players (spelling
it noticably differently -- eg, Gdansk vs Danzig -- should suffice).  If the
ancient Romans want to compete with the United States in a nuclear arms race,
I'm not going to stop them. ;-)  Heck, let's underscore the point in the game.
While we're proposing changes to the nationset, here are my suggestions:

   First, a few changes: Alaskan cities should be duplicated in the Russian
 nation (with Russian names when they differ from the current ones), cities in
 Oregon should be duplicated in the British nation, the Dutch should add New
 Amsterdam if they don't have it already, and if the French don't already have
 Aachen they should have it added to their list (it was a major city
 for Charles the Great/Charlemagne/Karl der Große as I recall..)

   Second, some new civilizations:

 -> Oog, the civilization of cavemen.  Flag: a bloody head (skull?) on a stick.
   Cities: Oogra, Ughagra, Ugara, Oaaagha, and Argargra.

 -> Atlantis.  Flag: a surprised-looking merchant floating in water.
   Cities: none (they're all submerged).

 -> Ankh-Morpork.  Flag: a bag of gold beside a double cross (the sigil of the
   Guild of Assassins)  Rulers: Tacticus, Havelock Vetinari, Laughing Lord
   Snapcase.  Cities: Ankh, Morpork, Ankh-Morpork, Sto Helit, Pseudopolis, and
   Tactiopolis.  Ruler of this nation gets a bonus with Spies, Diplomats, and
   trade, but all his/her military units fight at a 50% disadvantage.

 -> Gondor.  Flag: Errr, I forget.  Rulers: Faramir, that old guy who kills
   himself (been too long since I read that book :) ) Cities: Minas Tirith, etc.

 -> Yoknopatophwa (sp?) county.  Cities: Jefferson (capitol).  Rulers: ..uh..
   whatsisname, Snapes (?).

 -> Florin and Gilda, from "The Princess Bride".  I haven't read the book, but
   presumably it gives enough details to build a cityset?

 -> The Foundation and the Empire, from the Aasimov books.

 ...etc.

  Daniel

-- 
  He wasn't good or evil or cruel or extreme in any way but one, which was
that he had elevated greyness to the status of a fine art and cultivated a
mind that was as bleak and pitiless and logical as the slopes of Hell.

           -- Terry Pratchett, _The Light Fantastic__