[Freeciv-Dev] Land Reclamation (was: Chunnel)

[Cameron Morland <cjmorlan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, Reinier Post wrote:

> The problem is, being able to convert sea into land will be a tremendous
> advantage in the game.
> 
> I don't think underwater roads or cities are a good idea, but bridges are
> interesting, because they would be vulnerable.  (Bombers must be able to
> destroy them, for instance.)

I've formed a bit more specific plan. (The initial patch simply fixes the 
code so that the ruleset can modify something it appears to be able to.)

There are two things to add here:

 * transformation of water to swamp
 * uber-bridges

"Reclamation of inundated lands has been carried out with particular
success in the Netherlands since the 13th cent. Shallow sea areas are
enclosed by dykes, and then the water is pumped out, section by section. A
large inlet of the N. Sea, called Zuider Zee (Ijsselmeer), has been almost
completely reclaimed during the 20th cent." (Cadillac Modern
Encyclopedia: Land Reclamation)

So this is a reasonable thing to do. I'd say that the 13th century
precedes "Explosives" --- gunpowder barely existed in 13th century Europe.
So Engineers are not required; settlers should be able to reclaim ocean
once they have some technology (bridge building for now, better
suggestions?). This is accomplished by making irrigated ocean turn to
swamp. It's only possible for ocean tiles with water on three sides, and
takes a very long time. Note that for doing this, the ship must stay on
the tile, and no other ship may pass through. If they do, the settler
stops irrigating.

The uber-bridge is a different matter. They should require significant   
technology (steel?), but be quicker to build. Cities must not be built on
them. Units on uber-bridges are in a very weak defensive position against
ships, worse than open land. These bridges can also be destroyed by
bombers and perhaps other units.

---

zuider.diff sets it up so if the terrain.ruleset allows irrigation of
ocean, if three adjacent squares are not ocean and the player has bridge
building. TODO: make it work with the goto command, figure out what to do
about harbours/platforms and trapped ships.

zuider_terrain.ruleset is a replacement terrain ruleset that enables the
zuider.diff changes.

I've played a few (solo) games with this, and so far it works quite well.
Testing is needed to work out the details. I'll leave the uber-bridges for
later. The three-adjacent rule slows down expansion quite a bit, and stops
players from building virtual islands.

Further suggestions? I want to know if you think this idea is great, I
want to know if you think it's the dumbest thing imaginable.

   _______________________
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Thought is not a management function.
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