[Freeciv-Dev] New modes

[Marko Lindqvist <caz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 As one who only opens his mouth every three or four months, I just want
to tell my opinion about Freecivs future.

 Freecivs Civ2 is almost as complete as it gets. Of course there will
always be minor fixes here and there, but there is no longer enought to do
with it to keep development main focus. And I think that development needs
rather strict focus.
 I'd like to see modes set to new (in freecivs sence) games. They would
start as close to the original game as current ruleset system allows.
When they evolve toward original game through ruleset system improvements,
possibilities to gather default mode from best parts of many games
increase. Already Ithink that Freecivs strength is it's flexibility. It's
based on just two very closely related games, civ1 and civ2, but
possibilities to adjust game just like you want it are huge (realised it
just when tried to play originals after long while). So, two to four new
modes would give us main goals (of course good own ideas are welcome, but
we need goals).
 Most obvious modes would probably be CTP and SMAC. I have played neither.
I do have a CTP demoversion, but only thing working reliably is Great
Library and segfault when I try to attack enemies. But since Great Library
works, I could gather enought informationabout that game to write some
rulesets. (I just wanted to know if CTP mode would be playable at all and
decided that information is clearest at freecivs help browser). I have
just written techs.ruleset and units.ruleset and currently I'm quite sure
that with small adjustment it would be quite playable.
 Also I have been thinking about Public Works. What opinions do those who
have really played CTP have about it. Is it worth implementing (as an
option of course) to freeciv. I just have some ideas how to implement
it based on some already written (non-published) patches, so I probably
should try to get them into CVS first. Any hope for patch that moves 
effects from civstyle to misc.ruleset, so each effect can be set
individually (and might have wider range etc)?


 Caz

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