[Freeciv-Dev] civ suggestions

[Jean-Pierre ETIENNE <jpestef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi !

First I'd like to thank you for that freeciv, which is actually
probably better than the paying one for many concerns. AI is
much cleverer than Sid's !

Still after half a game I've a few suggestions... Some of them
purely technical, others affect more or less deeply the rules...
which are not perfect in Sid's game, so why not ?
Here you go:

* It would be handy to activate the (sea)unit that other units
just boarded in.

* There is an overvaluation of sea coasts for building cities
(due to whales? especially they don't need irrig/mining to be
of great interest). Leads to weird shapes of civilizations by
the AI (neglects grassland for polar coasts, check it with
the americans on earth), maybe improve seeds in land to balance.
(it actually lowers the AI efficiency, cause then it must
encounter deep problems in logistics at having all cities
scattered on tiny islands.)

* It is sometimes found useful by a human player to starve a
city... which is neither moral nor realistic in Rep/Democr.
governments. Since starving a city is done by turning citizens
to entertainers, I suggest that it should be in the capital
city (and the large cities, maybe) that riots take place: this
is a realistic simulation of public opinion. IT should be
considered whether monarchies should undergo a similar reduced
effect (I'm not sure Louis XIV would have starved a whole
city of his own without reaction...)
I think the concept of public opinion interesting to develop,
there are loads of fields where it has effects (subversion of
cities, rebellion of armies,...) It's more difficult to find
basis for public upset, but there are some: war, lower
development than the neighbouring states, too little of
production devoted to city improvement...

* 'set savedir' in civserver would be handy for having several
games saved at the same time.

* some commands frozen (sentry, change workers in
city popups,...) while other remain (popup of cities,...)
fixed by saving the game in civserver (then the changes
I tried to do and didn't take effect took effect all at
once). Possibly server blocked ??

* 'alphabetical order' of signed values in city advisor makes
a mess.

Ok, that's all for today, I'll rather go and enjoy the summer
and hope you coders won't be stuck in front of your computer
because of me!

bye
joce