[Freeciv-Dev] Re: wonder balance (was: Blitzkrieg patch)

[Greg Wooledge <wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tomasz Wegrzanowski (maniek@xxxxxxxx) wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 01, 2000 at 09:29:28AM +0200, Reinier Post wrote:

> >   - early on, it's cheaper to double your number of cities instead!
> >     the Pyramids cost 200 = 5 settlers = 5 cities; more, actually,
> >     since shields will sit idle until the last of the 200 has been spent

> 200 shields != 5 cities
> 
> Settlers cost 40 shields + at least 20 food + some amount of shields and food
> of upkeep until they go to right place.
>
> So Pyramids costs rather 3 cities than 5, and for every new Settlers
> you pay only half of food, so it might really help your expansion.

In this (invented but actually-played-out) example, the Americans have
a bit more gold because I screwed up in the early game.  Their starting
area has a few more special resource tiles, and I didn't shuffle workers
around soon enough.  Also, when Washington changes size and workers
auto-shuffle, they end up on better squares and I have to penalize
them manually; but this leaves an residual 1-turn resource profit
over the Canadians each time.  I've tried to take this into account by
"pretending" the Americans have less gold than they really have (i.e.,
don't spend every last gold piece when rush buying).

I didn't really have the patience to set up a perfect mirror situation
(identical land).

City spacing for the Americans is strictly 3-squares-apart.

The civs have no contact with each other, and there are no other players.
They are running Despotism and have no city-supported units other than
the ones built in this example.  Trade split is default 60/40.  There's
no terraforming.

Year  Americans                          Canadians
----- -----------------------------      -----------------------------------
-2750 size 3 (+1/3/1) Settlers 2/40      O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 2/200
        food 20/40                         food 20/40
      94 gold                            85 gold

-2550 size 3 (+1/3/1) Settlers 14/40     O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 14/200
        food 24/40                         food 24/40
      RUSH BUY in Washington (85 gold)   85 gold
      9 gold

-2500 size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 3/40      O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 17/200
        food 25/30                         food 25/40
      10 gold                            85 gold

-2350 Build New York!
      W: size 2 (+2/3/1) Settlers 12/40  O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 26/200
        food 28/30                         food 28/40
      N: size 1 (+2/1/1) Settlers 0/40   85 gold
        food 0/20
      10 gold

-2300 Washington grows!
      W: size 3 (+1/3/1) Settlers 15/40  O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 29/200
        food 0/40                          food 29/40
      N: size 1 (+2/1/1) Settlers 1/40   85 gold
        food 2/20
      11 gold

-1850 Washington builds Settler!
      New York grows!
      W: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 2/40   O: size 3 (+1/3/1) Pyramids 56/200
        food 9/30                          food 38/40
      N: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 10/40  85 gold
        food 0/30
      12 gold

-1750                                    Ottawa grows!
      W: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 8/40   O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 62/200
        food 11/30                         food 0/50
      N: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 16/40  85 gold
        food 2/30
      12 gold

-1700 Build Boston!
      W: size 2 (+2/3/1) Settlers 11/40  O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 67/200
        food 12/30                         food 0/50
      N: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 19/40  85 gold
        food 3/30
      B: size 1 (+2/1/2) Settlers 0/40
        food 0/20
      12 gold

-1400 W: size 2 (+2/3/1) Settlers 29/40  O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 97/200
        food 24/30                         food 0/50
      N: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 37/40  85 gold
        food 9/30
      B: size 1 (+2/1/2) Settlers 6/40
        food 12/20
      RUSH BUY in New York (6 gold)
      12 gold

-1350 New York builds Settlers!
      Switch to Horsemen because of
        land and food shortage.
      W: size 2 (+2/3/1) Settlers 32/40  O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 102/200
        food 26/30                         food 0/50
      N: size 1 (+1/1/1) Horsemen 3/20   85 gold
        food 10/20
      B: size 1 (+2/1/2) Settlers 7/40
        food 14/20
      13 gold

-1250 Washington grows!
      W: size 3 (+1/3/1) Settlers 38/40  O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 112/200
        food 0/40                          food 0/50
      N: size 1 (+1/1/1) Horsemen 5/20   85 gold
        food 12/20
      B: size 1 (+2/1/2) Settlers 9/40
        food 18/20
      16 gold

-1200 Boston grows!
      Washington builds Settlers!
      Build Philadelphia!
      W: size 2 (+1/3/1) Settlers 1/40   O: size 4 (+0/5/1) Pyramids 117/200
        food 1/30                          food 0/50
      N: size 1 (+2/1/1) Horsemen 6/20   85 gold
        food 13/20
      B: size 2 (+1/3/2) Settlers 10/40
        food 0/30
      P: size 1 (+2/2/1) Settlers 0/40
        food 0/20
      18 gold

-1050 Build Los Angeles!
      W: 2 (+2/3/1) 10/40 4/30           O: 4 (+0/5/1) 132/200 0/50
      N: 1 (+2/1/1) 9/20 19/20           85 gold
      B: 2 (+1/3/2) 19/40 3/30
      P: 1 (+2/2/1) 6/40 6/20
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) Settlers 0/40 0/20
      21 gold

-1000 New York grows!
      W: 2 (+2/3/1) 13/40 6/30           O: 4 (+0/5/1) 137/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 10/20 0/30           85 gold
      B: 2 (+1/3/2) 22/40 4/30
      P: 1 (+2/2/1) 8/40 8/20
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) 1/40 2/20
      22 gold

 -900 W: 2 (+2/3/1) 25/40 14/30          O: 4 (+0/5/1) 157/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 14/20 8/30           85 gold
      B: 2 (+1/3/2) Settlers 34/40 8/30
      P: 1 (+2/2/1) 16/40 16/20
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) 5/40 10/20
      RUSH BUY in Boston (13 gold)
      13 gold

 -875 Boston builds Settlers!
      Switch to Horsemen (same reason).
      W: 2 (+2/3/1) 28/40 16/30          O: 4 (+0/5/1) 162/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 15/20 10/30          85 gold
      B: 1 (+1/1/2) Horsemen 3/20 9/20
      P: 1 (+2/2/1) 18/40 18/20
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) 6/40 12/20
      14 gold

 -850 Philadelphia grows!
      W: 2 (+2/3/1) 31/40 18/30          O: 4 (+0/5/1) 167/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 16/20 12/30          85 gold
      B: 1 (+1/1/2) 4/20 10/20
      P: 2 (+3/2/2) 20/40 0/30
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) 7/40 14/20
      16 gold

 -800 Build Atlanta!
      W: 2 (+2/3/1) 37/40 22/30          O: 4 (+0/5/1) 177/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 18/20 16/30          85 gold
      B: 1 (+2/1/2) 6/20 12/20
      P: 2 (+3/2/2) 24/40 6/30
      L: 1 (+2/1/1) 9/40 18/20
      RUSH BUY in Washington (6 gold)
      14 gold

 -775 Los Angeles grows!
      Washington builds Settlers!
      Washington grows!
      W: 2 (+1/3/1) 3/40 0/30            O: 4 (+0/5/1) 182/200 0/50
      N: 2 (+2/1/1) 19/20 18/30          RUSH BUY in Ottawa (72 gold)
      B: 1 (+2/1/2) 7/20 14/20           13 gold
      P: 2 (+3/2/2) 26/40 9/30
      L: 2 (+1/3/1) 10/40 0/30
      16 gold

 -750 New York builds Horsemen!          Ottawa builds Pyramids!

So, what's the final tally?

The Americans have 6 cities (4 of them size 2, 2 of them size 1) in
various stages of growth and project completion.  They have 1 Horseman
unit and 1 Settler unit, with more coming out soon.  They would have
a little bit less gold if I had made things more balanced, but they've
done more research.

The Canadians have a single size-4 city with the Pyramids.  They have
no military units, no stockpiled food, and only 5 shields (and 13 gold)
saved toward the next project.

How would this differ in a real game?  Imagine that, in addition
to these isolated regions of their empires, both civilizations had
additional cities.  The Canadians would do much better -- some of their
land might be terraformed, and they will be able to divert resources
(in the form of Caravans or gold) from other cities into the Pyramids
to speed their production -- perhaps greatly.  With extra cities,
the effects of the Pyramids become more significant in the long term.

With the Pyramids complete, the Canadians could pursue an expansion
policy, and their cities would grow to size 3 (and higher) more quickly.
But the Americans have a big head start on expansion -- it's unlikely
the Canadians would be able to close the gap even with the Pyramids'
effect.  Their only chance to overcome the Americans would require a
research focus, with large cities and scientists, under a Republican
or Democratic government.  This infrastructure would take considerable
time to develop (remember, they would need to worry about happiness!),
during which time they'd be vulnerable.

The Americans, who have been pursuing a relentless fast-expansion
and exploration policy, probably wouldn't do anything dramatically
differently.  They wouldn't have any terraforming because every Settler
is immediately sent to build a city -- but on the other hand, they might
take a little more care in city placement, getting better natural terrain
than I allowed with my strict 3-square rule.  Additional gold from outside
this region would be used to rush-buy Settlers faster, so that they might
have a couple extra size-1 cities, and some of their size-2 cities might
be at size 1 instead.  They might have an extra Horseman or two.

Compared to the Canadians, they have a small tech lead and a significant
population/industry/territory lead.  If they don't run out of room, they
can continue to expand at an exponential rate -- and when they reach a
comfortable size for the available land they can switch to either war
mode or peace/research mode with equal ease (though the former is far
more likely, because happiness doesn't become a significant factor).
And because they're expanding faster, they'll get more huts!  If they
can find the Canadians quickly, they will almost certainly win this game.

Comments?

-- 
Greg Wooledge                    | "Truth belongs to everybody."
wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx             |   Red Hot Chili Peppers
http://www.kellnet.com/wooledge/ |

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