[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Sailing on Rivers

[Erik Sigra <freeciv@xxxxxxx>]

Thue wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 25 Aug 2000 19:34:11 Erik Sigra wrote:
> > Tony Stuckey wrote:
> > >
> > > On Thu, Aug 24, 2000 at 07:31:36PM +0200, Erik Sigra wrote:
> > > > I believe that when Sid Meier decided about the 1/3 rate on rivers, his
> > > > intention was to simulate the possibility that land units could be
> > > > transported by river boats, but the actual boats were below his scale of
> > > > simulation. Now that we (soon) have river boats, we should remove this
> > > > bonus for land units and let the player handle it properly.
> > >
> > >         Or, we could decide that the actual boats are below our level of
> > > simulation...
> >
> > I don't think so. With 2 patches (ferryboat & sail_river) under way that
> > can automate this for the user, the bonus is obsolete and must be
> > removed. If we don't do it, the new riverboat feature will not be
> > strategically important therefore not used in real games. I wouldn't
> > want to see that happen.
> >
> > Freeciv doesn't stand and fall with the river bonus. It would be just as
> > playable without it, even if you don't use riverboats. Let's not be
> > boring. You should not get stuck in old payciv legacy ways of thinking.
> 
> As I said before, I do not think the automated ferryboats can be made good
> enough for what you plan. If nothing else then because they cannot know what 
> you
> intend to do and thus cannot plan ahead like you could do yourself if you
> controlled them manually.

Yes, that is true. The player will have to do something on his own to
get the best possible result. But that is just as true for ocean sailing
as for river sailing. In fact, it is true for most automation features
you could think of adding. It will always be theoretically possible to
get a little better result by doing more manually.

Who would want all land units to be able to move freely across the
ocean, supposing the actual ocean transport ships are below our scale of
simulation? At least not me.

The only reason I see that it should be different for rivers than oceans
is payciv legacy. And that is no reason. Those who think so should play
the civ2 ruleset.
 
> -Thue

-Erik