[Freeciv-Dev] Idea

[SIGUENZA TORTOSA David <david.siguenza.tortosa@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,
I've been a Civ I, Civ II and (now) FreeCiv player for a while. I tried
Alpha Centauri also, but I prefer the old way...
First of all, thank you for your effort. And now, my "idea" (sorry for
my bad english):
IDEA/SUGGESTION
===============
Enhace economic simulation.
DESCRIPTION
===========
One of the things that make me angry when playing Civ is that I can not
get any opponent economically blocked. Let's think of a game played in
the World map: if I build a city at Gibraltar, it's likely that I could
control the traffic through it. Or if there's an enemy city in Iceland
and I sorround it with a big fleet, why it's able to build armors,
stealth and the like? Where does the supply come from? My idea is to
implement some kind of trade routes that have to be kept clear to work.
The need for such routes can be stressed not scatering the resources all
over the planet, but in some "natural" regions for each one. For
example, horses are "produced" in Russia and Europe and any African or
American city wanting to build a "horsemen" unit must have a viable way
to import them. Then, if I intercept that route with an army, the supply
is off, and the city will only be able to build the local available
units (or a couple of horsemen units from a possible stock of horses,
but no more). Interception can be made by military units ZOC' or cities'
ZOC, and trade pacts will be needed to avoid them. Of course it'll cost
money!
The implementation of this idea will bring some interesting scenarios:
world monopolies of certain resources (silk, horses, petrol, etc.),
never-ending wars for the control of some cities (Troy, Gibraltar,
etc.), quick enrichment of some tiny civs becoming world leaders, etc.
REALISTIC ASPECT
================
There're regions in the world that are more important than others from a
strategic point of view. Economics are the cause for most of the wars,
not only expansion.
HOW TO DO IT
============
The source a for a particular resource can be any city with a surplus
for that resource. That means the city which owns the resource-land
square or any city belonging to the same civ which keeps a trade route
with the first. Also, a civ can buy all the surplus and become a
second-source to other (friendly) civ with no direct link to the first
one.
You have the algorithm to find paths between to points. You have only to
add an evaluation formulae for these paths, based in the number of turns
needed to travel it and the type of units involved (air, ground, sea),
and that's the resource cost. Then choose the cheapest path to the
source or second-source. If there's no possible link to any source, then
the resource is not available: a diplomatic effort has to be made in
order to enter new markets.
Of course, the implementation affects several aspects of the game: map
generation, production costs (not only shields), diplomatic window (not
only treaties, also sell/buy), AI control, etc.

I'm not subscribed to the list, so if you find my idea intersting and
want to discuss it further, reply directly to me.
Thanks.

-- DAVID