[Freeciv-Dev] Sv: Science (was cheating)

["Daniel Fairchild" <drxl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that it's a wonderfull idea for any civ like game.

I'm new to this list btw.

dRxL--->

----- Original Message -----
From: Mathias Broxvall <matbr@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 10:35 AM
Subject: [Freeciv-Dev] Science (was cheating)


> Mike Jing:
> > The current formula already took this into account.  It may benifit from
> > some fine tuning, but the basic idea works very well.  The most
important
> > effect of the way tech cost is calculated is that it gives a player who
is
> > behind in science a chance to catch up, or at least not to fall too far
> > behind, because it costs less to research new techs when you are behind.
> > This may seem illogical at first glance, but I think it makes perfect
sense
> > gameplay-wise.
>
> Some time ago I implemented a similar feature - to level things out for
the
> poorer civilization (with respect to tech level). My idea was that
> rediscovering a science already discovered in another country is realy
much
> easier than producing a new technology. It simply is much easier for Mr.
Saddam
> (or rather India/Pakistan/Israel/North Korea etc...) to get nukes today
rather
> than if the americans (and switz) had never discovered it. Especially from
> democracies there is a constant stream of media information, guest
researches
> etc. spreading the word about some new technology. I'm not saying that
it's
> trivial to build a nuke just because I've heard the media "explanation" of
what
> nukes are (take a large pile of uranium and make it implode... ha!), it
still
> takes a lot of scientific work to actually discover how to refine natural
> uranium into it's two isotopes etc... But it's easier now than sixty years
> ago!
>
> Another analogy is the swedish stealth attackboats which probably hadn't
> been built unless the americans had invented stealth fighters/bombers...
> Perhaps this effect should also be dependent on the technology. It's more
> likely that I rediscover the law of gravity after hearing about it than a
> highly technology dependent science such as computers.
>
> So what my small patch did was to lower the cost of technologies dependent
of
> how many other civiliziations had discovered them and how long they had
been
> discovered... It didn't take into account the relationships and the state
of
> the civilizations already having the technology.  Perhaps traderoutes
should
> also increase the information leak? I think I called this leak of
information
> for "technology leak" or something like that.... The patch as it where is
> probably gone now but it should be a small thing to reimplement a better
> version of it if someone thinks it's a good idea.. (Of course, the amount
of
> leak was a serverside option)
>
> / Mathias
>
>