[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Non-smallpox ruleset (Minimum distance between cities to 3 or 4)

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Feb 05, 2001 at 08:39:20PM +0200, Tuomas Airaksinen wrote:
> I just noticed that there is possibility to set minimum distance between
> cities in game.ruleset (min_dist_bw_cities). So, changing it to 3 or 4 
> will make smallpox impossible. 

Not really - the strategy doesn't change, only the map becomes 'smaller'.
 
> I just was thinking if this would be better to be server option and not
> ruleset (whether people want smallpox or not depends on what kind of game 
> people want (quick or long)). 

Yes.  There exists a patch to make it a server option (not posted here).
 
> Mike Jing's way to add unhappines (read his document, don't remember
> his geocities url any more (copy is also readable on my site,
> http://tuma.cjb.net/other/smallpox.html), is a good alternative, but it 
> will change gameplay quite much. 

The document can be found at

  http://www.freeciv.org/tutorials/nopox.html

We're waiting for the webmaster's comments/corrections to make it 'official'.

The main problem with the approach, it turns out, is boredom.  Games take
forever.  Developments is extremely slow when you only have 12 cities and
any conquest or settlement beyond that is penalized.

It is unclear whether there is any way around this problem.  The smallpox
strategy is good in that it gets you built up and ready for decisive
action in under an hour, without the need to do the equivalent of
a maths exam in calculating all the details of micromanagement.
I'd like to have more strategic options but the game shouldn't be
turned into an exercise in accounting.

> BTW, in addition to min_dist_bw_cities I changed empire_size_inc and 
> Steam Engine  dependency to Metallurgy, in the rulesets with which 
> I will play longer games from now on. Check my ruleset directory 
> (and README) at <http://tuma.cjb.net/files/freeciv-rulesets-tuma.tar.gz>.

OK, interesting.

Incidentally, the gameserver civserver.freeciv.org has been unstable
and we don't know why.  Hopefully it will be back in normal operation soon.

-- 
Reinier