[Freeciv-Dev] Re: comments on ics solutions

[Greg Wooledge <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Kiermaier (michael.kiermaier@xxxxxxx) wrote:

> >> 1. granary size doesn't grow, always the same as foodbox.

I haven't played it, but from what I understand, Call To Power 2 does
something like this.

> maybe at this point the settler unit should be split up in two units (as
> already proposed by some people):
> * a settler unit which can found new cities (costs 60 prod and 2
> workers,  needs food upkeep)
> * a "pioneer" unit which can build roads, mines, irrigations... (costs
> 40 prod, needs no food upkeep)

SMAC (Alpha Centauri) does this.  The basic road-and-farm-building unit is
the 'Former' (short for terraformer), and the unit that builds new cities
is a Colony Pod.  The Former is much, much cheaper to build than the
Colony Pod (and can be built on a ship chassis, for aquatic terraforming,
at higher cost; you also need tech for ship chassis).

> >>7. settlers have 2 movepoints, which means they also work
> >>faster.
> >>( set in units.ruleset )
> >>- you want to improve terrain / build roads when it's faster.
> 
> this is not necessary. split settler units as described at 2.) maybe
> the pioneer unit should have 2 movepoints.

Engineers (upgrade to Settlers) already get 2 MPs.  In SMAC, you can
build Formers on a rover chassis (land, 2 MPs), but the cost is higher --
and you have to have the tech for the rover chassis.  SMAC is extremely
playable with 1-MP (infantry chassis) Formers; giving the basic Former
2 MPs would be too powerful, I think.

SMAC also fights against ICS by having a new unit class called the
"Supply" (or "Crawler").  This little guy can do some neat tricks:

  * He can cash himself in for full production cost toward wonders, like
    Civ1/2 Caravans.

  * He can create a "supply route" between two of your own cities, causing
    1 unit of food/minerals/energy (energy = trade/gold) to be transferred
    per turn.  (I don't know of anyone who uses this feature, because of the
    next one....)

  * He can "harvest" food, minerals or energy from any square that's not
    being worked by a city worker or another Crawler.  This gives that
    resource to the city each turn, just like a worker.  Oh, and by the
    way, the Crawler has no maintenance cost.

The last one's the real killer.  A city can produce an arbitrary number
of Crawlers, and send them anywhere to collect resources for the city.
So if you need more food to keep growing, you just make some more Crawlers
and send them to where food is.

This isn't an ICS-killer all by itself, of course -- SMAC still suffers
from ICS to a large extent.  But the Crawler does offer an alternative path
to greatness -- instead of lots of tiny cities, you can have a few cities
and lots of Crawlers.

I'm not necessarily saying that we need Crawlers in Freeciv -- the
implications of this unit for game balance cannot be overestimated,
and it really changes the whole game.  But I want to make sure everyone
who's been following this discussion is aware of this SMAC feature,
so that they can think it over.

-- 
*** Please note new address. -->  |  Greg Wooledge
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