[Freeciv-Dev] Re: comments on ics solutions

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 03:22:59AM -0300, Martin Olveyra wrote:
> There must be a bigger gap between the science bringed by small and big
> cities than in the actual rules. Because in freeciv the science depends on the
> trade, who, at the same time, depends on the tiles inside the city ratio, the
> relation between both variables should be less than the actual one (for
> example, 3 or 4 trade unit per science unit) , and extra bonus trades for each
> tile might be won for each worker in the city. This is not an exageration,
> because you won't have lots of big cities, unless you have a very developed
> nation.

        Note that this has implications for the size and development of the
tech tree.  There are 89 techs currently defined.  At Prince level, each
tech costs 10 more than the last to research, and research costs double at
1 AD.  So at a minimum, you're looking at close to 40K total trade points
that you have to collect, generally quite a bit more than that, and you
have 575 turns in the default game to do it.  So you *NEED* to generate
close to 60 (and probably more likely 90-100!) trade per turn average to
research all advances yourself.  You can do that in 3-4 large ocean cities.
I would find the "One City Challenge" (winning the game without ever
building or possessing a second city) to be viciously hard.
        This demonstrates the importance of conquest and diplomatic work to
acquire techs, thus lowering your final required total of trade generation.
Actually winning via the space race puts a significant crimp in your number
of turns available, too.  Drop about 30 to be safe.
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"And they said work hard, and die suddenly, because it's fun."
        -Robyn Hitchcock.