[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Dips. OOPS please read this one!

[Thue <thue@xxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 27 February 2001 22:29, Tony Stuckey wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 27, 2001 at 02:31:36PM -0500, Jeff Mallatt wrote:
> > At 2001/02/27 14:17 , Thue wrote:
[snip]
> > >But then in civ 2 diplomats are way overpowered!
> >
> > Yes, in Civ2 they *are* very powerful.
>
>       The Civ2 behavior is described on page 111 of the manual:
>
>       "Diplomats and spies stationed in friendly cities have a chance to
> thwart 'steal technology' attempts by enemy Diplomats and Spies.  Each
> Diplomat has a 20 percent chance to do so per attempt.  Spies have a 40
> percent chance; veteran Spies have a 60% chance of catching their fellow
> envoys.  Getting caught ends the interloper's turn."
>
>       Insert standard disclaimer about the code not matching the docs. :)
>
> > >We should lower that value considerbly in freeciv mode.
> > >We also need to raise the cost of inciting and bribing; they are way to
> >
> > cheap
> >
> > >right now (as seen by the fact that many players builds diplomats
> >
> > exclusively
> >
> > >for land warfare).
> >
> > Some changes may be to the good.  Be careful with diplchance, however --
> > from what I recall (without looking at the code) it's very sensitive.
> > Lowering it too much could make diplomats completely useless.
>
>       I'm not sure that the Freeciv equation is grounded in anything.
> (gold+750)/(dist+2)*(unit_build_cost/10).  It depends on the unit build
> cost and is lowered by distance from the home city, but those don't seem to
> work in the same relation as Civ2.
>       Civ1/2 was based mostly upon the unit type, lowered by distance from
> the home city.  For instance, a Legion would cost between 41 and 105 gold
> to bribe.  Settlers cost way more than other units -- the high would be
> like 1200.  I think we should consider a (2n + (n^2/20))/dist style
> equation where n is the unit build cost.  (Similar to the rush-build
> equation.)

You are very wellcome to tune the equations, but maybe all that is needed is 
a scale factor. Maybe determined by a ruleset/server variable.

-Thue