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

["R. Miller" <richere@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 15:29 01-02-27 -0600, Tony Stuckey wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 27, 2001 at 02:31:36PM -0500, Jeff Mallatt wrote:
> > At 2001/02/27 14:17 , Thue wrote:
> > >On Tuesday 27 February 2001 20:09, Jeff Mallatt wrote:
> > >> At 2001/02/27 13:50 , Thue wrote:
> > [snip]
> > >> >Diplchance is 80 to begin with - 80 percent chance to defeat defending
> > >> >diplomats! This should rather be around 20, no?
> > >>
> > >> From what I read when I implemented it, this (80% for diplchance) 
> works out
> > >> to be very close to the Civ2 behavior.
> > >
> > >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.)
Hello,

Could you just clarify something, please - what do you mean when you state 
that
"Settlers cost way more than other units..."? - build cost or cost to bribe 
them?
My point is that the Civilization II Official Strategy Guide (page 307) 
states the
following :

        Bribe Cost = Bribe Cost / 2, if the enemy unit is a Settler.

Here are other details which may be of interest to you.

If the enemy has no Palace, then distance is set to 32,
If the enemy is a Barbarian, then distance is set to 16,
If the enemy government is Communism, then distance is set to 10
And it is impossible to bribe the units of a civilisation that is ruled by 
Democracy.
Robaire