[Freeciv-Dev] Re: comments on ics solutions

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

At 19:59 01-03-03 -0500, Mike Jing wrote:
> Marco Colombo <marco@xxxxxx> wrote:
> [snip]
> > Maybe I can put it in another way: IMHO you're just "overloading" the 
> > meaning of unhappiness. It's true it has a role in limiting vertical 
> > expansion. Now you're using it to limit horizontal expansion as well.
> Sorry, but I can't take credit for the idea.  This is how it is done in 
> Civ2, albeit in a more relaxed form.  I haven't bothered to make it closer 
> to Civ2 behavior because I am not sure it would be worth the trouble since 
> nobody seems to like the idea to begin with.  But I still think it's the 
> right idea.
<snipped>
> Mike
Hello, Mike,

I agree with your efforts to curb ICS, and with the importance you accord 
happiness as a game play element.
Civ2 is very explicit (and not at all "relaxed") with respect to the 
relationship between the number of cities and unhappiness.
First of all, when a new city is founded, its initial citizen is content ( 
in the continuum happy/content/unhappy);
additional citizens will also be also content, at lower levels of 
difficulty. At Deity, level, the second and successive
citizens are unhappy. At the next lower level (Emperor) , the third citizen 
and successive citizens are unhappy, and so forth.
After this, the number of cities you have is checked in order to see if you 
have exceeded the "Riot Limit";
past this limiting number of cities, every citizen who appears in this turn 
will be set unhappy.
So the citizen who started out content at step 1, above may turn unhappy 
before it appears in the city display.
This limit (number of cities) is a function of the difficulty level (from 
Chieftain to Deity) and government type.
Higher difficulty levels and higher governement types translate to a 
smaller number of cities that you can control
before additional citizens arrive unhappy, rather than content.

It makes controlling (un)happiness extremely important at the higher 
levels, especially when a city riots for 2
successive turns and your empire is throuwn into anarchy -disastrous, but 
fascinating. That's why I now never play
a game without attempting to get Shakespeare's theatre (for the military 
benefits) !
Robaire