[Freeciv-Dev] In the defence of watchtowers.

[Gregory Berkolaiko <gberkolaiko@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

 --- Trent Piepho <xyzzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> On Wed, 15 Aug 2001, Miguel Farah F. wrote:
> > >
> > >   And the vicious Malthusian view:
> > >   Watchtowers are a waste of space.  Build a city! :)
> 
> I think Tony has a good point there too.  Part of the balance in FoW
> for civ2 is that you need to deal with watching your borders.  

I've never had much trouble watching my borders when playing against the
computer, so I wouldn't really consider building watchtowers myself.
But if people seem to want them, why not.  As for the waste of space, in
civ2 I've seen many desert or mountain areas where building a city would
be problematic.

As I understand, Trent says that watchtowers are too good => danger to
the balance.  Tony says they are useless.  I think they have very limited
tactical use but as such are no danger to the balance.  Anyway we can
experiment.

Think about fortresses: one can say they are mostly waste of time and
space.  Still they are in the game and nobody is worried.

> If you make something a settler can build, doesn't cost anything,
> doesn't need
> upkeep or unhappiness or any work at all to keep around, then that
> makes
> watching your borders quite a bit easier.  I think the continued
> popularity of
> civ2 is a testament to the balance the game had.  I don't think that
> should be
> changed unless you come up with a good reason why the multiplayer
> nature of
> freeciv necessitates the difference.

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