[Freeciv-Dev] Embrace the Dark Side: Be ICS

[Raahul Kumar <raahul_da_man@xxxxxxxxx>]

After watching the smallpox debate, I've decided to throw in some gasoline on
the flames. Firstly, the people claiming that the rapture strategy is better.
Absolutely incorrect. That such an idea can arise from anyone who has played
Freeciv is incredible. I can only believe you are proof of the parellel
universes theory(A universe where Freeciv is not ICS).

There are some fundamental reasons Freeciv and of course the ancestral Civ II
are ICS to the core. The band aids being proposed do not really solve the heart
of the problem.

Freeciv(All Civ clones) are at heart about two things, cities and tiles. Since
a city is the only way to control a tile in Freeciv, this mean that the game is
all about cities.

Think about it. All ICS'ers, if any advantages of ICS are missing chip in
right?

1 Your cities are your only way to control/use tiles -> Therefore to control
more tiles you need more cities. 

2 The only way to generate income is through your city (Again, more is better)

3 Units are produced at ... Can you guess? Yes, your cities. (More is better)

4 Research into tech advances are conducted in your cities.  (More cities =
more tech)

5 Each city is your army support mechanism.
The more cities you have, the more units you can support without cost in the
field. The scourge of Freeciv and the true advantage of ICS. (More cities =
costfree units). No none ICS player, especially the republic/
democratic alternative, can possibly field as many units. ( I have defeated
far better players than me by using ICS against rapture/republic style).

6 Each city can only make ONE unit/improvement, so greater shields go to waste.
Many of my cities with Mfg plant, factory and the Hoover Dam Wonder can
complete anything(Even spaceship parts) in one turn. Better to have five cities
producing 5 units in 4 turns the a size 50 city producing a single unit in one
turn.

7. Even the wonders are ICS. Michaelangelo, and all the other happiness
wonders, along with Hoover Dam are perfect for ICS. And wonders can only be
built at ... cities.

8. Sheer annoyance factor. It is a very tedious thing to attempt to beat an ICS
player in a conquer the world strategy. Even the AI can easily hang on for the
game to end with 1 or 2 enemy cities around. No one playing the rapture
strategy can ever win in a conquer the world style game. Note: It is possible
for a rapture player to win the spaceship race. Even in the spaceship strat,
the ICS
can still win.

Hands up for anyone who spotted a pattern. ICS is the technically perfect
strategy, contrary to the rapture boosters out there. There is no way a non ICS
player can expand quickly enough to beat out an ICS player.

Possible Fixes

1. Allow ways to increase a city radius(villages) like in Civ 3

2. A city should be able to have far more than 4 trade routes(dependent on
improvs, a city with an airport has 6, with an airport and port 8,
superhighways 10 etc). Increase the amount of money gained through trade
generally. (If an ICS player is building caravans, he is not building
settlers).

3.Two build queues. One for building units, the other for building improvs. 

4. Big cities should have much higher tech earlier on, even a size 5 city
should be producing more science than 5 size ones.(This is one of the big ICS
edge.) A much better fix than the Italian fulltradesize approach of penalising
small cities, my strategy means the game is still fast.

5 Remove costfree units for all govs. Or alternatively have it depend on city
size.

6 Is addressed by 3.

7 Change wonders to affect by a %, Mike makes 10% of people happy. With the
angry citizen patch, An ICS barely gains anything from a happy wonder. The code
to this
is in the Alpha Centauri patches.

8 The other changes should fix this.

Basically Civ3 has a good ICS approach.




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