[Freeciv-Dev] Re: civ3's answer to smallpox

[Jacky Mallett <warlock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't want to beat a dead horse, but please play some net games and see
> for yourself.  You will find your choice of strategies is severely limited
> in the face of ICS.  You have to realize that it takes a great amount of
> investment to be able to take advantage of rapture growth: irrigation/harbor
> for food, temple/marketplace for happiness.  Ironclads will be knocking on
> your door long before you are ready to celebrate.


just to throw some more fuel on the fire, smallpox is a little more
complex  a strategy that i think most people realise, and in games where
several people are using it, rapture does come in quite handy towards the
middle/end part of the game. You don't actually need much investment,
you just have to whack the luxury setting up for a few rounds.

It's also not true that with smallpox you don't get to play with
higher tech - i've gone all the way to space race several times, you
just need a game with several players of roughly equal skill.

Game balance is a highly non-trivial (and theoretically speaking,
mostly unsolved), problem. To make smallpox and largepox simultaneously
valid and matched strategies, in the same game, would be an interesting
task, and my suspicion is even if this was achieved, there would still
be an advantage to smallpox, since the proportional cost of losing a city
would be less than in the largepox case.

Personally i think the critical question isn't which strategy is ethically
the right one, (to somewhat dreadfully overgeneralise), but what makes
for a fun game.  And in my experience,  a good smallpox player can cause
just as much havoc in a largepox game if they've got the time.

...Jacky