[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Generalised improvements testing

[Ben Webb <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Daniel Sjölie wrote:

> So, does this mean that wonders giving the effect of buildings in cities
> have to have the appropriate effect set explicitly? Eg, if you change
> the effect of cathedrals do you have to change Michelangelo's as well?

This is how the current rulesets work, yes.

        Actually, I have thought of a problem with the current impr-gen 
happiness calculation. Happiness is calculated in the following order: civ 
size, luxuries, normal buildings, martial law/aggressive units, Wonders. 
So, since any unhappiness from aggressive units (e.g. under Democracy) is 
calculated _after_ the effects of Temples etc., the only two ways of 
cancelling this unhappiness are luxuries (to make happy citizens) or 
happy/content-making Wonders. Normal buildings can't do this. Sound 
reasonable?

        Traditional Freeciv counts "Wonders that act as buildings" as 
affecting happiness at step 3 above, i.e. at the same time as normal 
buildings. My code applies this at 5. So this will create differences in 
the treatment of aggressive unit unhappiness when using Wonders like the 
Oracle and Michelangelo[*]. The question is: which way does Payciv do it? 
Which way is "right"? I'll probably get round this particular problem by 
extending the happy/content-making ruleset effects so that you can specify 
whether they apply at "step 3" or "step 5", but frankly I consider the 
whole affair to be rather confusing. :)

[*] e.g Temple+Mysticism+Oracle:
      - Ordinary Freeciv: 4 citizens made content at step 3.
      - Impr-gen: 2 citizens made content at step 3 due to the Temple,
                  2 more at step 5 due to the Oracle.
    Michelangelo+Theology (no Communism):
      - Ordinary Freeciv: 4 citizens made content at step 3.
      - Impr-gen: 4 citizens made content at step 5.

        The current impr-gen solution is equivalent to letting "excess" 
happy/content-making effects from step 3 carry over to step 5, but normal 
Freeciv doesn't allow this. Is there any Freeciv or Payciv documentation 
on how the order of buildings, Wonders and aggressive units affects 
happiness?

> I think it would be preferable to actually add the buildings in some
> sense since this is what it seems to work like in all the commercial
> civs I've seen... Eg, when you take a city in civ3 all improvements are
> destroyed but you appear to have the improvements added by wonders...
> Ie, they appear in the improvements list and so on...

        If you mean improvements added by Wonders that you have yourself 
(rather than Wonders that the old city owner had) then sure, you'd still 
get the effect of these Wonders. I don't think Freeciv has _ever_ 
explicitly shown these "pretend" buildings in the improvements list 
though...

        Question: what about the Oracle? That doesn't act as an 
improvement at all, but magnifies the effect of an existing one (the 
Temple). So I'm guessing that Civ2 wouldn't display a Temple if you only 
had the Oracle Wonder.

> Maybe I'm just confused here? :)

        Not having played Civ1 or Civ2, I'm not sure. But I don't 
remember SMAC doing that.

        Ben
-- 
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"Lately I'm in to circuitry"