[Freeciv-Dev] Re: A bunch of patches

[Jules Bean <jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 05:46:18AM +0000, andi payn wrote:
> Hi there. I'm new to this list, but I've got a whole slew of changes to my 
> local copy of FreeCiv and I'd like to get comments on some of them.

All sounds very cool!  Nice work.

> Calendar: Replaced the hard-coded calendar system in FreeCiv (50 yrs/turn to 
> -1000, 25 to 1 AD, etc.) with a flexible system that's configurable in 

Sounds nifty.  Local colour, rather than gameplay significance.
Although... if not only did techs trigger changes of 'age', but also
changes of age could allow new techs, that might be fun in a few
cases. Or perhaps it should be city improvements which are allowed by
changes of age. (So one player's tech ends up allowing everyone to
build something).


> Borders: My borders aren't nearly as good as the patch already available (or 
> in FreeCiv-ac), but they are more configurable. You can specify the city 
> influence radius, configure what happens when two cities are equally close, 
> decide what effects borders have on the game (most of the latter settings 
> don't work yet), and crash the game spectacularly.

How does it work?  Just fixed radii, or some additive method?

I favour an additive method something along these lines: Calculate
a nations influence on a square but adding up 1/(distance from city)
for each city. If the sum is greater than some threshold, it is
considered that nation's territory.

E.g. if the threshold is 0.25, then each city has a 'radius' of four
squares, but two cities together will make the squares between them
more like to be territory. Actually, on thinking through the examples, 
I think 1/(d*d) is likely to work better.

Jules