[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Ideas for FreeCiv

[Mike Kaufman <kaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Apr 28, 2002 at 04:32:29AM -0700, Nova Destruction wrote:
> Hey! Let me just say that FreeCiv is a great Civ
> clone. It has features that should have been in the
> comercial Civs.
> 
> I got some ideas that I will try to implement my self,
> however I am new to Linux programming and am having to
> learn some before I will be able to do all of it.
> 
> Idea 1:
> Okay, in the science dialog, you can tell the client
> AI to automaticaly research to a given tech. The
> problem is you can see things that are so far down the
> list they shouldn't be viewable. This is a good thing,
> but it gives the play(s) a little to much power.
> 
> Fix 1:
> To fix this "bug", try this: Code it so that the only
> techs that you can tell the client AI to research to
> are techs that you have part base for. EX: If you need
> Writing, Construction, and Banking for something, you
> have to have at least two of them to begin. The client
> AI will determin what the third tech is and try to
> obtian it to achive the overall goal.

there is a weak version of this in place if I am thinking of what you're
thinking. Currently, your tech goals show techs you could get to in 11
steps. The reason for this is simply not to overload the user with info.
The reason why your idea might not be desirable is that the complete
tech tree is available to anyone able to read the code or download
techtree.ps (a nicely rendered postscript tree) or simply with a good
memory. So we aren't hiding anything. 

> 
> Also, add and option to the server that allows you to
> switch between the current style of tech research
> system and this kind of system, just for those of us
> (even me) who like the current tech research system.
> 
> Idea 2:
> Okay, to my knowledge, and this might be wrong, there
> is no "load" option for the games you save. I am
> willing to bet I missed something, but I'm not sure.
> 
> Fix 2:
> Add an option to allow loading saved games.
> 
> (Feel free to email me back and make me look like a
> moron if this already exists.)

as has been written, you can use something like ser -f game.sav.gz
to load. Currently we can't load games _after_ you strart up the
civserver. This should probably be an explicit goal for the release
after next. 

> 
> Idea 3:
> Again, this might already exist: Allow users to save
> and load the settings of their servers.
> 
> Fix 3:
> Well, this is a simple one.
> 
> I cant think of anything else right now. I will try to
> implement each of these my self, but dont expect to
> awful much for now. I need to learn a little bit more
> about programming under Linux.
> 
> Also, like I said above, feel free to call me a moron
> if this stuff is already there in the game.

Here's a very roundabout solution: download a cvs version of civworld
(which is broken against today's but should work against 3/26)
compile it. now start a civserver and apply all the server settings that
you want to keep and then save a game. load it in civworld and go to
Editor->Initial Options->Save Script and you have a script.

The other solution of directly editing a savegame for its server
options is probably more time-intensive than simply building one from
scratch.

-mike