[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Artillery and sea units (PR#1476)

[Richard Stallman <rms@xxxxxxx>]

    I disagree. The naval units cannot be built before the development of 
cannon,
    which is admittedly not quite the same as what the typical ship in real life
    will be using. 

That's the point.  These ships would not have made sense with the sort
of cannon that were used in wooden ships.  They became possible
because of more modern guns.

    Making machine tools a pre-req will force players to still use
    Frigates/Ironclads for an absurdly long period of time. It also stuffs up 
the
    tech tree progression.

Perhaps machine tools should come earlier, then.

What exactly is "machine tools" supposed to refer to?  The help
browser does not give that kind of information about technology--I
think it should.

I see that Destroyer does not require Steel, which seems wrong because
in fact destroyers were first made out of steel.


                           It would make battleship availabe at the same time as
    destroyer/cruiser, which would make those two units useless.

That is historically accurate.  All three were developed at the same
time with the same technology, for different tactical purposes.
Destroyers are much cheaper than battleships, and their original
purpose was to keep torpedo boats away from the battleships.
("Destroyer" is short for "torpedo boat destroyer".)  Later on they
were used to fight submarines.

It is hopeless to model naval tactics in Freeciv, so I have the
following suggestions:

* Battleships should cost 3 times as much as now, and have a doubled
defense and attack strength against any surface combatant.
This is because their guns have greater range; usually they can
hit the lesser combatants when they are too far away to fire back.

* In the same spirit, cruisers should cost 1.5 as much as now, and
have doubled defense and attack strength against any surface combatant
except a battleship, and destroyers should have doubled defense and
attack strength against any surface combatant except a battleship or a
cruiser.

* Destroyer units should have doubled (or more) defense and attack
strength against subs, and on defense, they should protect any units
that are in the same square with them.  The destroyer unit should be
at least as powerful as the sub unit, in combat between them.