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

[Daniel L Speyer <dspeyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 21 May 2002, Thanasis Kinias wrote:
> [snip] 
> The radical advances in military technology had to do with firepower and
> C3 (command/control/communications).  Give me radios and I'll give you a
> modern, decentralized army.  Without them, you could have a battalion's
> worth of modern MBTs, and they'd have to line up like musketeers to keep
> in formation.
> 

I don't think radio is what's critical here.  Things can be done with
drums and horns to co-ordinate widespread armies (all the usual techniques
apply regarding not being understood by your enemies).  And, if all else
fails, pick intelligent platoon commanders and teach them the whole plan.

> But if we're going to tackle this, IMHO we need to start at the
> beginning.
> 

Hmm, I never like starting from scratch if I can help it.  Here's the list
of changes I've been thinking of making:

Rename Leadership, Conscription, and Tactics
  historical accuracy, basic descriptiveness

Swap Writing and Alphabet
  historical accuracy and basic logic.  What's the point of an alphabet
  without writing?

Swap Map Making and Seafaring
  logic: seafaring should get you boats, map making should help you make
  maps

Make Feudalism require Monarchy and Iron Working
  gameplay: make ancient units (esp chariots and legions) useful.
  also logic/history: you realy want to try a stone pike?

Swap Musketeers and Canon
  gameplay: musketeers are too powerful
  history: canons came first
  (note: this makes ironclads even more powerful, maybe we should raise
         their cost to balance it out?)

Rename Engineering
  usability: it doesn't get you engineers

Rename howitzers
  history: we had howitzers in WWI -- we sure didn't have robots

That's not that long a list.  A lot of it is just fixing
naming.  Admittedly, I haven't tackled the late navy, which has both
historical and gameplay problems.  What do other people think?

--Daniel Speyer
If you *don't* consider sharing information to be morally equivalent to 
kidnapping and murder on the high seas, you probably shouldn't use the
phrase "software piracy."

> -- 
> Thanasis Kinias
> Web Developer, Information Technology
> Graduate Student, Department of History
> Arizona State University
> Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.
> 
> Ash nazg durbatulūk, ash nazg gimbatul,
> Ash nazg thrakatulūk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
> 
> 
>