[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Multiple veteran level system patch

[Jason Dorje Short <vze49r5w@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

James wrote:

> I was aware that in one of the patches there are 6 veteran levels, but to 
> give support for SMAC features it should be easily extendible to 7 levels.
> Currently I have a configurable number of veteran levels from 2 to 
> MAX_VET_LEVELS (in shared.h).
If you don't already, you should detect and give an error message if the 
ruleset exceeds this limit.  Another option is to avoid hard-coding a limit.
> I have a few more questions if nobody minds:
> - Is a configurable number of veteran levels useful?  If so then the 
> following point should be considered.
Yes - at a minimum it is useful for supporting compatability levels with 
different civ games.
> - If the number of veteran levels is set to 3 then this will affect the 
> diplomats.  Diplomats (according to the teamciv patch) have level based on 
> which improvements have been built in the city.  The palace, a library, a 
> research facility and a university will all add a value of 1 to the veteran 
> level.  Clearly if then only 3 levels are available (including the level = 0) 
> then this system of calculating level will go over the maximum veteran level.
> Should I disallow veteran levels below 5, or merely clip the extra level 
> points to give a maximum possible level of 3 (even if the player has all the 
> facilities)?
> If veteran caravan support were to be added to this patch the same problem 
> would be present for the caravan veteran levels also.
Clip the level.

The buildings that affect this level should also be configurable.

> - To add SMAC support I wanted to add a movement point bonus system.  This
> is again slightly problematic.  At the moment the bonuses are for all units, 
> (i.e. the veteran_power_fact values apply to all the units, military or 
> otherwise).  A movement bonus would again apply to all units.  Should I make 
> the bonuses unit specific?  This would have quite a lot of redundant data as 
> many units have the exact same behaviour.
Or there could just be a boolean "gets_vet_movement_bonus" parameter for 
each unit, or the movement bonus could only apply to military units 
(whatever they are...).
> - Also should I specify movement bonuses as a multiplication factor,
> i.e. veteran_move_bonus = 100, 100, 100, 150, 200
> or as an addition number of movement points?
> i.e. veteran_move_bonus = 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2
Ugh.  IIRC SMAC did the second one.  I don't care.  But make sure the 
multiplication factor cannot drop the unit to 0 MP (if it isn't there 
already).
The patch, and future discussion on this should go to rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. 
 There may already be a ticket for this topic.
jason