[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Speeding Up Games

[Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2 May 2003, Greg Wooledge wrote:

> Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa (vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
>
> > In Civ you had these interesting combinations due to muskets vs cavalry
> > and pikemen bonuses etc. It was more fun than Alpha Centauri (SMAC).
> > The only thing which brought variety in SMAC were the hull types and those
> > were few and far between.
>
> Eh?  SMAC has more unit flags than all the other Civ games put
> together.  Trance (+50% def. vs. psi/native), AAA (+100% def. vs.
> aircraft), SAM (able to attack aircraft), ECM (+50% def. vs.
> rover/tank chassis units), empath song (+50% attack vs. psi/native),
> police (+1 martial law bonus), clean (no upkeep!), amphibious (can
> attack from a ship), drop pods (like Civ's paratroopers), morale
> bonus, blink (negates city improvement defense bonuses), wave
> (negates unit improvement defense bonuses), fungicide (formers
> only), extra fuel tanks for aircraft, etc.
>
> Designing units in SMAC is one of the most engaging features.
> Amphibious infantry with drop pods, AAA rovers with drop pods, naval
> probe teams, clean police/garrison units, armored trace supply
> crawlers, etc.

Nearly all of these features (except for Psi combat related flags) already
existed in Civ. The only new thing is you can combine flags the way you
like.

Granted there were no land units with AAA or SAM ability in Civ. Only
naval (Aegis Cruiser) and aerial units (the Fighters). CtP had the mobile
SAM and War Walker units (War Walkers were terrific).

* ECM is akin to the bonus vs mounted cavalry.
* Fanatics had no upkeep.
* Marines had amphibious ability.
* Paratroopers had drop pods.
* Ok, morale bonus is also new. But you didn't have multiple veteran
  levels in Civ 2.
* Howitzer had blink.
* I don't remember seeing wave. Is this an expansion pack thing?

Combining flags made a unit so bloody expensive the only units I made with
lots of combinations were the city defense units which had AAA+Policy+Good
Defense and lousy Attack.
I kept a couple of speeders or hovertanks in defense for wiping adversary
units of the same type.

I made my ships have AAA but I have well just be using Aegis Cruisers.

You couldn't put a probe on aerial or naval units.
Making an aerial aircraft carrier would be interesting but since you could
only carry one unit inside the carrier it was pointless.

Adding Psi attack and defense to units was stupidly expensive. I was
better off making Worms.

For me this ended up having no interest at all. I consistently made
infantry and land vehicles with lots of attack and poor defense. It was
more profitable to swarm the enemy with cheaper units with lots of attack
than make ludicrously expensive good all round units.

I used speeders or hovertanks for wiping infantry, and infantry for
attacking large bases because of the bonus.


To me designing units was more of a necessary nuisance than anything else.

The number of combinations possible was low and the number of combinations
probitable was even lower.

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa