[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#5420) Marketplace should have 0 upkeep.

["Guest" <rt-guest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the standard game Marketplaces cost 80 shields and require 1 upkeep.
I think that the upkeep should be free for the following reasons:


1.  Paradoxical Behavior.
Marketplaces can often cause less gold or the same amount of gold 
to be produced.  This occurs since the market place increases the amount
of gold by 1.5 times the previous amount rounded down.  In otherwords, 
if you have 1 gold, the marketplace will cause 1 less gold to be
produced, since the upkeep is 1.  Here is a table:
G = Original gold, M = gold with marketplace, formula: floor(G*1.5)-1
G    M    Change
0   -1     -1
1    0     -1
2    2      0
3    3      0
4    5     +1
5    6     +1

In otherwords, unless you are already producing 4 gold, the marketplace
gives no gold benefit.  Since marketplaces can be gotten early in the 
game (only requires two techs), this will likely be when most cities are
producing less than 4 gold.  

I know that when I first was playing freeciv, I wanted more gold from
some cities so I looked at the buildings and found out about 
Marketplace.  Then I built one and did not get more gold.  This
was an unpleasant surprise.


2.  Inital Cost Sufficient
The inital cost of the marketplace is 80 production.  This is equal to 
4 horsemen, or roughly 1 settler (the 1 population that a settler uses 
changes the equation).  Now, which would you rather have,
two cities (either built or conquered), or one city with 1.5 times the 
gold and luxuries?  

Since the decision will often be to do something else with the 
production points, a cost of 80 is not too low, even without the 
upkeep.


3.  Realism
Every marketplace I have heard of does not require public funds to keep
going.  Usually either the entire thing is built with private funds, or
at minimum, day to day maintaince is payed for by vendor fees.  
The upkeep on a marketplace is unrealistic.  This reason by itself
is not sufficient since this is a game, not a simulation, but moving
a rule toward realism is an added benefit.


In conclusion, I think that changing the upkeep on marketplaces to 0 
will improve the game.  It makes the marketplace significatly more 
useful early in the game when city trade amounts are low.  This makes
the decision of build another city or improve the city I have more 
likely to be decided in favor of improve the city I have.  

--
Josh Cogliati

Index: data/default/buildings.ruleset
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/freeciv/CVS/freeciv/data/default/buildings.ruleset,v
retrieving revision 1.40
diff -U9 -r1.40 buildings.ruleset
--- data/default/buildings.ruleset      2003/05/05 12:11:13     1.40
+++ data/default/buildings.ruleset      2003/08/25 19:21:06
@@ -575,19 +575,19 @@
 graphic_alt    = "-"
 ;terr_gate     =
 ;spec_gate     =
 equiv_range    = "City"
 ;equiv_dupl    =
 ;equiv_repl    =
 obsolete_by    = "None"
 is_wonder      = 0
 build_cost     = 80
-upkeep         = 1
+upkeep         = 0
 sabotage       = 100
 effect         =
     { "type", "range", "amount"
        "Tax_Bonus", "City", 50
        "Luxury_Bonus", "City", 50
     }
 sound          = "b_marketplace"
 sound_alt      = "b_generic"
 ; /* xgettext:no-c-format */