[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#5777) Stuck building coinage in worklist

["Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa" <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003, John Wheeler wrote:

>
> [vasc - Thu Sep  4 19:54:00 2003]:
>
> > On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, ue80@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > Please refrain from automating things too much people. We want
> > an interface which does not bother a user with micromanagement,
> > but we also do not want to make something like Master of Orion 3,
> > where the only thing you do is click turn done.
>
> Um, who is "we"?  I'll agree that I definitely wouldn't want to play a

"We" is the maintainers. I know at least those of us who played MOO 3 did
not like the game style due to the heavy automation. If you read the
reviews of the game you will discover most people share the same feelings...

> game where I can't override the defaults, but it's tedious when
> decisions start being mechanical (e.g., switching CMAs from maximizing
> food to maximizing production when size becomes 3).  I mean does anyone
> enjoy clicking on city squares to maximize production?  I think we
> started down this path when worklists and CMAs were introduced, and I'm
> all for it.  After all, if you really want to do everything yourself,
> you're free to ignore worklists and CMAs.

I am not certain CMA was exactly a good idea (in the way it was made
anyway). The UI is overly complex. Are you really interested into turning
the game into a spreadsheet?
I like more the way SMAC or Master of Orion did things. In SMAC you have
just three settings for the "city governor": command, conquer or explore.
In Master of Orion you had IIRC three sliders to attribute value to these
personalities. These control the whole city or planet's resources and queue.

If the workers pool in the city dialog is annoying that is probably a
fault in the Civilization II(tm) design. I believe the problem was minor
in the original Civilization because the map was smaller so you usually
had less cities (at least I did).

Believe me you have no idea about what is a game with heavy
micromanagement. Millenium 2.2, *that* had heavy micromanagement. After 45
minutes I started wanting to bang my head against the wall. :-(

You must strike a balance between micromanagement and doing nothing at
all. If you completely automate the city, you will end up with a strategic
combat game. If on top you completely automate the units, what the hell is
left for you to do? Change governments? Choose the tech? Boring.

> If most other freeciv players are opposed to (customizable and
> overridable) automation, then maybe I'm playing the wrong game.  (Is
> Master of Orion 3 available for Linux? ;-)

Most of us when playing a game actually expect to *play* a game. Otherwise
we would just be as well watching demos or television.

Spending time sterilizing the game instead of improving the graphics or
gameplay does not strike me as very productive.

Remember here people: the emphasis is on *fun*.
This is a game after all! :-)

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