[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Migration

[Mike Kaufman <kaufman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2003 at 04:03:14PM -0800, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> From: Raimar Falke [mailto:i-freeciv-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> >
> > And I agree with Per that your proposal requires more
> > interaction. I think that more interaction (have the choice to choose)
> > was your goal. But I'm not sure if this is an improvement to the
> > general gameplay.
> 
> Here is the problem with "but I'm not sure...."  You won't know until
> you try.  You can either take the view that Freeciv is a precious tower
> whose game design integrity should be defended, or you can start working
> towards Freeciv being a game design engine rather than such a specific
> game.  What do you guys want to do?  I have no interest in the former.

That's unfortunate. If you want a game design engine, I suggest you look up
Xconq. One of freeciv's goals is flexibility in gameplay options, but I
have no interest in the kind of redefinition I think you have in mind.
And "you won't know until you try." is usually the type of statement that's
impetus for the kitchen sink approach. It also tends to breed a lot of hurt
feelings when a lot of time is spent coding for an eventually rejection of
the idea on whatever grounds. 

> And if any of you have "career" goals, it is by definition a waste of
> your time too.  You cannot make your career by making the most minor
> tweaks to someone else's work.  You can do it just fine as a hobbyist
> goal, and having a hobby is a valid goal for some people.  Just be sure
> what your career vs. hobby aspirations are, and what kind of project you
> really want to put your effort into.

I think there's plenty of room for doing more than simply tweaking left for
freeciv, but face it, freeciv is a mature project as open source projects
go. There's still a ton of room to play in ai/ and agents/ and what have you
for client modification, but at its core, freeciv is still a game based on
Civilization-type gameplay.

-mike