[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Why are you cloning Civ II? (was Re: Migration)

[Mark Metson <markm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 18 Dec 2003, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> > Fun to play is The Goal.
> 
> That goal was solved by Sid Meier / Brian Reynolds.  You guys haven't
> contributed anything to that goal.  Your AI, for instance, is not any
> better an opponent than the Civ II, CTP2, or SMAC AIs.  Civ III's is the
> only good one so far.

My impression from watching this list for years is that the original coder 
of AI for FreeCiv coded really really horrible code full of inexplicable / 
unexplained weird constants and such. A lot of the work in the AI has been 
simply attempts to get away from that heritage, to make something that one 
day could be improved. Apparently the code really really sucked. That the 
AI has improved at all is an accomplishment given that the original code 
was so hard to work with. Apparently we are now much further along toard a 
code base that will permit some actual improvement in the AI. Maybe it 
took longer than simply starting an AI from scratch would have but bit by 
bit the code is being re-worked.

What might be a really worthwhile challenge for your awesome Python-A.I. 
skills might be to code a python CLIENT with Client-Side AI, something 
that could be run as a daemon one copy per A.I. opponent. If you could 
make a client-side A.I. we'd probably give you a standing ovation even if 
some conference wouldn't.

> What I'm hearing, is that Freeciv was undertaken for the simple purpose
> of providing Civ II on Linux and other unsupported platforms, and to
> ensure decent network play.  Ok, you've achieved that.  Credit where
> credit is due.

There ya go.

But actually there are also a bunch of other little things that have been 
happening, such as various support toward Lord of the Rings types of 
scenarios. Such as "game loss units". Also, even if some seem to you to 
indicate a game design engine isn't what is being built, there is more and 
more flxibility as time goes on, so for many purposes it looks like it 
should be at least a scenario design engine.

-MarkM-

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