[Freeciv-Dev] buying cities

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Metson wrote:
> But by then I usually find
> even howitzers not much fun or use, too awkward and clunky,
> easier to use spies and just buy cities.

I'm surprised if it's all that effective.  I've certainly done it in Civ
II, SMAC, and Civ III - it takes gigabucks.  If it doesn't take
gigabucks in Freeciv, if it's fairly convenient, I'd call that a design
imbalance.  I think it took too much in the commercial Civs, but it
shouldn't be basically easy.  One big variable is what kind of enemy you
have.  A Monarch or Communist has always been easy to buy off, the
farther away a city is from its capital.  But you're not supposed to be
able to buy a Democracy, and I thought the AIs often switch from
Republic to Democracy when it becomes available?  I've yet to finish a
game of Freeciv, I tend to get bored after 3 hours and just quit.

> Although eventually there usually
> does come a
> time when it is necessary to put several howitzers into a
> transport, build
> the Apolo Project to find out where my main opponent's
> capital is, and go
> do a surgical strike at their capital...

One thing about the Shared Vision rules are that they make the Apollo
Project totally unnecessary as a recon device.  You can know the entire
map in the age of the Caravel.  Personally I don't think that's such a
great idea for single player, but I do see the utility for multiplayer
games if you want them to go faster.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.