[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#7095) No Capital, and can't build one..

["Josh Cogliati" <jjc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7095 >

On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 01:43:04AM -0800, Raimar Falke wrote:
> 
> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7095 >
> 
> On Sun, Jan 25, 2004 at 11:43:19PM -0800, Jason Short wrote:
> > 
> > <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7095 >
> > 
> > > [jdorje - Sat Jan 24 03:29:08 2004]:
> > > 
> > > > [jrincayc - Fri Jan 23 21:23:12 2004]:
> > > 
> > > > It could instead add a sell message which defaults to nothing.  
> > > > Then add the sell message to the buildings.ruleset for palace.
> > > > This has the advantage of allowing any building to have a sell message.
> > > 
> > > Indeed.  I suppose this may be marginally cleaner.
> > 
> > Here's a new version with (untested) support for other clients.
> 
> I'm against this patch. The intent is really too narrow. The target of
> the audience are people which are:
>  - new to the game AND
>  - sell a building sounds important like palace AND
>  - are surprised that it has negative consequences.

Since this will show up before they sell the palace, the target that I see is:
- new to the game AND
- consider selling a building called palace.

Everyone who plays freeciv will qualify for the first when they start playing
the game.  The first time I played freeciv when I opened up the city dialog, 
I just started pressing buttons until something interesting happened (This 
was prior to the manual being written by the way.).  Having game ruining 
features that have no warning is a bad idea.  There are enough ways to lose
a game in freeciv already.

I think that the message should be more specific as to the actual consequences
of selling a palace which is *not* documented in the online help or the 
freeciv game manual.  Something like this is what I am thinking:
Selling your palace is usually a bad idea.  It will increase corruption in
the game and you will not be able to build a new one unless you have researched
Masonry.  (Are there other consequences that I am forgetting?)

As part of this patch, it probably wouldn't hurt to document the consequences
of selling a palace in the regular help.

> Also the patch only shows the message in a dialog which is shown very
> shortly and be sure overlooked.

I usually read dialog's when I am learning a new program.

> One better approach would be to show the general help message in a
> tooltip for items in the improvement list. Much more general.

The help text for a improvement is probably too long to be a tool tip, 
since it would probably cover up half of the dialog.  
 
>       Raimar

-- 
Josh Cogliati