[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#8519) Suggestion: BigCity flag for units

["Jason Short" <jdorje@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=8519 >

Per I. Mathisen wrote:
> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=8519 >
> 
> On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Christian Knoke wrote:
> 
>>Restrict the ability to build certain powerful and/or aggresssive units to
>>big cities. Starting with the gunpowder era, some units very useful for
>>attack in a given tech era get a flag "BigCity". They can only be built in a
>>city of size 7 or above. Possible candidates are riflemen, alpine troops,
>>cavalry, artillery, marines, armor, howitzer, *cruisers, battleship,
>>*missiles, stealth*.
> 
> There is already code in cvs to make the building of certain units
> dependent on the existence of certain city improvements. I think this is a
> better way to go than to base it on some arbitrary size.

I agree.  After playing Master of Magic for a while I find that this 
does entirely destroy ICS.  To get any military production at all you 
have to carefully balance vertical against horizontal expansion.

There was also a building tree, such that high-tech buildings required 
lesser buildings.  A cathedral should require a temple, for instance.

However I suspect the GUI interface for these requirements isn't very 
good in our code yet.  For each building and unit we need information like:

   Factory

   Requires: Blacksmith

   Allows: Manufacturing Plant (with manufacturing)
           Destroyer (with harbor, electricity)
           Cruiser (with harbor, steel)

Moreover this information should be visible directly rather than having 
to go through the help dialog.

jason