[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#10965) great library vs. freecost

["Christian Knoke" <chrisk@xxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10965 >

On Sat, Nov 13, 2004 at 01:43:24AM -0800, Jason Short wrote:
> 
> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10965 >
> 
> This looks like a bug introduced by the new tech code.  In 1.14
> saving_bulbs was only considered if it was the currently-researching
> tech that was found.  If another tech was found the bulbs would never be
> reset.
> 
> We could return to this behavior (which is different from the current
> behavior, even under the patch I gave) but I'm not really sure it would
> be better.  Any design people want to comment?

Your patch works here.

I find the behaviour of freecost difficult.

With freecost=0, I think, bulbs should always be saved (Great Lib and huts).

With freecost=100, it works like this (only tested with huts, think Great
Library is the same):

When I get a tech (the currently researching one or an other), the bulb costs
for the currently researched tech are subtracted from my bulbs. This always
results in a negative bulb account for the next-to-achieve tech. This seems
wrong in 3 ways:

1) What is subtracted, depends on the chosen tech, and can vary widely. You
   might want to set a cheap tech if you have Great Lib to minimize the
   losses (or if you're out for huts).

2) The subtraction makes science out of huts, and even Great Library
   completely worthless: Can you confirm, that the next free tech from GL
   gives another subtraction of the already negative bulbs account?

3) During the next turns, as long as the account is negative, you can change
   the tech without loss, even if techpenalty=100, which is default.

4) Huts and GL even can hurt, because you are blocked from researching a
   special tech you want/need.

I'd say, just nullify the bulbs account in case of freecost=100. This
reduces GL and huts, but doesn't make them worthless. It is fair and
transparent, and you cannot do big tricks.

Christian

-- 
Christian Knoke            * * *            http://cknoke.de
* * * * * * * * *  Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse dividendum.