[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#14234) Ruleset changes

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=14234 >

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa wrote:
> This merges the Stonehenge and Secret Services changes into one patch,
> and sound fix some sprite bugs found by Per.

I think that the changes to Despotism and Monarchy should go in now, these
should provide an interesting (but probably partial) fix for the early
game slowdown, and provide more variety in viable strategies.

Jason had a good argument against adding new buildings (ie Stonehenge and
Secret Services), that we need to fix existing useless buildings first,
and need graphics for them too. Aside from that, I think we need to think
more closely about the changes to diplomat/diplomacy that the Marco Polo
and Secret Services buildings would imply.

I suggested making Macro Polo a small wonder because this allows a way to
get embassies with other players without having to ship a diplomat to
them. Shipping diplomats is a very time consuming job, and in multiplayer
games with timeout it is really obnoxious, IMHO. Diplomats are also
dangerous, and sending in one can be seen as a omnious sign of impending
war instead of as a peaceful mission, which is bad. However, players
already have a way of getting embassies to each other - by using the
diplomacy dialog. I forgot this. So diplomats and embassies are now only
used for getting embassies where the other players does not want you to
have one. So the need for Marco Polo as a small wonder probably isn't.

We should rethink the diplomat model. Both Moo2 and Civ3 had better
models, I think, although I found civ3's implementation to quite bad.
Until we have review this model, I do not think adding a Secret Services
small wonder is a very brilliant idea. Eventually I think we should aim at
removing both diplomats and caravans as separate units in the game.
Personally I would also do away with workers (and early game explorers)
too, prefering the terrain improvement mode that is found in CTP.

  - Per