[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#15736) airlift behaviour change proposal for 2.1

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

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=15736 >

On Thu, 2 Mar 2006, [UTF-8] Jaroslav Libák wrote:
> Do any developers play the game actually? People do airlift & attack
> because it is nearly impossible to conquer a good player with
> battleships as they get nuked or sank by submarines, and it is very
> difficult to capture a city with stealth bombers if the city has SAM +
> couple of AEGIS, because AEGIS are too powerful

So you want to fix broken rules with more broken rules? Sorry, I do not
buy that strategy.

> What if players like to play this way? Why not let them decide whether
> to limit airlifts in the initial server settings? Freeciv is just a
> game, it doesn't need to be 100% realistic, the main point is for it to
> be enjoyable.

Exactly. Our main objective must be to make the game enjoyable to the 99%
of players who never touch a server setting. So while we can always add a
server setting, the main question is always - what is the best default? If
adding a server setting means the players who know what the best default
is will stop complaining then that is a good reason _not_ to add a server
setting. Follow?

> That is not true. If the whole island is in your hands, railroads +
> musketeers and a few cannons + coastals make impenetrable cities. A
> lagepoxer with coastals + musketeers/riflemen can defend very well
> against smallpoxers, that's why smallpoxers died out in 2.0.

We clearly have not succeeded in making a good balance in city defense.
They are too easy to take with ships in the mid game and too hard to take
almost by any means late in the game. That is a problem we should address.

  - Per