[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Project goals

["Daniel Markstedt" <markstedt@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 7/5/06, Per Inge Mathisen <per@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, 4 Jul 2006, saywhat@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >  So for Freeciv, I propose limiting the default number of cities
> > that a player can create (via a settler) to a relatively small
> > number (e.g. 5)
>
> Arbitrarily limiting the number of cities will turn players away from the
> game in disgust. Nothing is more annoying than in-game limitations that
> are obviously added because the game designers did not know how to handle
> more. It makes a hole in the suspension of disbelief that you could run a
> truck through.

I agree that the virtually limitless expanse of late game empires (a
result of rampant expansion combined with the conquering of neighbors)
makes actually playing a game to the end a chore.

So I've been thinking of another way of altering the way expansion
works: changing the nature of the settler. The idea is to remove
settlers as buildable units. You get a batch of them from the
beginning, after which you must reach certain objectives to get access
to more. An objective could for example be reaching total population
of X, at least X cities of size X, having a certain improvement in at
least X cities, defeated X enemy units, made contact with X civs,
having a total of X wonders, having X tiles within your borders etc
etc. All ruleset controlled of course. Should be easy to implement
with LUA.


--Daniel