[freeciv] Re: caravanserai?

["Bobby D. Bryant" <bdbryant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> love your ancients modpack. put not sure what caravanserai is.
> didn't seem to be help on it.

Hi.  A caravanserai is a place where caravans assemble before they set
out, or a specialized inn where they stop for a night.  In the game it
has the same effect as a marketplace does in the standard game -- I just
gave it a different name to add a little color.

Unfortunately, the help system does not support modpacks yet, at least
for improvements, wonders, and governments.  We've been discussing this
on the freeciv-dev list, so maybe a fix will be available before too
long.  (Except for a few minor things, the help does work with units
now.)

If you get desperate you can look at buildings.ruleset, find the name of
an improvement available in the modpack, and then look over at the far
right-hand column to see what is the equivalent improvement in the
standard game.  For instance, the line for caravanserai looks something
like this -

"Caravanserai",       0, "The Caravan",     80, 1,  0, "None"
;B_MARKETPLACE   +$$$

(The $$$ at the far right is just a reminder to myself that it helps
with your cash flow.)  If you do this, you'll find that some of the
improvements are out of alphabetical order because the current version
of the code defines their properties according to their position in the
file, so don't be alarmed if you don't see Caravanserai between Barracks
III and Cathedral.

I hope you enjoy the modpack.  I'm not under any illusions that it's
perfect, so feel free to write if you have more questions, or
suggestions.

Bobby Bryant
Austin, Texas

p.s. -- One suggestion I have that isn't in the notes yet is to use the
server command that speeds up research a bit.  I've been playtesting it
with the default research rate, and even by 1750 AD no one seems to have
advanced as far as Republican Rome, so things should be sped up a bit.