[Freeciv] starting technologies

[Kmicic <kmicic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I guess my main problem with freeciv is that it takes about 8 hrs of (timeout
100) gameplay before building of any modern structures/units is possible. And
usually by the time ironclads are invented, the game is already decided in
favor of one player anyway.

Personally I think that managing growing cities, building factories and power
plants, and planning attacks with the use of tanks, battleships, and nukes is
more fun that running around with 5 chariots and managing 100 cities of size
4. Yet, because of how long it takes to research the appropriate
technologies, I have never yet built a single tank in a a public game...

If this sentiment is shared among other players, we can do something about
it. The current option techlevel is random, and therefore not used at all in
competitive public games. However, what about having a server option that'd
allow players to choose advanced starting technologies? This could be done in
any way, for example, by giving each player 5000 tech points, and letting him
choose starting technology trees. Tree value would be calculated by the
number of yet unresearched technologies that are needed to reach the root
node (function to compute that # is already in the code, used when the
long-term research goal is set).

Comments? Ideas? Anyone? post to the list...

Cheers,
Km