[Freeciv] Re: Another wonder

[Tobias Brox <tobiasb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just disagree so much in your views upon the communication technology..
:)

>   More information does not equal better information.
>   I agree that half of the online transactions are fraudulent. I suggest:
> 
>   New science: Networking 
>   Permits:
>   - New thing you can build in a city: Freenet/BBS
>       - Increases effectiveness of each "Elvis" by 3x
>       - Reduces productivity by 10%

Let's call it a City Network. BBS'es will appear regardless of if it's
built by the city administration or not.  The BBS'es never got that hard
impact at the society, it was mostly only us - the nerds - that where
occupied by them, so we can safely ignore them.  A City Network built from
scratch requires a lot of resources, and connects _everybody_ to the net. 
Upgrading POP (Plain Old Phonelines - another needed improvement) to City
Network should be relatively cheap. The result is that communication,
which is essential for trade - that is, science, luxury production and tax
production - goes costlessly, thus I think we can raise trade with 100%!
(50% for Phone Lines, and then another 50% for the upgrade).

In addition, people tend to entertain themselves completely without
proffessional help (newsgroups, BBS conferences, mail, etc) - thus I think
we can remove two or maybe three unhappy faces.

Let's think that the technology can both be used and abused - the first
would be to reduce the cities paperwork and administration costs, the
latter would be to use the technology for spamming, animating gifs,
replacing the small calculator with a chunky graphical calculator at the
screen, the handy deck of cards with a point-and-click solitare, reading
the newspaper and playing games during the labour hours etc.  Who
should tell people how to gain benefits from the technology?  Scientists!

So ... my suggestion is that we introduce a 10% loss in resource
production and 50% loss in tax production due to networking - but for each
scientist working in a city, those losses are reduced.  One scientist - 5%
resource loss and 25% tax loss.  Two scientists - 2.5% resource loss,
12.5% tax loss.  Etc.

>   - Internet as a new wonder (requires networking)

I disagree :)  Internet is _nothing_ but a lot of connected networks.  So,
let the settlers build intercity communication lines, first cupper cables
and when the fiberoptic tech is researched, they can be upgraded to
fiberoptic lines.

>      - Obsoletes Freenet/BBS worldwide

In addition to the intercity communication lines, a local access network
is needed.  So the POP/City Network is still needed.

>      - Increases science by 20%

I have a better idea; as mentionated above a free information float
benefits both science/education, entertainment and trade - so let an
intercity connection be a trade bonus.  And then the genious part; by
broadcasting over a network, entertainment and science produced in one
city might be directly benefited in the connected city.  

My suggestion is a bit complicated to explain, but I think that the
bonuses (trade bonuses minus tax losses) above should be valid for the
whole network.

I.e. city A produces 20 trade and city B produces 2 trade.  Both cities
have city network, and gets 100% trade bonus from this.  That is 20 trade
in city A and 2 trade in city B, together 22 trade.  The tax level is set
to 20-30-50, so the trade bonus will contribute about 5 entertainment 6
tax and 11 science. 50% of the tax is removed due to a lack of scientists,
that's 3 gold coins.  So 5 entertainment points, 3 gold coins and 11
science is added to _every_ city in the network!

Then another big city, C, connects to B, and both A, B and C will benefit
from this.

>      - Decreases productivity by 10% (people surfing)

Ok, let there be a disadvantage also with a great Internet with too much
information and crap...but I don't know how to fit that into the scheme
above.

>      - Increases happiness caused by each Elvis by 5x

Why are you so concerned about your Elvixes?  If there is one thing
Internet can do it must be to remove the dependency at local proffessional
entertainment.  Like Elvixes.

>      - Decreases trade by 5% (fraud)

Let it be a corruption "bonus".  But I disagree strongly.  Better
possibilities for anonymous communication doesn't increase the chance for
fraud itself. Anyone that thinks that a customer tell somebody a number is
good enough as authentication obviously have had his brain too long in the
microwave oven - regardless if the number is delievered by internet,
phone, fax, semaphor, telegraph or personal contact. 

Personally I've often used the net for buying stuff, but I've never
used or had a credit card, I've always done the payment itself by other
channels. 

>   New science: cryptography
>   Permits: 
>      City: CA wonder. Negates fraud effect of Internet,
>      and increases trade due to Internet by 50%. 
>      - decreases effectiveness of courthouse by 10%
> 
>      Wonder: X.509 wonder. Like a CA in every city.

I don't know ... maybe ... but .... I don't know...

-- 
Tobias Brox (alias TobiX) - sysguy - +4722925871 - http://www.funcom.com/
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