[Freeciv] Re: FreecivNG (Re: Freeciv goals)

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Feb 29, 2000 at 10:51:02PM -0300, Lalo Martins wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 29, 2000 at 10:24:07PM -0000, Dan Ward wrote:
> > 
> > One other point, has anyone actually got a better plan than Civ2
> > compatability?  [...]   We don't need a rock solid plan
> > just something that keeps us all pulling in the same direction.

This point has been made before: Civ II provides a common focus.
Every deviation from Civ II needs to be agreed on, designed,
playtested, all in the hope of finding a sufficient number
of users.  Looking at myself, I have seen many interesting
patches on this list that I never playtested, partly because
Freeciv games take so long.  Most of these were interface
improvements.  Actual changes to the rules of the game take much
more testing, and therefore, they stand even less chance of being
worthwhile to implement.  Take the alternative rulesets for example:
they are great, but who ever uses them?

> > __planning__ for post-Civ2 compatibility.
> 
> Yes, design! :-D I can volunteer to head this project. By now
> most people probably realized I'm better at planning and
> designing than actual coding. Would we need a different list or
> just spam, I mean use, this one?

I'd love to be on the board of that committee (for the same reason as
you), but without actual coders and actual playtesters you're going to
get nowhere.

> These are the things that have been thrown around:
> 
> - new units, wherever this makes sense (mostly ultratech, it
> seems, but not necessarily)

Let's try the possibilities of the existing rulesets first.

> - make it possible for a city to physically grow for very very
> large populations

One idea would be to grow the city area with city size.
This has been discussed on the list before.

> - ocean:
> 
>   - chunnels and landfill (transforming between ocean and land)
>   - bridges and tunnels (kind of building railroad on ocean)
>   - submarine cities

What I'd like to see is ocean-to-swamp transformation, a simple
addition that could have a major impact on the game.

>   - space stations (in practice, a city with no location in the
>   map)

Nice ...
 
> - winning/losing the game:
> 
>   - cultural domination (makes cities spontaneously change sides)

Required for Civ I compatibility.
 
>   - economical domination (to do with valutas, inflation,
>   exchange rates and all these beasts)

How does this improve the game?  But I can see a 'common market' wonder
that would increase the efficiency of trade. 

-- 
Reinier