[Freeciv] Re: Some questions

["Mike Jing" <miky40@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > I have decided I would like to help out with this project. Not that I 
> > there is anything I know I could do, being an unexperienced c-programmer 
> > and not having that much spare time, but nevertheless.
Glad to have you on board, Johannes.  I am sure there are a lot of things 
you can do to help the project.  :-)
> > Actually, I think I would like to work with AI, even though I should 
> > probably start with something easier. But putting my shortcommings aside, 
> > I would like to make an AI that could analyze the ruleset to some extent, 
> > and that be used for some clientside micromanagement (the computer AI 
> > player should handle its cities good enough for the human players to use 
> > it for citymanagement etc.). Hence the AI should only use whatever the 
> > client sees (no cheating!), and I need to program it very 'modularized'. 
> > When I get the time to do so, I will go through the AI that already exists 
> > and come up with something more concrete.
That would be great.  AI is probably the least understood part of the code 
since the original author of most of the AI code disappeared sometime ago.  
It's very important to have more people who knows the AI and can work to 
improve it further.
> > Also, being an old CivI and CivII player (civ1 changed the way I looked 
> > upon computer games, I still remember when my cousin first bought his copy 
> > of it, I think we spent almost all Easter playing one game, and finally 
> > conquered the world, only then realizing we made a score of about 15%), I 
> > might be able to say something sensible in discussions from time to time.
I think Freeciv still has a lot to learn from the original Civ1/2.  Having 
old Civ players like you will certainly be a big plus for the project.
[......]

> > 2. How fast do you 'smallpox' players reach the end of the tech tree 
> > (assuming you try to reach the end of it)?
I tried to do a test to see how fast it could be done, but it only proves 
that I suck at ICS (OK, I peobably suck anyways, but that's something else). 
 In any case, I know people who claim that they can research everything by 
1000AD.  Although I knew the pace of tech advance is pretty fast in Freeciv, 
I never thought that would be possible until I realized how they could get 
so far ahead so fast.  In most cases though, you would never see the end of 
the tech tree because the game would have been long over.
> > I have noticed much talk about this smallpox strategy it these forums, and 
> > having a somewhat different strategy (I realize the importance of many 
> > cities, but I usually develop them too, hence am more careful about their 
> > placement), I would like to compare. Of course, I should do this by  
> > playing some games, but I am in no position to do that at the moment.
I guess I am the one who is making all the noise about smallpox right now 
and some people probebly think I am making too much of a fuss over it.  I 
have to admit that I hate it with a passion and never used it myself because 
I find it extremely ugly, both figuratively and literally.  (Of course, the 
fact that I don't know how to use it has absolutely nothing to do with it.  
;-)
I don't know whether you have played any multiplayer games in Civ2, but it 
is certainly quite different from playing against the AI.  Game balance is 
much more important in multiplayer because the dominance of one particular 
stretagy will almost certainly ruin the game for many people.
BTW, are you saying that you are too busy to play?  I hope you can find time 
soon.  See you at civserver.freeciv.org.
Mike



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