[Freeciv] Re: suggestion: ships out of cities

[Jules Bean <jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2002 at 10:38:04AM +0300, Jussi Asp wrote:
> 
> Here's an idea: ships should stay out of cities.
> 
> As it is, when building a city, it makes 'a hole' in the land, sometimes 
> even connecting two separate oceans in a keystroke. Also, when you build 
> a city on a mountain next to sea and bring your cruisers to that city, 
> their defence-points are pretty (damn) good. But what actually happens 
> there? Cruisers are lifted to the top of the mountain to gain extra 
> defence or something? :)

No, the ship is in the port, which is at sea level.  But the city is
surrounded on all sides by steep mountains, which makes mounting an
attack almost impossible, and the cruiser can pick off enemy forces at
long range whilst they're still climbing down the mountains to mount
an attack.

:)

> So, how about when building a ship, after it 
> leaves a city, it won't be coming back, and while still in city, it has 
> no defence/attack points. And about recovering ships health points, it 
> would be enough if the ship was next to city. This would balance the 
> game a bit in favor of land units. I would like to play with such rules, 
> but how about you?

No, I think ships should definitely be allowed to move into cities.
Although I might favour a (hard-to-implement) restriction which didn't
allow ships to use cities as ways to cross from one ocean to another.

Alternatives:

* Take away terrain bonuses for ships' defence.
* Take away city walls bonus for ships
* Reduce ships firepower/attack when retaliating a land attack; they
can defend themselves, but not hit back very hard.

Jules