[freeciv-data] Re: Re: Alternative nation dialog

On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Mark Metson wrote:
> I think the population number is not linear either. It dont think its
> quite like "Traveller" in which the population number (of planets in their
> case) is the number of digits (the exponent) but I do seem to recall its
> not being linear either. So if we make settlers require a fairly constant
> number of actual people cities will eventually reach a size at which that
> number of people barely makes a dent in their population at all, much like
> other units barely affect the population of small cities. How many people
> are assumed to be in a typical unit? 100? 300? 500? 1000? Whereas a
> Settler is presently explicitly stated to be 10,000?

Making a settler consume a fixed amount of "real" population would make
big cities much more tenable. As is now, the real cost (in terms of food)
of producing a settler increases enormously as cities grow in size.

> Actually I dont like the whole "gold" concept very much. Like too many
> games it arbitrarily assumes currency even before currency has been
> developed.

Yes, yes. It is ahistorical, but it is an abstraction, and this is after
all just a game. I believe any attempt to change "gold" (or whatever it is
called) into something more complex will make the game much too
complicated. Simplicity is a virtue often forgotten.

Yours,
Per

"What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally
happens." -- Benjamin Disraeli