Re: Tech Tree Ends Too Soon

On Sun, 2003-10-05 at 07:12, Reinier Post wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 09:07:13PM +1200, banjo wrote:
> > On Sat, 2003-10-04 at 11:23, Mark Metson wrote:
> > > I do not like the "endgame effect" caused by the tech-tree ending so soon.
> > > 
> > > I have a game in progress right now in which suddenly there is no point in 
> > > continuing to build libraries because I am already aquiring tech so fast 
> > > that I will have every tech there is before the library is completed. This 
> > > seems an artificiality, in history when we have imagined that there is 
> > > nothing left to learn we have found - in a big way !!! - that we were 
> > > wrong. !!! Big time wrong. Was it in the nineteenth century or early 
> > > twentieth that newtonian physics thought it was running out of things to 
> > > learn? Then along came relativity and quantum mechanics.
> > 
> > Tangentally to this, ive got a perl script that extends the techtree.
> > 
> > What i does is create randomly shuffled techtrees, either very close to
> > the standard tree or you can ask it to shuffle in other genera's of
> > advances (ie. steampunk, cyber, fantasy, ... ).  
> > 
> > To keep things sane and manageble i clustered techs into tech levels, 
> > from stoneage to near future, and then thru 9 future ages to the
> > Singularity (or Trancendance).  Ive got unit, building and government
> > rulesets mostly working as well.
> > 
> > This set is meant to allow different sorts of freeciv games to be
> > played.
> > 
> > If anyone's interested i can post it to them, or even to the whole list.
> > 
> > comments ??
> 
> How do you handle the unit icons?
> It would be nice to have alternative rulesets on a public server,
> but if additional units are kept, clients must have accompanying icons.

here's an example from units.modern

[unit_special_forces]
name          = _("Special Forces")
move_type     = "Land"
tech_req      = "Combined Arms" | "Stealth"
obsolete_by   = "None" | "Cyber Ninja"
graphic       = "u.special_forces"
graphic_alt   = "u.alpine_troops"
build_cost    = 80
attack        = 5
defense       = 5
hitpoints     = 15
firepower     = 1
move_rate     = 1
vision_range  = 1
transport_cap = 0
fuel          = 0
uk_happy      = 0 
uk_shield     = 1
uk_food       = 0
uk_gold       = 0
flags         = "IgTer", "IgZOC", "Marines", "Partial_Invis"
roles         = "DefendGood"

'tech_req' & 'obsolete_by' can have options separated by a pipe "|"
the script chooses a valid option.

'graphic' is set as what the graphic for this unit would like to be,
'graphic_alt' is a sane fallback option. I haven't made any new graphics
yet.

This is quite an 'alternative ruleset' as a tool to create reasonably
sane alternative rulesets on the fly.

One of my goals is to force players to rethink their tech strategies
each game.



-- 
banjo <banjo-ETX6BUSDKN/[email protected]>