How Long Does The Community Have To Wait?

[cazfi]

Originally posted by Boco
How many unit slots are available, and can this ever be increased?

Some of the current maximum numbers:
Unit types: 200
Buildings: 200
Techs: 200-4
Terrain types: 200
Goverment types: 127
Players: 30 (+2 barbarian nations)
Nation types: Let me see... there seems to be no hardcoded limit but after 65536 we are in trouble
City styles: See Nation types.

Anything, except maybe those already unlimited, can be increased.
Increasing max number of players would be hard (at least it was some years ago, overall development has made it easier and easier target).

[cazfi]

...and development version has also up to 32 unit classes.

Each unit type belongs to one class. Some functionality can be defined only in class level (not individually for all types). Most importantly class defines where unit can move.

[himasaram]

I shouldn't take credit for the map convertor; Egor V. wrote it. See my 'Mongols' dev thread for a link.

As for missing ToT features/event types, I can see two ways to tackle this: Either create a comprehensive document that outlines all features in ToT, or to request them as they are demanded in a certain scenario.

Also remember that Freeciv is not aiming to completely emulate Civ (anymore) but rather to create the best Civ-like game there is! So let's try and think outside of the box as well.

Now, as I said, I did attempt to convert a scenario myself. But a big obstacle for this project was that while I was familiar with Freeciv, I knew (and know) precious little about scenario creation on Civ2, so I was pretty much in the dark about many of the more obscure parts of the rules. The opposite is true, I believe, for the members of this League! If someone is interested, I'd gladly cooperate with you to convert/create a scenario for Freeciv. By combining our expertise, I'm sure we would get much further!

[Boco]

Unit class affect combat (e.g. AEGIS or Pikemen bonuses)? Something reminiscent of the Panzer General series would be fantastic!

[techumseh]

Originally posted by himasaram

As for missing ToT features/event types, I can see two ways to tackle this: Either create a comprehensive document that outlines all features in ToT, or to request them as they are demanded in a certain scenario.

The dimensions of free civ sound impressive. If you could replicate the events capacity of ToT, FreeCiv could become the vehicle of choice for scenario design.

Here is the text file which comes with ToT, describing the events it uses. If you can incorporate this, including the flags and mask features, you may have a convert!

[curtsibling]

Why don't we assemble the experts and make a FreeCiv scenario...?

It would serve as an experiment...!

I'm game if anyone else is!

[cazfi]

Originally posted by Boco
Unit class affect combat (e.g. AEGIS or Pikemen bonuses)?

That's the plan, but details are not clear yet.
I have to remind you that unit classes are in (trunk) development version only: it is not in 2.1 -series, even if we have failed to release even 2.1.0 out of that series.

Some documentation about what is already implemented:

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Editing_Rulesets#Unit_Classes

[himasaram]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Why don't we assemble the experts and make a FreeCiv scenario...?

It would serve as an experiment...!

I'm game if anyone else is!

Great! I'm glad you're in!

To get this started, we should figure out what kind of scenario to make first. Also, whether to base it on an existing Civ2 scenario ('convert') or to make one from scratch.

First maybe we could decide whether to make a singleplayer or multiplayer scenario, and what setting it should have.

Any other fundamental decisions that should be made at this stage?

[techumseh]

Events. Without programmable events, FreeCiv is no farther ahead than Civ3 - useless for real scenarios.

[cazfi]

Originally posted by techumseh
Events. Without programmable events, FreeCiv is no farther ahead than Civ3 - useless for real scenarios.

My intention was to post link to events documentation, but failed to find any...

Event scripting is implemented to 2.1. It still does not have too many event types or actions one can do from script. Scripting language is lua 5.0.
Here is what our tutorial scenario script for 2.1 looks like:

http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/*checkout*/freeciv/branches/S2_1/data/scenario/tutorial.sav

[Stefan Härtel]

Very, very basic question: Is there any other way to move units than with the numpad?

[Broken_Erika]

arrow keys or mouse?

[himasaram]

Stefan> Arrow keys work (but you can't move diagonally, needless to say) and you can use the mouse to give 'goto' commands. Just press the 'G' key and then on the tile you want the unit to go to.

cazfi> AFAIK, all events documentation resides in the 'Event scripting' category on the wiki: http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Event_scripting

Much of it is very technical, can be outdated or incomplete. But it's a start.

[techumseh]

FreeCivs definition of 'events' seems to be rather more basic than the events of ToT or even FW. It's really more what happens in an the course of an ordinary vanilla game.

Starting the game.
Moving a unit (e.g., moving a settler unit should tell you if you've found a good city site).
Founding a city.
Completing a city production (must know which one; lots of special cases here).
Making contact with another civ.
Declaring war/having war declared on you.
Researching a new tech

Are there any plans to implement real events language which is programmable, ie: City Captured -> Create Unit -> Cooridinate, etc?

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by techumseh
Are there any plans to implement real events language which is programmable, ie: City Captured -> Create Unit -> Cooridinate, etc?

This doesn't seem to have progressed much since I last visited the idea. I remember a whole bunch of events being posted that mirrored Civ2, but a lot of people took the idea as being part of a tutorial.

As techumseh said, we really need an event language to create scenarios. Right now we have a bunch of actors dressed in costumes, but no script.