A question and a suggestion...

[CMaster2003]

Hello.
I'm not a very experienced player of freeciv but I have noticed several "problems": the AI doesn't really know how to handle pollution... I mean that in the year 1990 for example, I get a "global warming" every 5 turns at most!!!! and my cities have 0 tons of pollution... And another thing... Those Mfg. Plants increase pollution really very much and there are no buildings(I think) that actually remove it 100%.

My question would be: what exactly do I have to do to compile the source code of freeciv or how can I test some patches that I may try to make in the future(I mean, is there an easy way, without having to play the game a lot??) ? Would a "make install" command at the DOS prompt suffice it to compile the game? And does the Visual C++ Compiler works?

[Per]

Yeah, AI is bad at pollution.

Compiling from source in Windows is quite hard. I heard someone managed to compile from Visual C++ once, so you could have a try...

[maubp]

Hmm - an idea for the diplomacy screens one day

"Reduce your pollution or we will declare war"

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Per
Yeah, AI is bad at pollution.

Compiling from source in Windows is quite hard. I heard someone managed to compile from Visual C++ once, so you could have a try...

I can remember the original Civ2 AI being pretty bad at pollution at well. It cheated somehow, because pollution and global warming only happened with human players. In multiplayer this became a structural problem because it considered the pollution of ALL human players causing global warming. Some tended to clean up tehir act while others chose to play the "dirty man"

Quite realistic in that sense really.

[telex4]

Originally posted by maubp
Hmm - an idea for the diplomacy screens one day

"Reduce your pollution or we will declare war"

I really like that idea In the meantime, however, it'd be nice just to have the AI adjusted so that it takes pollution a little more seriously.

The frustrating thing with constantly trying new Freeciv features, as opposed to buying a new version every few years, is that every feature makes you think of ten more you'd love to see

[CMaster2003]

The problem is that there is not a single function(at least I couldn't find any) that sets the priorities in buying city improvements for the AI. There should be something like: if pollution becomes >0 then don't build whatever... This AFTER the AI had built Mass transit, any Plant(except Power Plant!!!!!!!! -- it shouldn't build it at all!!!) and the Rc. Centre. This could be a nice way to set things up and, of course, after making the "auto-settler"(which the AI uses EVERYTIME!) to clear pollution, if any, before ANYTHING else and to stop building cities like mad!

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by telex4


The frustrating thing with constantly trying new Freeciv features, as opposed to buying a new version every few years, is that every feature makes you think of ten more you'd love to see

Well they're free, and that what makes it worth it.


I do tend to be afraid of feature creep however. The thing I like(d) about the Civ1/2 was its fundamental boardgame mechanism. The mechanism that you need food/shields and trade to build/buy/invent/generate gold was crystal clear from the outset. That mechanism was getting kind of cloudy in Civ3.

[diogoko]

My question would be: what exactly do I have to do to compile the source code of freeciv or how can I test some patches that I may try to make in the future(I mean, is there an easy way, without having to play the game a lot??) ? Would a "make install" command at the DOS prompt suffice it to compile the game?

I compiled it under Windows XP using MinGW, IIRC. I think configure + make does it.

MinGW home page