[Pkg-freeciv-devel] Bug#241929: freeciv: Freeciv is tip to tail braindamaged and harms young hackers.

[Ivan Shmakov]

>>>>> "JM" == Jan Minar <jjminar at fastmail.fm> writes:

 JM> Package: freeciv Version: 1.12.0-0.1 Severity: important

	Looks like most of the issues noted below aren't applicable to
	Freeciv any longer (as of 2.0.8-3.)

	I guess that the report should be closed, probably after
	splitting the issues that are still there off into separate
	reports.

[...]

 JM> The whole game lures myself into that lame way of thinking I know
 JM> from the Evil Empire's world.  Seducing to such an adultery is a
 JM> mortal sin, and that's why I deem this bug `important'.

 JM> Firstly, the grave ones:

 JM> * There should be no hard limits.  If you think the least
 JM> reasonable number of cities for plunging in a civil war is 6, make
 JM> it a formal requirement, devise a special flag for the server that
 JM> would tell whether it is compliant with the formal requirements, do
 JM> whatever you want to do, but *never* impose a hard limit.  Cf. the
 JM> GNU project attitude towards hard limits.

	There's the `civilwarsize' server option:

> help civilwarsize
Option: civilwarsize  -  Minimum number of cities for civil war
Description:
  A civil war is triggered if a player has at least this many cities and the
  player's capital is captured. If this option is set to the maximum value,
  civil wars are turned off altogether.
Status: changeable
Value: 10, Minimum: 6, Default: 10, Maximum: 1000
> 

 JM> * The server environment should be self-containing.  There should
 JM> be no reason to resort to shell for restarting the game, loading
 JM> saved game, etc.  There should be a /stop command, symmetrical to
 JM> the /start one, a /load command for what is done now as ``civserver
 JM> --file <saved_game>''.  This would be The Right Thing.

	At least, there're the `load' and `endgame' commands.  Not sure
	about `stop'.

	The whole issue seems a bit like proposing the ``--daemon''
	option to Make, so that it will watch for the filesystem and
	start a rebuild whenever makefiles or sources do change.

 JM> * There should be a way to start the game seamlessly both locally,
 JM> and remotely.  There is no way to start the game with one command.
 JM> At least, you have to click the `Connect' button (xaw3d version).

	I don't understand this one.

 JM> On the server side, there should be some way to specify your
 JM> favourite defaults (It would be *extremely* lame if you had to
 JM> configure the (possibly complex) options every time you run the
 JM> server, so I think there _is_ a way to do it, yet I didn't figure
 JM> out how).

	The `read' command is there for ages now, and there's also the
	`--read' server option.

 JM> * The GUI should be more simple.  The repetitiveness: two
 JM> production choice windows, `Worklist' and `Change', `Worklist'
 JM> doesn't show turns-to-completion, two `Help' buttons in the
 JM> `Worklist' window, etc., etc.

 JM> Now some not so fatal ones:

 JM> * The `Messages' pop-up hides most of the animations, and there *is
 JM> no way to configure this*.

 JM> * The only way to find a specific unit (say the only cruiser I
 JM> have, on an explore mission) is to click through the whole map.
 JM> When the unit is hidden under some another, or in a city, it's
 JM> almost impossible.

	I guess these GUI issues deserve a separate report.

 JM> Ordinary bugs:

 JM> * It should not be possible to explore where is land and where sea
 JM> using the Goto (the game should not refuse to go to (through)
 JM> land/sea destination for a sea/land unit, respectively, when it's
 JM> not explored (black map squares).  The same applies to ZOC, sea
 JM> changing into land and vice versa (if it was possible), ...).

 JM> * Obsoletable and destroyable wonders should not impose
 JM> obsolescence on the city improvements whose functionality
 JM> substitute.  Once The Great Wall becomes obsolete, the city walls
 JM> become handy (again).  So one should be able to build them even
 JM> thru the epoch it is in effect.  Or the improvements should be
 JM> destroyed upon the wonder completion (strange idea).  Or there
 JM> should be a way to destroy the wonder itself (so you can start
 JM> building them again).  As it is in the real world: you can both
 JM> build and maintain obsolete things.  They are just less and less
 JM> competitive, as better alternatives emerge.

	Apparently, these two issues were fixed (again, as of 2.0.8-3.)

 JM> Wishlist:

 JM> * Using sea units as bridges should be easier: The units stop on
 JM> the sea unit when Goto-ing along.  Moreover, when the sea unit is
 JM> sentried, the Goto-ing unit gets sentried too.  (A special `Bridge'
 JM> command, along with the `Sentry', so that the units would not
 JM> stop/sentry?  `Ferry'--`Autoattack' counterpart, so that bridging
 JM> over few sea squares would be possible (easy when only one unit
 JM> going thru, complex cases would require, eh, more complex
 JM> algorithm)?)

	... A separate report as well?

 JM> Yes, Freeciv is quite a complex program.  So it should come with a
 JM> strong, orthogonal design.  There should be no ``That's just how it
 JM> is...'' we know from the MS-DOS games world.  Instead, I'd like to
 JM> hear ``That's just The Wrong Thing, and Freeciv is a free software,
 JM> and it should be changed.''  But perhaps the *design* phase is
 JM> where the problem lays, and it would be just a different game we
 JM> would end up after such a fundamental rewrite.  And no, I *won't*
 JM> do it.

	Hope the above helps.