Default3+ Ruleset
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:32 pm
FreeCiv much like Civilization 2 faces a problem, the issue with defense bonuses – Civilisation 4 solves this by giving the Tank an enormous 40 Attack points – we don't, we gave the tank a 10 attack and 5 Defense. This results in a major issue relating to balance, the game is frankly skewed – towards defensive warfare. The end result of the game is messy and drawn out, rather than quick and glorious. City after city, of Musketeers and Pikeman being able to seriously damage Armor and losing Cannons against Pikeman on hills/mountains is simply unacceptable as a game mechanic.
I propose a perhaps inelegant but curious solution, essentially the land units in game are divided into three classes "Basic Land", "Gunpowder Land" and "Armored Land" - they indirectly relate to their hitpoints but are in fact technically arbitrary. These land classes are complemented by three new "City Walls", which now only work in large part against units from their own era. City Walls now only provide 3x defense against Basic Land units (10 hitpoints) and 1.5x defense against Gunpowder (20 hitpoints) and no defense bonus for modern armored units (30 hitpoints). Star Forts [Metallurgy] work in similar fashion except, they provide the 3x bonus against both Basic and Gunpowder and 1.5x against Armored. Finally "City Defenses" [Radio] (A vague term, yes needs a better name) provide 3x bonuses against all land units AND including Helicopter units.
In addition, artillery has been buffed in a subtle but significant way Catapults and Cannon now have the "CityBuster" Flag doubling their firepower (how much they hit enemy units by each successful round) by 2x making them twice as powerful when engaging enemy units while they are defending inside cities, to simulate the effect of Artillery on large targets such as cities. Modern Artillery and Howitzers do not receive this bonus as they already have 2 Firepower regardless of whether the enemy is in a city or not. Making Catapults a viable threat against Fortified locations, even in the early era - although Defense play too overpowered still.
In addition, the Eiffel Tower has been buffed now providing 1 free unit of upkeep per city (somewhat useful for democracies/republics) and while costing 300 Shields, still keeping it's almost useless "AI Love" effect.
To install simply extract the folder default3 into the data directory of your Freeciv folder, this was tested and developed for FreeCiv 2.4.0 Beta1 and should work with that.
To run the ruleset simply set your "rulesetdir" to default3, before the game by typing into the console "/rulesetdir default3" and once its been accepted you should be playing the ruleset.
Feedback would be appreciated.
[EDIT: There was an issue relating to the last minute discription of the ruleset and general helptext, hopefully this has been resolved, in addition i have provided a .serv file to make it easier to switch to the ruleset in GUI]
I propose a perhaps inelegant but curious solution, essentially the land units in game are divided into three classes "Basic Land", "Gunpowder Land" and "Armored Land" - they indirectly relate to their hitpoints but are in fact technically arbitrary. These land classes are complemented by three new "City Walls", which now only work in large part against units from their own era. City Walls now only provide 3x defense against Basic Land units (10 hitpoints) and 1.5x defense against Gunpowder (20 hitpoints) and no defense bonus for modern armored units (30 hitpoints). Star Forts [Metallurgy] work in similar fashion except, they provide the 3x bonus against both Basic and Gunpowder and 1.5x against Armored. Finally "City Defenses" [Radio] (A vague term, yes needs a better name) provide 3x bonuses against all land units AND including Helicopter units.
In addition, artillery has been buffed in a subtle but significant way Catapults and Cannon now have the "CityBuster" Flag doubling their firepower (how much they hit enemy units by each successful round) by 2x making them twice as powerful when engaging enemy units while they are defending inside cities, to simulate the effect of Artillery on large targets such as cities. Modern Artillery and Howitzers do not receive this bonus as they already have 2 Firepower regardless of whether the enemy is in a city or not. Making Catapults a viable threat against Fortified locations, even in the early era - although Defense play too overpowered still.
In addition, the Eiffel Tower has been buffed now providing 1 free unit of upkeep per city (somewhat useful for democracies/republics) and while costing 300 Shields, still keeping it's almost useless "AI Love" effect.
To install simply extract the folder default3 into the data directory of your Freeciv folder, this was tested and developed for FreeCiv 2.4.0 Beta1 and should work with that.
To run the ruleset simply set your "rulesetdir" to default3, before the game by typing into the console "/rulesetdir default3" and once its been accepted you should be playing the ruleset.
Feedback would be appreciated.
[EDIT: There was an issue relating to the last minute discription of the ruleset and general helptext, hopefully this has been resolved, in addition i have provided a .serv file to make it easier to switch to the ruleset in GUI]