new features?

Various topics about the game, the website, or anything else Freeciv related that doesn't fit elsewhere.
ricorico94
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Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:40 am

new features?

Post by ricorico94 »

Hi,

Freeciv is great (congratulations!!!) but I've always missed the features of CCTP where you could in late game add sea cities, sea roads, etc. I think it was really adding a new dimension to game: not only race to new military tech in later game, but also new strategy as you can start building empires even if you have little land tiles.
Any hope it could be added sometime ?

br,
ricorico94
cazfi
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Re: new features?

Post by cazfi »

The supplied rulesets do not have these, but most of them is already possible to have by making custom ruleset (your own set of freeciv rules)

- Cities on oceanic terrains have been possible for a long time, most rulesets just mark those terrains as not being able to have cities. City-founding units can found cities only to their native terrains, so you need to have sea-moving unit to found cities on ocean
- General (customizable) road types are new feature in freeciv-2.5
- General tile extras in general are new feature in freeciv-2.6, though ruleset could enable standard mines, irrigation etc on oceanic terrain in older versions too
ricorico94
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:40 am

Re: new features?

Post by ricorico94 »

Hi,
I tried to modify the terrain ruleset in version 2.5 (experimental ruelset) by copying the maglev definition into a "tunnel" one that I'd like to be able to create on oceanic tiles. In this tunnel, I modified the the requirements by removing "Road", "Railroad", "Local" and "TerrainClass", "Land", "Local" : I was hoping that a standard engineer on a transport could create such "tunnel" when I press "R".
But it doesn't seem working, and in Editor mode, I can create such tunnel on land tile, but not on oceanic tile..
What am I missing ?

br,
Ricorico94
cazfi
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Re: new features?

Post by cazfi »

You probably have road building disabled for the terrain in question.

Code: Select all

; road_time            = time to build roads; if 0, cannot build any roads.
;                        Nonzero values only affect roads with build_time 0.
ricorico94
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:40 am

Re: new features?

Post by ricorico94 »

Hi,
Thanks a lot for your reply: it works now, and I can have a settler on a transport building a "tunnel" on ocean.
I noticed that my "ocean tunnel" is not connected to the adjacent town (town on land tile with maglev, and my "tunnel" built on ocean tile next to it): a unit spends one full mve to move between town and tunnel tiles. On user interface, they're not connected either. Is there a way to instruct freeciv to connect graphically and also avoid loss of movement point as if it was 2 maglev tiles (or between road and maglev, why not)?

br,
Ricorico94
cazfi
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Re: new features?

Post by cazfi »

Connection between two road types is a new feature in freeciv-2.6, not available in 2.5, sorry.

For the visual effect you may want to give it "ConnectLand" flag.
ricorico94
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:40 am

Re: new features?

Post by ricorico94 »

Hi,
ok, understood for the connection.

I face another (big) issue: now, I can't airport units from town to town (provided I have airports in both towns, etc.). When I click on "T" to transport the unit, the select box open and I see the list of towns, but all of them have a "-" instead of "1/1" and no transport is feasible.
Could it be a bug in freeciv ? or simply another mistake I made ?

The paragraph I added in terrain.ruleset is:

Code: Select all

[road_tunnel]
name           = _("Tunnel")
graphic        = "road.maglev"
graphic_alt    = "road.rail"
activity_gfx   = "unit.maglev"
act_gfx_alt    = "unit.road"
reqs           =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Tech", "Superconductors", "Player"
      "UnitFlag", "Settlers", "Local"
      "TerrainClass", "Oceanic", "Local"
    }
move_cost      = 0
build_time     = 3
food_incr      = 0
shield_incr    = 0
trade_incr     = 0
food_bonus     = 0
shield_bonus   = 0
trade_bonus    = 0
native_to      = "Land","Big Land"
flags          = "NativeTile", "RequiresBridge"
Meaning I only changed the reqs block and the native_to.
I also tried leaving or removing the "AutoOnCityCenter" flag, but same result.

Of course, I had modified the RoadTime value as instructed.

If I replace my modified terrain.rulesset by the original one and create a new game, then it works, otherwise, no way to airport units anymore.

Any idea of what I did wrong ?
br,
Ricorico94
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JTN
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Re: new features?

Post by JTN »

Reproduced. But I have no idea why adding a new road should have that effect.

Edit: I think I've got it. In S2_5, airlifting is restricted to units with move_type "Land". Units' "move_type" property is usually inferred from what terrains and roads they can be native to. I think addition of undersea tunnels changes the inferred move_type from "Land" to "Both" (land and sea). At which point, airlifting is refused.

I tried adding an explicit move_type = "Land" to the "Land" unit class in units.ruleset, but ruleset loading failed:

Code: Select all

1: "data/experimental/units.ruleset" unit_class "Land": cannot make road "Tunnel" native to unit of current move_type.
So I don't know what you can do about this. (But I've never really understood the move_type stuff.)
[Edit again:] I fear it may not be possible in 2.5 to have units that can both be airlifted and travel under sea tiles. 2.6 will lift the hardcoded restriction on airlifting (patch #3871).
ricorico94
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:40 am

Re: new features?

Post by ricorico94 »

Hi,

Thanks a lot for checking.
Would it make sense that I try creating my rulesets on new versions 2.6 or even 3.0 then ?
If yes, where can I find a windows version of such new versions ? In the wikia download page, I can only see versions up to 2.5.

br,
Ricorico94
sveinung
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Re: new features?

Post by sveinung »

ricorico94 wrote:Would it make sense that I try creating my rulesets on new versions 2.6 or even 3.0 then ?
It is highly probable that the 3.0 ruleset format still will see major changes. Keeping track of what changed from day to day and porting your own ruleset could be a lot of work. The 2.6 ruleset format is calmer. It isn't frozen yet. Anything could still change. Its changes will probably be fewer and less drastic. Keeping track of the changes and porting your rule set to them should be less work for 2.6 than for 3.0.

In your case you would have to keep track of what changed in the new Windows build since the previous Windows build. I can explain how you can do that if you want me to.
ricorico94 wrote:If yes, where can I find a windows version of such new versions ?
Here.
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