LongTurn support in Freeciv-web

[AndreasR]

The first ever LongTurn-Web has started!

[Corbeau]

Possible bug.

A turn should last 82800 (23*3600) seconds. However, now the "Turn Done" button says there is 82600 seconds left, which means the turn started 200 seconds ago, which it didn't and could be misleading to people not paying attention.

edit: just confirmed. Reloaded and the counter started at 82800 seconds.

[AndreasR]

It's great that we got the game started. I have noted the timeout bug. We just need to list all the critical bugs so that we can fix them in the next release of Freeciv-web. I am away on easter holiday, so I will not be able to release any changes to the server until next monday.

[Corbeau]

No problem I will continue posting stuff and comments, there is no deadline

[AndreasR]

Turn 2 is now ready!

Yes, very good, admin-free self-service, is exactly what I had in mind. So Corbeau please continue helping me finding the important things to fix.

Well, I'd say that admin-free self-service won't be working here. OR, it depends on what we think by it. Basically, if there is only one ruleset available for a particular game, is it ok if we ask the admin just to install a particular ruleset before the game starts?

I would prefer if we could use one of the rulesets which are already included in Freeciv. Yes, I can install a particular ruleset, but would prefer if we could use one of the included rulesets, and instead configure the game using the existing server configuration commands. Which things in the ruleset would you like to change?

[Corbeau]

Well, one thing that is considered game-breaking is the overwhelming bonus of trade routes. Basically, with the default setting, you *must* do as many trade routes as possible if you wish to stay competitive.

Also, I just realised that the movement in test LTW that is currently running is standard Civ, x1. For Longturn x2 is the standard because otherwise the game really takes too long.

Probably some others that I can't think of at the moment. The existing LongTurn community established some standards that have proven to be good for this kind of games over the years, I'd use their experience as much as possible. Basically, people who have been playing quick Warcraft-style games probably didn't look into every detail, but if you plan and think carefully about every move, then details and shades become very important.
For example, tech stuff isn't really balanced in the default ruleset. I think a combination of ruleset changes and server options would make the game much better. I can elaborate on that separately if you wish.

Also, since there are not going to be many games running at the same time, and there is definitely going to be some discussion before starting, if the players agree to something, I'd say let them. If nobody has a problem with the original ruleset, then so be it, but if there is a major agreement on a change, why not implement it?

[AndreasR]

To sum up, these are the two ruleset changes you described, which are needed for LongTurn:
-Trade routes are too powerful. How is this fixed in previous longturn rulesets? This doesn't sound like a LongTurn-specific problem, but more of a general issue in Freeciv. I would prefer if we could get this fixed in Civ2Civ3 instead.
-LongTurn needs x2 movement points. This should be easy to fix. If the real issue here is that games are too long, this could also be solved by reducing the map size.

In general I would prefer to fix game-balance problems in Freeciv in the Freeciv project, while adding the minimum amount of changes required to Freeciv-web to make LongTurn possible there. Perhaps we should propose including a LongTurn ruleset in Freeciv?

A precise description of the required ruleset changes would be very useful.

[Corbeau]

Since this is the thread where we fix bugs, I will open another thread.

[Corbeau]

I don't know if it's like this in FreeCiv Web generally, but I can't see the details of a tile my active unit is standing on written anywhere, and that is something useful. Simply saying "forest (silk) (river)" would come very handy.

As for chat, put different colours for different kinds of lines? For example dark grey for system messages, light grey for players' chat lines? And is there a way to send a private message at all? That could be in the colour of the player, or just one colour, red or yellow, to avoid a mess... And still can't see who said what.

[AndreasR]

> I don't know if it's like this in FreeCiv Web generally, but I can't see the details of a tile my active unit is standing on written anywhere

You can click on a tile with the middle mouse button to get tile info.

> As for chat, put different colours for different kinds of lines? For example dark grey for system messages, light grey for players' chat lines?

This is a good suggestion.