06-10-2003 06:41									#1
	A Freeciv OCC debut Suffering from ads?

As mentioned in the Strategy thread, I tried out my first OCC game based on the strategy developed in Civ2 (the "Paulicy") and landed AC 1888 AD, very modest by Civ2 standards.

The Freeciv 1.14 server's defaults were used except for the following which were an attempt to try to get close to a Civ2 OCC setup:

set gold 0
set aifill 7
set xsize 100
set ysize 80
set landmass 40
set huts 150
set gamelog 30
set rivers 100
set grass 50
set specials 500
set barbarians 4
set generator 3

I tried to set all the AI civs to "hard" but found it cumbersome - so the default was "easy" which only affected the degree of coordination of attacks (as far as I could tell).

I'll post an abbreviated log later but some interesting points that on the whole make OCC in Freeciv a bit harder than in Civ2 will be mentioned.

Some of the negative factors are:

1. Three trade routes only can be set up per city with no capacity to use a 4th caravan to get more bonus gold and beakers.

2. No AI diplomacy - war on contact. So no gold or trades of techs. Makes the setting up of trade routes a hazardous task.

3. Unlike Civ2 the AI seems to explore well tipping huts efficiently therefore progressing and expanding fast in the early game with techs, gold and advanced tribes (cities).

4. There does not seem to be a constraint on the terrain type for "advanced tribes" as there is in Civ2. Such cities from huts can be seen on many single tundra tiles surrounded by polar and ocean tiles (in the final revealed map). I have had to reload a few of these "advanced tribe" hut outcomes - to comply with the conventional OCC rules. Hence the rapid expansion and colonisation by AI civs

5. The AI uses sea units well for exploration and expansion and attack - I lost my trireme with its caravan the turn after delivering a successful first caravan to the AI *frigate*.

6. Freeciv does not permit the use of the following allowable Civ2 exploits:

i) Buying a cheaper unit/improvement and then changing to dearer unit/improvement to save gold and time

ii) Structurals are different from Wonders ie one cannot use full shields from caravan/freight to add to building space Components and Modulesthrough an initial Wonder

iii) "Blackclicking" with right click of mouse on unexplored areas for clues of land masses. The right click only shifts the map

iv) Cleaning up pollution immediately with two Engineers. In Civ2 pollution can be cleaned up this way without loss of shields or food from the polluted tile. In Freeciv the pollution is cleared only in the following turn. However to compensate for this, any excess shields are carried over to the next turn. Therefore to preserve the ability to generate 80 shields for building the structurals in one turn, one needs to disband a unit. Even one horsemen is sufficient to preserve this limit for the 15 Structurals required with the probability of a tile being polluted given a pollution value of around 7 or so.

The carrying over of production shields and research beakers are the only pluses I can cite.

My debut game was flawed in several ways partly by being not familiar with the interface and by not too careful and detailed analysis of the requirements at critical times.

Testing needs to be done on the necessity for mass transit and recycling centre (both of which were unncessary in Civ2 because of the ease of cleaning up pollution immediately).

It seems Diplomats need to be used more often to steal techs in the early game. They already played an important part in my game through defence by bribing the attacking units although this was sometimes difficult when funds were low (often the case with rush-building, until the late middle-game). At one stage in desperation to save my vital Engineers from impending attack by the Zulu (my closest AI civ) Ironclad, I sold my Aqueduct hoping it will not affect the growth of my city with the Sewer System in place. Alas I had to rebuild it to grow again).

Last edited by tonic on 06-10-2003 at 06:58

	07-10-2003 00:24									#2
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I have a feeling a OCC in Freeciv will be harder then in Civ2. Although it might be more fair to wait until AI diplomacy is introduced your OCC victory in 1.14 now will be much sweeter for it.

Well done

	10-10-2003 12:39									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Thanks.

I did find the challenge of playing OCC in Freeciv refreshing - it added a new dimension to the conventional civ2 OCC where the strategy has already been so fully worked out although the new insights and discoveries summarised by solo has expanded the canon somewhat.

I would recommend it to anyone who has played civ2 OCC.

	11-10-2003 02:10									#4
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

The AI in the next release will be much harder. On the other hand, some clever diplomatic work can leave you in a very safe spot. Just make sure you can launch a fast spaceship and defend well when you do - the AIs will attack you immediately upon launch.

	11-10-2003 06:26									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

I await the new version with the proverbial bated breath.

Diplomacy is an important plus in OCC. Fine "OCCers" have been able to "tame" the rather aggressive AI in the MGE version of Civ2 to achieve remarkably early landings.