20-10-2003 06:01									#1
	Are there too many freeciv projects? Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

you know GGS, CDB, etc. Are there too many? Does it mean that they are always starting up and then dying? Is it more about starting the project than about accomplishing anything?

	21-10-2003 00:35									#2
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True, it would be nice if some of these efforts focused on FC . Today, I'm not really worried about the various civ projects wannabe's popping up out of the blue. A lot will fail, some will muddle on into obscurity, some will succeed. The important thing is that people keep trying and learn from them.


In practice I've seen 16 out 20 drop in the first 6 months. Basically the wave enthusiasm fizzles out. The next 2 will fail in the next year as the main developer(s) drop out, the team has no proper focus or simply lose interest in their own project. The remaining 2 'might', just 'might' have a chance to grow into something but it won't be easy. We should remember however that many commerical games/projects don't make it to that stage either.

Back to your question. Yes, there are too many civ projects out there. Natural social/group selection will see to it that succesful projects continue while the rest fizzles. the only regret is that we don't see some of effort (graphics, sounds, algorithms, routines) funneled back into more succesful projects.

More curious for me is that many projects want to start completely from scratch. Code, graphics...everything There's a well coded/solid/documented Freeciv source out there. Why don't more people use that as a stepping stone!?

Last edited by CapTVK on 21-10-2003 at 00:51

	21-10-2003 00:46									#3
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...snip...double post

	21-10-2003 02:43									#4
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quote: Originally posted by CapTVK More curious for me is that many projects want to start completely from scratch. Code, graphics...everything There's a well coded/solid/documented Freeciv source out there. Why don't more people use that as a stepping stone!?

Think of coding like a game of Freeciv Sometimes it's more fun to build up your whole civilisation from scratch, than to jump into a scenario where you just need to build up units and crush your enemy.

I should think a lot of people really just want to try some cool idea out rather than wanting to develop a new game based on Freeciv code, though it would be great to have people quickly make some games based on it!

	23-10-2003 19:18									#5
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I suspect that there are a lot of people who have a 'modified' version that could be considered to be a standalone derived from freeciv...

I myself added in a few lines to make fully amphibious units (capable of using both land and water flags, but only on the respective tile types...), and have been very pleased with the results; I did this because I play battlefield level games, using oceans as rivers... amphibs are units like the 'duck' from wwII.

But I've not submitted my changes because I think they are fairly sloppy, and because I'm waiting to see what is done to uniformize the flag rule system in the next release.