[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] AI does not build/buy defenders as enemy approaches

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #21, bug #22567 (project freeciv):

Civ4 had Jaguar units as the Aztec special unit.  It was a warrior that moved
2 spaces instead of 1.  Solving the problem by making specific units might be
a better approach as far as getting an AI to understand it.  Allowing all
units to move faster seems rather overpowered.  There's some precedent in
SMAC, where if you achieved Elite experience you got bonus movement.  Typical
Spartan strategy was to massively train units so that they would be Elite. 
Such units are extremely powerful.  I don't think having an option to just
"flip a switch" to get that kind of benefit is a good game design at all. 
There should be some kind of significant cost or delay to get that kind of
capability.  Otherwise what you'll have is a goofy game where the Tribal
faction always wins.

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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] early cities undefended in civ2civ3

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #18, bug #22567 (project freeciv):

If diagnosis and a fix aren't imminent, would changing the title to "most
cities undefended" be helpful?  The behavior is not civ2civ3 specific, and
most cities are walk-ins for so long that it's not accurate to say they're
"early" cities.  I don't seem to be able to change the title of the bug
myself.

A previous recent release of Freeciv, I forget which one, had the opposite
behavior.  The AI turtled up with defensive units and city walls almost
immediately, creating what I called "bitter pills".  It became completely
unprofitable to try to jump other civs early.  This made the game slower and
more tedious, digging all these bitter pills out.  Could it be that someone
"fixed" this turtling behavior, sending the AI priorities too far in the
opposite direction?




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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] early cities undefended in civ2civ3

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #13, bug #22567 (project freeciv):

I saw that he had committed something to trunk.  Where do patches get
submitted for testing?


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] early cities undefended in civ2civ3

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #12, bug #22567 (project freeciv):

No city defense for default ruleset in SVN rev 26253.  After eating 1.5 enemy
civs without challenge, I gave up.  Only thing slowing me down was not
starting on the same continent with all of them.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] early cities undefended in civ2civ3

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #10, bug #22567 (project freeciv):

No change for civ2civ3 in SVN rev 26253.  Victory in 57 turns.  Will test the
default ruleset.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #22567] early cities undefended in civ2civ3

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: early cities undefended in civ2civ3
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Thu 04 Sep 2014 03:44:18 AM UTC
Category: ai
Severity: 4 - Important
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.5.99 svn rev 26211
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: GNU/Linux
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

The AI is extremely slow to make any kind of defense of its cities in the
civ2civ3 ruleset, at Normal or Experimental difficulty.  It is trivial to win
the game simply by building Archers and marching them everywhere, no roads or
other facilities needed.  Most cities are walk-ins.  Some cities build a unit
that the Archer kills easily enough.  Some AI players will finally build
proper defenses if they survive the human player's early Archer blitz, but
most of the civs will be dead by then.  Any remaining civ will typically only
have 1 city left.  Civ2civ3 tends to generate supercontinents by default, so
all enemy AI civs are easily reached and killed just by marching 1 square at a
time.

Pretty much this reduces the game to Pac-Man.  Somewhat enjoyable to figure
out how little one needs to do to kill everybody, but not really a civ game as
we tend to understand them.





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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19134] enforce real oceans

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #19134 (project freeciv):

Still true in 2.4.2.  Related is I can't get Earth-like continental masses out
of the generators.  They produce archipelagos.  The random ones have a rounder
island shape, the fractal one generates more crinkly shapes.  But lotsa
islands, nonetheless.  Only if the map is large do they become "continents",
and really it's nothing like Earth with 6 continents + Antarctica.  Like
fighting amongst a world full of Australias.

This may not seem important to people focused on multiplayer, who just want to
kill their buddies quickly.  But for a single player experiencing / guiding
the growth of a civilization, it's darned annoying to have oceans and
continental interiors rendered meaningless.



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #20171] no specials on map after retrying mapseed

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: no specials on map after retrying mapseed
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Sat 15 Sep 2012 10:27:48 PM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.4.0-beta1
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: GNU/Linux
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

I've been playing on fractal generated maps with very little land, trying to
get the effect of big impassable oceans.  Sometimes the server cannot allocate
starting positions.  This time I got the following:

"The server couldn't allocate starting positions.
Failed to create suitable map, retrying with another mapseed"

Walking around the map, it was quite odd that there were no whales, fish,
coal, wine, etc.  I think the retry is skipping the resource special placement
for some reason, or else wiping that information out.




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File Attachments:


---
Date: Sat 15 Sep 2012 10:27:48 PM GMT  Name: nospecials.sav.bz2  Size: 20kB  
By: bvanevery



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19134] enforce real oceans

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #6, bug #19134 (project freeciv):

The oceans are still too shallow in 2.3.2.  With default map settings, a
trireme will get you anywhere on the globe.  That seriously diminishes the
value of researching Navigation.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #20087] chariot gets free attack moving out of city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: chariot gets free attack moving out of city
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Tue 21 Aug 2012 04:46:40 AM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.2
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: GNU/Linux
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

An AI chariot moves out of a city onto a forest square that lacks a road. 
Doing so, it gets a free attack on one of my nearby units.  It shouldn't have
any movement remaining when it moves onto the forest.  Load the saved game,
hit End Turn.  My unit gets attacked.




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File Attachments:


---
Date: Tue 21 Aug 2012 04:46:40 AM GMT  Name:
freeciv-T0093-Y-0175-manual.sav.bz2  Size: 43kB   By: bvanevery



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19829] no sound

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #19829 (project freeciv):

Um NOW it gives me sound, making me feel stupid for filing this.  But I swear
that client options didn't fix anything, so maybe there is a bug here.  Will
research further.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19829] no sound

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: no sound
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Tue 19 Jun 2012 02:21:00 AM GMT
Category: client-gtk-2.0
Severity: 4 - Important
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.2
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: GNU/Linux
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

I recently set up Lubuntu 12.04 on my laptop and grabbed Freeciv
2.3.2-1~getdeb1 packages from getdeb.net.  freeciv-sound-standard is installed
where it should be.  Changing client sound options doesn't make any sound. 
Nor does adding -P -S command line options.  I can hear sounds from other apps
just fine.  It's as though the GTK client on Linux hasn't implemented sound. 
This is bizarre as the GTK client on Windows Vista does have sound just fine. 
Important 'cuz you really wanna play your game like it's 2001: A Space
Odyssey?





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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #14775] The server appears to have gotten into an infinite loop in the allocation of starting positions.

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #8, bug #14775 (project freeciv):

This is particularly exacerbated when selecting mapsize="Tiles per player"
(PLAYER).  For instance when selecting aifill=20, tilesperplayer=100,
startpos="Depending on size of continents" (VARIABLE),
generator="Pseudo-fractal height" (FRACTAL), and landmass=15 (to try to make
real oceans), I'm not sure I've ever allocated player starting positions
successfully.  I've failed the last 20+ times in a row at any rate.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19134] enforce real oceans

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #5, bug #19134 (project freeciv):

Before worrying about making everyone "happy," we should be clear on what
people complained about, and ask whether those complaints were / are still
valid.

1) I remember the "no shallow water" problem.  It made the game somewhat
tactically interesting, as I had to overcome that terrain barrier, but it
seemed rather unrealistic, irrational, and arbitrary.  Why shouldn't I be able
to sail around the coast, unless there's a climate barrier like frozen ice,
monsoons, or some such?

2) Having gulfs within a certain sized enclosure of land is reasonable.  The
Mediterranean was much calmer than the Atlantic.  It made the Roman Empire
great.  It was inevitable that *some* power would have arisen in the Med and
consolidated it.

3) What's the big deal about blocking someone else's trireme on a narrow
coast?  That's cool.  That's called tactics.  In other games I've built a lot
of ships to be able to do that.  I like being able to do it with 1 ship.  It
also occurs reasonably often in the current mapgen, especially around smaller
islands.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19134] enforce real oceans

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #19134 (project freeciv):

I looked at the sources.  I must confess I don't understand how ocean_depth
is used by the generator.  Can you summarize?


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #19134] enforce real oceans

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: enforce real oceans
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Wed 07 Dec 2011 06:00:56 PM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 1 - Wish
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.1
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Any
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

Too often, any tile on the map can be reached with a trireme.  There's little
incentive to pursue the Navigation etc. techs in the early to mid game when a
trireme will do all exploration jobs just fine.  All civs come into contact
with each other early and all trade techs.  There is no development in
isolation, there is no New World full of weak hapless natives to conquer.

I've set the percent of land to 15%, the lowest it will go.  On maps of
modest size with ~6 players, this still doesn't generate true oceans. 
Triremes can go everywhere.  True oceans only happen when the map size is made
much larger.  This bogs down the game, both for the AI that has to think about
all the extra tiles, and the human who has to push units across them.

I suggest: have a postprocess that destroys portions of continents and
coastal waterways.  The biggest bodies of water could "push" from their
centers of mass.  This would isolate continents.  Alternately if that's too
complex to implement, coastal squares could simply be destroyed randomly,
along with land nearby, expanding the oceans randomly.  A test for trireme
access would be implemented; when a trireme can't get to a large percentage of
coastal squares, the job is done.  Whether to do this postprocess or not,
would be an ON / OFF option.




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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17990] can see inside of lost city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #17990 (project freeciv):

The bug is present in 2.3.0-beta4.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17969] AI does not keep cities garrisoned

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #17969 (project freeciv):

In 2.3.0-beta4 the garrisoning is better, but sometimes when an AI is under
heavy assault (my Frigates vs. his Phalanxes), the AI inexplicably abandons
cities and allows for a complete walk-in.  This doesn't typically save the
lives of the units either, as they often move to exposed ground, don't really
prevent the taking of other cities, and also the capture of a city usually
causes some supported units to die.  Basically the AI suddenly gives away some
cities, even though staying in place and doing nothing would be a better
defense.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #18043] Initial units do not die when all the cities are captured

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #18043 (project freeciv):

This is not a bug and should be closed.  A player or AI is not dead until all
support-free units are dead.  As long as the player is alive, the player can
influence politics.  A human player may give another human player a city, so
that they can get back into the game a little bit.  An AI may meet another AI,
ally with it, and get that AI to hate you.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #18054] some way to delete saved files is needed

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #18054 (project freeciv):

What version of Freeciv are you playing?  Both the client and the server.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17970] queued attack executes before next player's turn begins

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #8, bug #17970 (project freeciv):

I now have beta4 on Windows.  I have seen an AI Worker run away before I
could launch a queued attack.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17970] queued attack executes before next player's turn begins

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #17970 (project freeciv):

Having an "end turn phase" and a "begin turn phase" makes sense to me, but
the shuffling bug still needs to be addressed.  The comments regarding
http://gna.org/bugs/?16387 claim that player order is shuffled.  On my Windows
Vista system, with only myself and 4 AI players, using the default
"phasemode=ALL", almost all "between turn" actions are not shuffled and I get
to make my move first.

The only exception seems to be if the AI buys a unit to garrison an empty
city.  When I land next to an empty city and set my "goto" to take it next
turn, sometimes a unit will appear and prevent the walk-in.  Maybe I'll kill
the unit by attacking it, maybe I'll die against a city wall.  I am
speculating that this is because the AI bought the unit, as I haven't actually
traced the code to know for sure.  However it seems consistent with my tactic
of running the AIs out of gold so that they can't instantly buy garrison
units.

When I attack an empty city, AI units next to the empty city *never* move
back into the city before I've attacked.  Possibly the AI is completely stupid
and just doesn't realize it can make that move.  On the other hand, *I* pull
that trick all the time.  I can stand just outside my own empty city, with an
enemy AI unit threatening it, set the "goto," and move back in before the AI
gets to attack.  This proves to me that I always move first in this situation,
that it is never shuffled.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17990] can see inside of lost city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #17990 (project freeciv):

Eventually the city of Carnot did not let me view it anymore.  I don't know
when it changed.  See the 2nd attached saved game.


(file #12781)
___

Additional Item Attachment:

File name: seecapturedvillage2.sav.gz Size:59 KB


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17990] can see inside of lost city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: can see inside of lost city
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Sun 03 Apr 2011 02:10:12 PM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

I lost a city to someone, I don't know how as I wasn't paying attention.  I
can still see in it!  My nation flag is still displayed over the city, but the
city has gone dark.  I can pull up the city dialog box but I can't change
anything in it.  I think it has something to do with being captured while
improvements are in the queue, as I saw this happen in another game as well. 
In the attached saved game the city is "Carnot" and it's on the west side of
the large long southern continent.




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File Attachments:


---
Date: Sun 03 Apr 2011 02:10:12 PM GMT  Name: seecapturedvillage.sav.gz  Size:
55kB   By: bvanevery



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17986] allied victory may not happen

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: allied victory may not happen
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Sun 03 Apr 2011 03:21:20 AM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

I played a 5 player game with default settings.  "alliedvictory" is enabled
by default, and I verified that it was set by typing /help alliedvictory. 
Let's say I'm the 1st civilization.  I destroyed a 2nd civ using legions from
hut popping.  I nearly destroyed a 3rd civ in the same way, but the 4th civ
destroyed the last unit of the 3rd civ.  I made peace with the 4th civ and
later allied with it.  Upon contacting the 5th civ, I had a couple of cease
fires eventually leading to peace.  Eventually I made an alliance with the 5th
civ as well.  At this point, 2 civs are dead, and I've allied with the 2 civs
that remain.  It should be a victory; however, the game continues
indefinitely.

I bet it has something to do with the remaining civs having "Never Met" the
dead civs.  Alternately, it could be because I didn't personally kill the 2nd
civ.  I notice from reading the bug tracker that check_for_game_over() was
modified as recently as November 2010.





___

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---
Date: Sun 03 Apr 2011 03:21:20 AM GMT  Name: noalliedvictory.sav.gz  Size:
53kB   By: bvanevery



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17970] queued attack executes before next player's turn begins

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #4, bug #17970 (project freeciv):

I will try PLAYER for single player, but I have my doubts that it'll have any
effect.

The default is "ALL - all players move concurrently."  However, the human
player *always* moves before the AI with a queued attack.  That's not current;
that's a bug.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17970] queued attack executes before next player's turn begins

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #17970 (project freeciv):

Those settings don't help a single player game at all.  Very easy to trounce
the AI when this exploit is known.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17970] queued attack executes before next player's turn begins

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: queued attack executes before next player's turn
begins
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Wed 30 Mar 2011 08:56:20 PM GMT
Category: general
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

If the moves for my unit are exhausted, but I select "goto" to attack another
enemy unit or city, my attack will execute before the enemy unit has a chance
to move out of the way, attack, or buy a unit to garrison the city.  Thus I
can land a legion or a catapult next to a city, set it to "goto" the city, and
get a free attack with major offensive advantages.  It's like having a "poor
man's marines."

Also in skirmishes in open country, with a unit having only 1 move, I
effectively attack 2 tiles away.  On my turn I move the 1 tile necessary to
close the gap and select "goto" the enemy's location.  Then my attack executes
before the enemy unit can move.  Every legion is effectively a knight.

The same technique can be used to keep Explorers out of harm's way.  If I pop
a hut containing barbarians, or unwittingly end my turn next to a hostile
unit, I can select "goto" a safe location, such as an unthreatened tile or an
offshore trireme.  The Explorer will race to safety before anything can attack
it.





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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17969] AI does not keep cities garrisoned

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: AI does not keep cities garrisoned
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Wed 30 Mar 2011 08:43:34 PM GMT
Category: ai
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

When a player shows up near an empty city with a unit that can take the city,
the AI will buy a garrison unit if it has gold, thereby preventing the player
from taking the city.  This is a good strategy... except that if the player
backs away and waits a few turns, the AI inevitably sends that garrison unit
on a scouting expedition.  The player can easily exploit this by threatening a
bunch of cities with possible captures, backing off for a few turns, then
returning when the AI has sent its garrison units wandering off.  Capturing
many AI cities is trivial, even with untrained warriors if one has the timing
right.  The AI runs out of money and cannot garrison cities at the last minute
indefinitely.

A very easy way to put most of the AIs at a disadvantage, is to send out
triremes with a few units at the beginning of the game, sail around an enemy
to "stress" it into spending all its gold, eventually drop a unit on
defensible terrain (i.e. a mountain) next to an empty city, walk in and take
it, then produce untrained warriors to do the same thing to other enemy
cities.

The AI should garrison cities more like a human being does.  At a minimum, it
should not reassign garrison units to "scouting duties."





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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #16349] Unrealistic and boring nuclear combat

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #16349 (project freeciv):

I like this idea.  I don't know if the patch was taken.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #16548] German ruler suggestion inappropriate

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #4, bug #16548 (project freeciv):

Personally I'm offended by people who try to erase history as though it
didn't happen.  Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ghengis Khan, the Aztecs, etc.
should be remembered for how evil and bloodthirsty they were.  If playing
Freeciv causes someone to look up a Wikipedia entry on Adolph Hitler, or to
read Mein Kampf in the original, or to watch WW II documentaries on The
History Channel, then Freeciv is actually doing the world a public service.

The content choice of Freeciv is not a bug.  This entry should be closed.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #16909] Wish : Attack own units.

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #16909 (project freeciv):

Units can be disbanded by selecting "disband" from the Unit menu, or by
typing SHIFT+D.  Inside the city pullup screen, when the player clicks on a
unit, a menu appears and the "disband" option is clearly visible.  Disbanding
units is not documented, and the "Units" section of the Help should mention
it, but the ability to disband is readily available in the UI.  Anyone who
really wants to get rid of units should be able to figure this out,
documentation notwithstanding.

Units should not be able to "practice fighting" on each other, because that
would award them combat experience and make the units more powerful.  In terms
of game mechanics it would be imbalanced, and it's also not realistic.  Combat
improvement should come from fighting actual wars, not doing training
exercises.  A minimum level of combat improvement via training is already
provided via the Barracks city improvement.

This Wish should be closed.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17949] Celebration under Despotism doesn't work

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #4, bug #17949 (project freeciv):

My apologies, I'm an idiot and can't even read what I quote.  Missed that
"with three or more citizens clause.  I would recommend that that text change
"three" to "3" so that the needed quantity is easier to spot.  If that number
can be read from the rulesets, that would be good too.

I still think distinguishing celebration from rapture would be worthwhile.  I
think this is the way the code actually behaved awhile ago.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17949] Celebration under Despotism doesn't work

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #3, bug #17949 (project freeciv):

The minimum size is not mentioned in the Help and is not part of the
definition of celebration.

"Cities with three or more citizens celebrate when at least half their
citizens are happy and none remain unhappy. The effects of celebration vary
depending on your government type; in the default ruleset:

 - Under Anarchy or Despotism, you will not suffer the normal production
penalty for tiles which produce more than 2 points of any resource (food,
production, or trade)."

I had always thought that the minimum size was for *rapture*, not
celebration.  I'm reasonably certain I've applied celebration to cities of
size 1 or 2 in the past, and have gotten the Despotism penalties removed that
way.  Typically this is accomplished by founding the capital in a high
production location, researching Pottery as the 1st tech and building the
Hanging Gardens in the capital to take advantage of the 75% production bonus
of the capital under Despotism.

Perhaps the rule is misnamed in the ruleset, but the code used to check the
rule "before rapture." Now it's checking "before celebration."  I think the
rule should be named rapture_size_limit and should be handled accordingly.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17949] Celebration under Despotism doesn't work

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: Celebration under Despotism doesn't work
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Sat 26 Mar 2011 05:55:04 AM GMT
Category: rulesets
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

At the beginning of the game under Despotism, I researched Pottery, then
built the Hanging Gardens in my size 1 capital to get the citizens to
celebrate.  Celebration is supposed to remove the Despotism tile penalties, so
that I can get 3 food on irrigated grassland tiles for instance.  I still only
got 2 food.





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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #12, bug #17740 (project freeciv):

A size 36 city needs food, a supermarket, farmland, and celebration under a
democracy.

I had another instance this evening of my capital losing pop because of
plague, then next turn some idiots migrate to the capitol because they think
it's better.  The city disbands.  Then next turn those idiots die of plague in
my capitol.  Frequent plagues should be a deterrent to migration.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #17740 (project freeciv):

I think if the city is building a Settler, it should diminish the desire to
migrate.  After all, settlement *is* migration.  It doesn't have to completely
stop migration, as a city could take too long to produce a settler, or a
player could be building a settler disingenuously to prevent migration.

The AI can't handle the plagues.  When I play on "Experimental" AI
difficulty, it's trivial to get ahead because the AI has no strategy for
dealing with the plagues.  Trying my 1st serious game under these new rules,
it took me until Turn 200 to get to Miniaturization, at which point my nearest
competitor only had Industrialization.  Other civs were barely beyond
Gunpowder.  Probably the AI believes that smallpox is good, whereas under
plague rules, it's clearly a bad strategy.  Aqueducts are expensive, and
they're the only way to deal with plague.  A civ that builds lots of aqueducts
in every city goes bankrupt.  The AI doesn't really know how to build a few
good "big pox" cities.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #5, bug #17740 (project freeciv):

And why shouldn't the whole city working area being considered?  That is a
huge part of what's valuable about a city's location.  I don't put cities on
oceanfront property just to be cute, I put them there because there are fish
and whales.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #3, bug #17740 (project freeciv):

I do not see why mgr_foodneeded would change plague behavior.  The option
would need to be more like mgr_healthneeded.

I could see a city disbanding if it has no resources of interest and no
buildings.  It does not make sense if the city has valuable resources within
its radius that a major city cannot use.  Who is going to bring those
resources to market?  Who is going to defend the frontier?  If I were a
monarch and I built a city wall and barracks somewhere, and people deserted, I
would have them summarily executed upon their arrival to a major city.  Under
a Republic or a Democracy I wouldn't expect to have that kind of control.  In
a Communism you jolly well go to where the State tells you.  If they tell you
not to leave the country, you don't, at peril to your life.

I suggest weighting resource specials so that cities tend to keep a
population that works them.

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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #1, bug #17740 (project freeciv):

And it's doubly annoying when a few turns later, those migrating citizens die
of plague in an overpopulated city.  What exactly were they migrating for? 
Better opportunities for finger rot?


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17740] migration disbands city

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: migration disbands city
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Tue 15 Feb 2011 05:46:11 AM GMT
Category: rulesets
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

I'm playing beta3 with the experimental ruleset.  I have a size 2 city that's
building a settler.  I have not activated the "disband if build settler at
size 1" option.  When the settler is built, the city drops to size 1.  Then
people migrate to my nearby capital, disbanding the city.  I don't think this
behavior should be allowed.  Outpost cities extend the boundary of the empire,
allow observation of trespassers, use resources that are not currently
available to a larger nearby city, may have a coastal outlet where a larger
nearby city has none, may produce a stream of settlers at a usefully
productive rate, and may have a barracks or a city wall.  Just disbanding my
cities willy nilly is really irritating.  I think it is reasonable for
migration to reduce a city's population to 1, but no more.



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File Attachments:


---
Date: Tue 15 Feb 2011 05:46:11 AM GMT  Name: losesetter.sav.gz  Size: 38kB  
By: bvanevery



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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17732] GTK client displays slanted map

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Follow-up Comment #3, bug #17732 (project freeciv):

The defaults on Windows 2.3.0-beta3 are Isometric, not Hexagonal, and
Amplio2.  The diagonal square outline appears, as well as the NW to SE
orientation.  The defaults on Windows 2.2.4 are a numerical Map Topology Index
of "5" and a plain Amplio tileset.  The square and polar orientation are
screen aligned, as they should be.  Beta3 is incorrect compared to the stable
release.  Either the tileset could be blamed, or the new option selection
mechanism, I don't know which.


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[Freeciv-Dev] [bug #17732] GTK client displays slanted map

[Brandon J. Van Every]

URL:
  

 Summary: GTK client displays slanted map
 Project: Freeciv
Submitted by: bvanevery
Submitted on: Mon 14 Feb 2011 01:32:25 AM GMT
Category: None
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
  Status: None
 Assigned to: None
Originator Email: 
 Open/Closed: Open
 Release: 2.3.0-beta3
 Discussion Lock: Any
Operating System: Microsoft Windows
 Planned Release: 

___

Details:

The GTK client displays the map on a slant from NW to SE, and the minimap
window shows a diagonal square outline of the visible terrain.  The previous
default behavior was to display the poles at the top and the bottom of the
map, with the minimap window showing a screen aligned square outline of the
visible terrain.  In previous versions of Freeciv I remember server option
numbers to control the topology.  The numerical system is now gone, with only
a selection of "Wrap East-West" and "isometric" remaining.  I think the
Windows GTK client has not been changed to match the server changes.





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[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40663) island generator fails for size 2

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40663 >

In Freeciv 2.1.8 on Vista in single player mode, the island generator
does not work with a map size of 2.  It simply switches to the fractal
generator without warning.
1) start the civclient.exe
2) select Start New Game
3) type "/set generator 3".  (the island generator)
4) type "/set size 2"
5) select Start
6) type "/show generator".  It will read:
  "/show: generator   2 (1,3)  Method used to generate map"
  Visual inspection will also show that the island generator hasn't been used.



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40637) [Patch] Buoy

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40637 >

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 2:15 PM, Marko Lindqvist  wrote:
>
> http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40637 >
>
> 2009/1/7 Brandon J. Van Every:
>> I mean, come on, what's a real sonar buoy for...
>
>  Got better name for this thing?

You could call it "radar station," and turn blind eye to fact that
it's sitting in the water.  Anybody asks it's "naval" radar station.
;-)  I mean come on, if sonar doesn't work to detect things
underwater, then it is totally stupid.  Sonar is for water.  If you do
radar stations, put them on land also.

>  Gameplay wise I don't like the idea of basically removing submarines
> special power of being hard to detect.

It doesn't remove it, it makes it subject to defense spending.  Same
as Coastal Defense for naval bombardment.  Reality in WW II is Germans
had "happy time" in the Atlantic until sonar got much better.  Then
they suffered 85% casualties.  In modern day, USA waters (and maybe
international?) are thick with sonar listening stations.  Very
important for detecting subs that carry nukes.  Wouldn't want Russian
sub sailing up the Chesapeake Bay and unloading on D.C. would we.

Not sure if "stealth sub" is realistic idea or not.  "Stealth ship"
does exist in real life, and also appeared in a James Bond movie.

>  Lesser problem is that at this point it's impossible to define base
> that detects submarines. Changing that would be quite easy.

Call To Power II had both radar and sonar.  I don't remember it
ruining anything.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40637) [Patch] Buoy

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40637 >

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Marko Lindqvist  wrote:
>
> - It doesn't detect submarines as it only sees vision layer V_MAIN

What a crappy buoy then!  I mean, come on, what's a real sonar buoy for...


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#16811) Issue tracking system for Freeciv

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=16811 >

I think this should be in the ticket, so I'm sending it to RT.

On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Kevin Benton  wrote:
> Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
>>
>> I don't see any big deal
>> with RT because it's not my first instinct to look for someone else's
>> bug to work on.  My first instincts are to:
>>
>
> Okay - I'm glad you don't care.  I do care, however, because I think RT is a
> piece of garbage when it comes to tracking software development projects.  I
> also hate the way it's currently configured to prevent others from being
> able to view bugs and look for duplicates.  It's discouraging to those of us
> who actively want to participate in other parts of development like QA,
> Reviews, etc.  It's also discouraging for those of us on the "outside"
> looking in trying to get a sense of where things are in the development
> process because things are pretty hidden unless you actively try to look at
> bugs that wouldn't show up in "normal" searches.

My experience in open source is you have to communicate with other
developers somehow.  I've been heavily involved in a couple of smaller
projects.  They communicated by active mailing lists, and that worked
fine.  I've perused the Mozilla bug tracker.  Culturally, they use it
for communication instead of mailing lists.  They're a huge project so
perhaps they are justified in using bug trackers and newsgroups to
communicate.  It is quite amusing, however, to see vast threads of bug
tracker discussion that never go anywhere.  Especially when the
discussion goes for years, with big lulls between.  It's like the
collective gestalt of such a system is extremely limited.  The bug
tracker is only as good as the people and the work they actually do.

>> 2) evaluate the readability of the source code.  So far, I find it
>> readable.
>
> Again - great, but why not let the issue tracking system help in the review
> process to make sure it's better still?

Because I don't personally need or benefit from that much process.  I
think "swimming through muck" is a core skill in open source
development.  If a person can't do it, then they just don't get
anywhere, and probably find something else to go do.  Also, all the
small projects I've seen, that have actually survived for a few years,
have had decently readable code.  The ones that don't just die,
because nobody can figure out how to contribute.  Freeciv is long past
that stage.

>> 4) evaluate the political tone and management of the project.  What do
>> people really spend their time on?  What do they stew and get to
>> loggerheads about?  What do they fail to get done?  What do they
>> actively obstruct?
>
> Again - what does this have to do with the issue tracking system?

Because it's a mistake to advance a technology to solve a cultural problem.

> If all
> you want to do is write code, great and bring it on.  The problem I see is
> at some point, it needs to be scrutinized by others, integration tested, and
> issues need to be tracked and easy to look at for those who want to write
> code themselves.  This is where a good issue tracking system comes in.

Can you point to any open source project that's about the size of
Freeciv, that actually has a lot of programmers doing QA testbeds
instead of core development of new features?  Most people find this
quite boring, and I say that as a build engineer who has tried to goad
people into more QA.  My experience is that on small projects, it
doesn't happen.  So there is a danger of overengineering a bug
tracker, like expecting Mozilla-size development, when in fact it will
never happen.

> As I said earlier in this ticket, I'm willing to provide the elbow grease
> necessary, however, I am not willing to host it personally because I can't
> guarantee that I won't get hit by a bus and therefore, I am not able to
> guarantee it to be up.

Ok how about providing the elbow grease to solve that problem?  I
Googled for a few minutes and found there are definitely open source
services that provide bug trackers.  Show us one that's gonna stay
alive independent of you.

> I don't take lightly the commitment I'd be making if I choose to become a
> contributor to the Freeciv (or any other) project.  I choose carefully
> because I have a life and I need to make sure I don't give up too much of
> what's really important to me.  Freeciv is a way for me to relax.  I would
> like to contribute to it in certain areas like the CMA because I really
> think it could be improved a lot.  [...and several other game design ideas.]

Most volunteer developers care mainly about relaxing.  At least t

Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#16811) Issue tracking system for Freeciv

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=16811 >

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 4:44 AM, Kevin Benton  wrote:
>
> My experience is that open source projects benefit from transparency
> with users and developers.  When it's easy for a wanna-be developer to
> look through issue lists, they can often pick something that'll be easy
> for them to "get their feet wet" in contributing.

Hi, I'm a developer, but not a wannabe.  That is to say, I'm an expert
coder and have used more than one bug tracker in more than one open
source project over the years.  I'm possibly interested in modifying
the Freeciv sources, I'm still evaluating that.  Your choice of bug
tracker has nothing whatsoever to do with my evaluation.  I think
perhaps you're assuming a particular target audience, a newbie or
intermediate level coder who doesn't quite know what they want to do,
that you as more senior developers want to structure and direct
somehow.  There are other kinds of potential project contributors out
there and perhaps considering their motivations and tastes would be of
greater benefit to your ongoing efforts.  I don't see any big deal
with RT because it's not my first instinct to look for someone else's
bug to work on.  My first instincts are to:

1) get the source code built.  If I can't build it, good chance the
project isn't mature and I move on.  I've been able to build Freeciv,
although on Windows it's less pleasurable than it could be.

2) evaluate the readability of the source code.  So far, I find it readable.

3) evaluate the modifiability of the source code.  So far, I'm not
sure the AI code conceptualizes anything the way I would.  My instinct
is to throw chunks of it out.  Either start from scratch, or determine
if a plugin architecture is reasonable.  But, I haven't finished
looking at it, so I will patiently evaluate what is reasonable to do.

4) evaluate the political tone and management of the project.  What do
people really spend their time on?  What do they stew and get to
loggerheads about?  What do they fail to get done?  What do they
actively obstruct?

To the last point: I went back and read the full history of this
ticket.  This has been all talk and no action for 2 years.  In an open
source community, if someone steps forward and provides the elbow
grease to get something done, just go for it.  Maybe RT vs. Bugzilla
isn't super valuable in the scheme of things, as you don't have that
many tickets, or developers willing to work on tickets.  Gosh, have
you ever looked through Mozilla's tickets and seen all the stuff
that's been sitting around for years and years, that again was all
talk and no action?  It's documentation and process for it's own sake,
it has no end result.  BUT, if you've got a gung ho volunteer who
actually will steward a new bug tracker, it's worth something just to
add that guy's ongoing manpower to the project.  I imagine Bugzilla
*is* better than RT in some fashion, that some kind of gain can be
made from changing, even if it is only a long term incremental gain.
The more important consideration is you get this guy working on the
project, stewarding something he considers Good.  That's how you build
project loyalty.

Resources, schmesources.  Don't any of you guys have a back pocket?
For cheapskates, I Googled a little.  What about these guys?
http://teamforge.net/


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every



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[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40611) default.serv sets startunits to cccwwx

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40611 >

default.serv has a hack in it which sets startunits to "cccwwx".  This
does not match the server's hardwired default value when starting a
game of Freeciv from scratch.  The hack is supposed to change the
startunits back to "correct values," but at this moment in Freeciv
development history, it's an incorrect value.

Reproducer:
1) using any GTK client, select "Start New Game"
2) /show startunits.  The value will be "ccwwx"
3) using the gui, select Ruleset Version "civ1".  startunits will be changed.
4) using the gui, select Ruleset Version "default".  startunits will
be changed again.
5) /show startunits.  It now has value "cccwwx", one extra settler.

Solution: change line in default.serv to ccwwx



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 5:42 PM, Madeline Book  wrote:
>
> What I suspect is that when the string is placed into the
> entry box, gtk tries to convert it to an encoding other
> than utf-8, or chops off the last character resulting
> in the invalid utf-8.
>
> This could be proven if you turn off the "prompt for city
> name" option and build a city with the Perpinya settler.
> If the name is not garbled and the program does not
> crash then we would know it is a problem with the string
> being put into the entry, and hence a bug in the particular
> gtk libraries used by the freeciv exe on windows.

I turned off "prompt for city name."  When building the settler, the
game now simply crashes.  So, the string is being corrupted before it
is delivered to the dialog box.

> You could also try inputting other valid utf-8 (e.g. my
> sig) into the name suggestion box, the city rename popup,
> or just the chat input line to see what it does. On linux
> these all work fine, so they should too on windows.
>
> ---
> 私のためにいい家を見つけてください。

Your .sig is truncated for length, but it inputs just fine.



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:28 PM, Jordi Negrevernis i Font
 wrote:
>
> http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >
>
>
>I must say that this only happens on Windows GTK2 client... not on
> gtk2 linux client...

So it's probably an #ifdef in a name generation string handler.  Ring
any bells anyone?



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 1:33 PM, Brandon Van Every  wrote:
>
> 4) build the Settler.  The "What should we call our new city?"
> dialogue box appears.  It contains the garbled string "Perpiny[X]".

Additional weirdness: if you try to edit the "Perpiny[X]" string,
"Perpiny" is editable but the garbled "[X]" is not.  You cannot erase
it, the cursor will not move over it.  A workaround is to hit "Cancel"
and then take the next city name selection, in this case "La Seu
d'Urgell".



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

Forgot the attachment.



catalan-1400.sav.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Brandon Van Every  wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Madeline Book  
> wrote:
>>
>> By the way, do you play with the "prompt for city names"
>> local option enabled?
>
> No.

I spoke too quickly.  Yes, I do, as it is the default option.  I'm
just so habituated to hitting OK without even thinking about it, that
it's psychologically invisible to me.

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Madeline Book  wrote:
>
> Finally, if you were to play as the Catalan nation using
> the sdl gui and build cities until you get "Perpinyà"
> suggested, would the name get garbled?

I played another game as Catalan and reproduced the error.
1) Load the attached game catalan-1400.sav.
2) play as Catalan
3) hit Turn Done, since the settler doesn't have any moves remaining
4) build the Settler.  The "What should we call our new city?"
dialogue box appears.  It contains the garbled string "Perpiny[X]".
5) Selecting OK will crash the game.

So, the name generator is somehow at fault, and it is specific to utf8
chars at the end of the string.

> Also, what happens when you play a nation like Brazillian
> or Turk? Do the utf8 characters in the start or middle of
> the city names get corrupted too?

Brazilian, in the middle, no problem.  Didn't try Turk or at the
beginning of the city name.

> How about if you edit the save game manually and put in
> the missing  (that's the character with value 0xa0,
> or 160 in decimal). What happens if you load the game
> now?

Didn't bother to try it.

> Or what if you just paste in "Perpinyà" into the city
> name suggestion popup or when renaming the city, what
> does that do (hopefully not just rejected by the
> server)?

No problem here.



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Madeline Book  wrote:
>
> By the way, do you play with the "prompt for city names"
> local option enabled?

No.

> Also, what happens when you play a nation like Brazillian
> or Turk? Do the utf8 characters in the start or middle of
> the city names get corrupted too?

I will try these and other things you suggested and get back to you.



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Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 8:25 PM, Madeline Book  wrote:
>
> So my best guess is that somehow the contents of the save file
> got munged into the present state (invalid utf8) outside of
> freeciv. Are you sure you did not open and re-save it in an
> editor or something like that?

I did not.  Any munging was accomplished by Freeciv.  Could be as
simple as a string pointer error somewhere, given that the bizarre
character is at the end of the string.

I don't know if it's related, but Freeciv GTK consistently fails on
Vista after the game has been going a long time.  The GUI windows
change colors and become illegible like they're being bitblitted
incorrectly, then civclient freezes.  For this reason I always play
with "set saveturns 1".  After such a failure, I can always load the
most recent autosaved game.  I haven't submitted the bug because I
don't have a deterministic reproducer for it.  I just know that it
will happen after several hours of play.  I guess my point is, Freeciv
can munge things.



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[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#40601) bad char in city name crashes GTK civclient 2.1.7 and 2.1.8

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40601 >

In civclient 2.1.7, a random city name was generated, "Perpiny[X]".
The [X] stands for some weird graphic of a presumably unprintable
character.  Clicking on this city crashes both civclient 2.1.7 and
2.1.8 on Windows Vista SP1.  I've attached a saved game file,
"garbagechar," that reproduces the problem.

1) start civclient 2.1.8.
2) click "Load Saved Game"
3) click "garbagechar"
4) click Catalan (Human) player
5) double click the city "Perpiny[X]".  Immediately one gets the
message "civclient.exe has stopped working."



garbagechar.sav.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
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[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#24159) inadequate DEFAULT_DATA_PATH for MSYS

[Brandon J. Van Every]

http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=24159 >

I'm compiling from SVN head on MinGW + MSYS, under Windows 2000.
configure.ac contains the following lines:

dnl export where the datadir is going to be installed
FC_EXPAND_DIR(FREECIV_DATADIR, "$datadir/freeciv")

if test x"$MINGW32" = xyes; then
  DEFAULT_DATA_PATH=".;data;~/.freeciv;$datadir/freeciv"
 else
  DEFAULT_DATA_PATH=".:data:~/.freeciv:$datadir/freeciv"
 fi
CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -DDEFAULT_DATA_PATH=\\\"$DEFAULT_DATA_PATH\\\""


This doesn't work when compiling under a MSYS shell.  It generates 
errors, saying "data: command not found", "/usr/local/share/freeciv: is 
a directory" and so forth.  This is because the ; is a statement 
separator under a MSYS bash shell.  It thinks 3 different commands are 
being issued.

A workaround is to eliminate the test for MINGW32:

dnl if test x"$MINGW32" = xyes; then
dnl  DEFAULT_DATA_PATH=".;data;~/.freeciv;$datadir/freeciv"
dnl else
  DEFAULT_DATA_PATH=".:data:~/.freeciv:$datadir/freeciv"
dnl fi

Under a MSYS shell, paths are colon separated.  Windows native paths, on 
the other hand, are semicolon separated.  The problem in MinGW-land is 
that build and run shells are often not the same.  People often use MSYS 
to build and then actually run from a straight Windows command prompt.  
I don't know where Freeciv actually deals with all this logic.  Perhaps 
FC_EXPAND_DIR should be rewritten to give native drive letter and 
backslash paths?  Or perhaps it's a quoting problem, and quotes are not 
being consumed by MSYS to the amount expected.




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