Would it be possible for someone who knows the ins and outs of the code to add this: http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Another_Freeciv_smallpox_fix as an economic option ? I know some C++ myself, but it's exam time here.. and I haven't even seen the freeciv code yet. I think it has the makings of a good idea.
It's an economy tweak that would make smallpox less advantageous. It addresses the incongruity in Freeciv, that large cities, which may have up to 10-20 times larger units of citizens (one citizen, if you calculate the ratio of them to population, it's 1 to 10 K in small cities, but 1 to 200 K in very large ones).
I reckon the code would run something like this.. .. ratio citizen/population would run from 1.0 at size 1 to maybe 20.0 - 30.0 //for industry .. each form of gov't would make it possible to utilize a part of that ratio, so that production would be increased .. say, despotism 5%, anarchy 7%, feudalism 10%, republic 20%, communism/democracy 30%. Industrialization would add say 25% on top of that, and if whole city was happy, that would give say 15%.
for agriculture.. .. each form of gov't would make it possible to utilize a part of that ratio, so that production would be increased .. say, despotism 5%, anarchy 7%, feudalism 10%, republic 20%, communism/democracy 30%. .. refining would add 30% (fertilizers), genetic engineering 25%.. There ought to be some kind of cutoff for agriculture. There's an upper limit of what can be grown, so some sort of diminishing returns should occur, so, for example, production from the classic farmland won't rise over, say 7 (now it's 4 max.. and 7 is a neat number)
This would make large cities rock, as they should. Large scale production is simply more effective, this ought to be reflected in the game rules..
btw, if anyone wants to ask me something, my jabber account is remontoire@jabber.cz