Coastal Transport replacing the trireme

[wieder]

Feel free to suggest better names for this ship.


[unit_coastal_transport]
name = _("Coastal Transport")
class = "Trireme"
tech_req = "Engineering"
obsolete_by = "None"
graphic = "u.coastaltransport"
graphic_alt = "u.transport"
sound_move = "m_transport"
sound_move_alt = "m_generic"
sound_fight = "f_transport"
sound_fight_alt = "f_generic"
build_cost = 50
pop_cost = 0
attack = 0
defense = 2
hitpoints = 20
firepower = 1
move_rate = 9
vision_radius_sq = 72
transport_cap = 2
fuel = 0
uk_happy = 1
uk_shield = 1
uk_food = 1
uk_gold = 1
cargo = "Land", "Small Land", "Merchant", "Non Military"
flags = "Settlers", "BadCityDefender"
;veteran_names = _("green"), _("veteran"), _("hardened"), _("elite")
;veteran_raise_chance = 50, 33, 20, 0
;veteran_work_raise_chance = 0, 0, 0, 0
;veteran_power_fact = 100, 150, 175, 200
;veteran_move_bonus = 0, 0, 0, 0
roles = "Ferryboat"
helptext = _("\
The Coastal Transport cannot attack on its own but\
may defend itself when under attack.\
"), _("\
The Coastal Transport is able to move on rivers.\
")
; FIXME: also cleans pollution/fallout in coastal cities (and faster
; than Engineers)

[fran]

Feel free to suggest better names for this ship.

Trireme or triere always was a bad name, because historically
a trireme is a pure, lightweight warship designed for high speed attack by
ramming that can't transport anything except hoplites standing on a plank.
It was introduced approx. 500 BC.
Unfortunately there is not really a general name for the generalist vessels
that preceded it. Given the fact your proposal can't attack it's probably
something like a freighter, freight ship, cargo boat, cargo vessel.
An native english speaker would need to decide which of those is
best for an ancient vessel. Maybe cargo boat.
Freighter is shortest obviously.

[wieder]

The coastal transport ship will be introduced with engineering and will replace the trireme. It's quite similar ship and has the same unit class as the trireme so that it's easy to let it travel on the rivers. The trireme has 7 moves on LT46 ruleset and this new ship has 9.

In any case I simply picked some name for the new ship.

[Sketlux]

Or lets call it landing craft. I did already some graphics for trident. Will bring out soon some for Amplio.

[Hans_Lemurson]

Call it a "Galley". That's the general term for coastal oar-ships.

[jwrober]

Call it a "Galley". That's the general term for coastal oar-ships.

+1, I also think it should be able to transport big land units

[Corbeau]

Should make some adjustments to make sure wooden ships aren't able to transport stuff like armour.

[Hans_Lemurson]

Call it a "Galley". That's the general term for coastal oar-ships.

+1, I also think it should be able to transport big land units

I was under the impression that not being able to transport artillery was the "price you paid" for being able to use rivers to gain strategic initiative.

That said, having to wait until Navigation for Galleons to be able to transport any artillery at all seems a bit much. I'll have to think on this.

The Longship's most famous feature was not it's ocean-crossing ability, but rather it's impressive and frightening ability to sail up rivers, so if any ship should have the ability to sail up rivers, it should be the "Longship".
Paris is not a coastal city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(845)
The Black sea does not connect to the Baltic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_rou ... the_Greeks

Now if you still need a name for an early lightweight ocean-crossing vessel, I would suggest the "Catamaran" for the polynesian outrigger canoes that sailed the pacific and indian oceans. (It's a tamil word, but it's generally understood to describe all multi-hulled sailing canoes, and is more familiar than "Va'a" or "N'Drua").

[Hans_Lemurson]

For a good name for the "Coastal Transport", maybe "Steamboat" or "Steamer" would be appropriate. This was the common name for shallow-draft steam-powered ships that navigated rivers in the mid and late 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat

[Wahazar]

By the way, I had similar idea with trireme successors, together with river movement cost changed to make it as obstacle for land units, instead of movement bonus (except of settlers, workers, merchants etc, which movement are usually dispersed thus arranging special boats for them have no sense both from gameplay point of view or realism - such small units movement on river should be untouched).
Generally: rivers are good for trade (that is why we get additional trade points from rivers), bud obstacle for large armies.

I prepared sprites for steam barge and diesel barge, for trident/amplio/cimpletoon graphics, here:
http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.ph ... 4&start=20

There is still lacking something between steam era and trireme - galley?