[freeciv-ai] Re: (PR#6227) Boats in assess danger

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> There are other possibilities:
> 1. only consider boats found on the same square as the danger-induced
> unit. This is not very good as it will completely ignore units which
> are about to embark on a ferry -- these might be just one turn away.
>
> 2. assume that the boat will be where it is needed "by magic".I.e.
> assume enemy units can walk on water as fast as the enemy boat can.
> This will require some crafty path-finding, in particular it is harder
> to make one-size-fits-all map for distance estimation because the
> different units walk with different speed on land but with the same
> speed on water :(

To assume that all units can walk on water is too demanding and too
paranoid. We can, however, assume that every unit within reach of a ferry
are on board it, up to its carry limit. Then we check all ferries if they
are near us.

That still leaves the question of how we figure out which units can board
that ferry. Overlap mode will find the large majority of real world cases,
I think. Ferries in cities will search its continent, while ferries in the
sea will search the beaches. We still have the case of an inland unit that
can move (road/rail) to the beach and jump into a transport, but going to
such lengths will consume too much CPU to be worth the effort, IMO.

  - Per