[freeciv-ai] Re: Ferry dating agency.

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

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> This is about how ferries find their passengers and vice versa.
> Several approaches are possible, for example:
>
> 1. Ferries do PF search which goes inland too.
> 2. Land units do PF search which goes into the seas.
> 3. Land units head for the nearest shore.Ferries do PF search up to
> coastal tiles.
> 3a. As in previous, but unit head for the nearest port.
> 4. Ferries head for the nearest port.Land units do PF search through
> their continent only.

This depends also on how you do targeting. Lets forget fstk targeting,
because that is going away anyway.

So we have:
 1) Rampage - no ferry, easy.
 2) Hunting - we only "ferry" air units for hunting purposes. We should
special case this. See hunting patch.
 3) Army - see below.

For armies, some extra CPU to assemble armies is ok. Our main objective is
to land as big an army as possible in as short time as possible, so
putting more than one unit into the ferry is probably necessary. We should
also bodyguard the transport. This requires some changes to the ferry
code, and also means that we should choose solution 1 above (ferry
searches for cargo).

For building up an army, we first need to know our attack needs. If the
target is a walled city, we need IgWall or very high attack value units.
And so on. Second, we need to know our transportation needs. If we need
ferries, then ferries should be assigned to the army and/or built until
they can transport the necessary number of attackers. Third the
transporters should be look for and pick up the necessary attackers, and
everyone look for & acquire necessary body guards. Fourth, when everything
is ready, the transports/units are sent towards the target so that they
will all arrive approximately at the same time. Fifth, they try to avoid
stacking while they attack their designated target.

So what I am really saying is that the method used for ferry pick-up
cannot be wholly decoupled from targetting and general warfare.

  - Per