[freeciv-ai] Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#8474) clean up road_bonus()

["rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=8474 >


Anthony is right.
The next level of sophistication though goes something like ...

Roads tend to be built everywhere as the trade component is usually a bonus.

Railroads should be built sparingly on a much more limited number of bonus 
tiles and for connectivity purposes. Optimizing the number of railroads 
built is a good thing (TM), and thus *direct* in the sense of a simple 
straight line between cities may not be the best choice. But *direct* in the 
sense of minimum path cost is certainly a useful goal. Defensibility of the 
rail network is also useful, while some redundancy in a mature network means 
a single enemy cannot cutoff regions by ZOC overlap or occupation.

Cheers,
RossW
=====

Anthony J. Stuckey wrote:

> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=8474 >
> 
> On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 05:27:15AM -0700, Per I. Mathisen wrote:
> 
>>On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, James Canete wrote:
>>
>>>should the AI think about connecting up its cities directly?
>>
>>The argument against is that it makes it easier for enemies to conquer the
>>AI. Especially if we extend it to rail. We should at least look for ways
>>to protect the AI against quick conquest along our road/railways, since it
>>tends to keep cities unprotected when there are no enemies nearby.
> 
> 
>       The AI should definitely connect up cities directly.  It should be wary
> of building roads/rail near shorelines. (making a "moat" to protect against
> the aforementioned sudden appearance of enemies)  It should probably not
> build "out into the wilderness", unless there is an expectation that
> settlers will be regularly following that path very soon.