[freeciv-ai] Re: [Freeciv-Dev] (PR#10216) AI Builds Too Many Transports

["Benedict Adamson" <badamson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10216 >

I'm new here, so I'm trying to understand the code. Are the following 
comments correct or plausible?

I guess the logic for deciding whether to build another transport has a 
problem.

The domestic_advisor_choose_build function is the function that decides 
whether, but only if it is told that there is no current transport 
available. That information comes through pcity->ai.founder_want, and is 
set by the contemplate_new_city function, which uses the 
find_best_city_placement function. That function in turn uses 
aiferry_find_boat to determine whether any empty ferries can travel to 
the city. If there are no empty ferries, or none can travel to the city, 
the conclusion is that the city should build a ferry.

Consider a turn on which it just so happens that there are no ferries 
free. Many (every?) coastal cities that want to send settlers will 
conclude that they must build a ferry, eventually resulting in many more 
ferries than necessary.

The cause of this problem might therefore be that ferries should be 
considered a strategic resource that is managed centrally, rather than 
on a per-city basis. That is the subject of PR#8992.