[freeciv-ai] Re: Tech want

[Gregory Berkolaiko <Gregory.Berkolaiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005, Per Inge Mathisen wrote:

> So what would I suggest in its place? A very few, very selective tech want
> bumps, like in govt eval code, diplomat defense code, ferry code, and
> defense and attack code. Other than that, we can read a prioritized list
> of techs to research from a ruleset file. We can compile this list by
> looking over pille's shoulder while he is playing ;)

I would prefer a system where tech want would be given per-direction
rather then per-tech.  For example, if we are using a lot of ferries, we
should bump want for L_FERRYBOAT rather than going through the list of all
boats and then bumping want for each one's req.  This is more or less what
Per's patch is doing in ai_wants_unit_with_flag.

This will lead to some less-than-optimal tech paths, but will be more
adaptable than a precompiled tech list and less confusing than the current
system.  I would have liked to extend this approach to govt as well, but
getting Republic instead of Monarchy is probably way too important.

To speed things up, we can accumulate want for each role and then convert
it into the tech want to avoid scanning through all techs with the flag
each time a city wants a L_GOOD_DEFENCE unit.

We should also think how to simplify the flags/roles.  I think roles
should only be used by the AI and flags should reflect special abilities
(like "can be used by barbarians").

Glip