Re: [Freeciv-Dev] improvement?

[Trent Piepho <xyzzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 16 Jan 1999, David Pfitzner wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Per Mathisen:
> > The definition of "currently moving unit" needs to be careful, of course, 
> > or the player can cheat by keeping a unit "moving" until the end of turn.
> > Perhaps by giving the last moved unit a time limit to do its next move 
> > before it is no longer considered "moving".
> > 
> > Comments?
> 
> Wouldn't this mean lots more network traffic due to constantly
> having to tell the server which unit is the "currently moving 
> unit"?  And wouldn't you have problems due to lag?

I don't see why it would increase network traffic.  Every time a unit gets
moved, it implicitly becomes the currently moving unit.  There isn't any need
fore another packet besides the move unit packet that is sent anyway.

I can see a few problems with this.  Lagged players might not be able to move
their units fast enough, thus leaving them open to attack as they advance,
while local players couldn't be attacked.  With rail, you could move your
units around indefinitely, making them unattackable.  That would be very
annoying.

One thing I'd like to do sometime is add the ability to drag units with the
mouse.  You would drag the unit along the path you want it to take with the
mouse, and then when you finished, the client would send the move(s) to the
server.  The moves would be sent all at once, so attacking the unit while it
is moving wouldn't be possible.  This would also fix the problem with lag and
moving units.  If you have lag, you have to wait after each keypress for the
unit to move before you can move it again.