Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Unit Abilities (Upkeep, Flags)

[Jules Bean <jmlb2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg Wooledge wrote:
> 
> Mark Nettle (mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:

[mark raises interesting points, but they're details.  Greg replies]

> whereas Freeciv uses a different style which I don't like very much
> (but it's far, far better than hard-coding everything in the program).
> 
> If modpacks are to be taken seriously -- and I believe they should --
> then IMHO we need to improve the ruleset file format (and of course
> write the code to read it).

I agree.

> 
> We could use the CTP format, which has the advantage that CTP "hackers"
> will already be familiar with it.  It's fairly simple, especially
> since most of the FIELD/FLAG names are intuitive (e.g., "ATTACK 0",
> "CANT_CAPTURE_CITY" or "HAS_NO_ZOC").  If it were indented, instead of
> being completely left-justified, it might even be pretty. ;-)

I don't think this is nice :-)

> 
> And finally, before we rewrite the ruleset files, we need to move all
> (or as many as possible) of the existing special cases out of the
> code and turn them into appropriate flags.  You've mentioned two good
> examples of this already -- if we could get together a full list of all
> the behaviors that should be turned into separate flags, that would be
> a great first step.
> 
> After all of that, perhaps it might be time to revisit the scripting
> language thread (but put on your fireproof clothing first...).

Asbestos suit.

I have designed, and implemented, a simple virtual machine.  It needs an
overhaul (it's object based, but currently has no interfaces, which I
plan to add), and it's designed for another project.

However, I need a smaller project to test it on - so I'm planning to
test it on FreeCiv.

The idea would be to replace all units and improvements with simple
bytecode objects, which the game will interrogate with questions like
'what is your attack strength' etc.

This work may or may not be useful to the freeciv project - I'm going to
do it either way.  But it might be ;)

I'll post information here if there's anything to see!

Jules


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