[Freeciv-Dev] My ideas and wishes list

[Markus Linnala <maage@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is my list of ideas and wished to freeciv. I hope someone
has time to implement all of them.

        AI
        ==

There is error at: http://www.freeciv.org/todo.html
AI does know about spacerace.

AI does not know about:
- how to use effectively other types of government than republic
  * start game with high techcost and you see why
- how to use diplomats
- how to upgrade units
- how to disband units that is not needed any more
- how to make and disband units (diplomats) to build wonders if
  you don't have caravan/freight
- how to minimize pollution
- how to balance between attacking and defending units
  * at big games AI tend to lose attacking units (howizers) but
    not mech infs

Easy AI's should make clear mistakes. Like move to wrong
direction, buy something that is clearly in no use, leave cities
without any defence even when enemy is approaching...

Also AI does try sometimes be too agressive, it does not know
when it is not worth trying any more. I've seen it build endless
armies of horsemen and warriors, but not achieve anything. And
if you concentrated on science you got huge benefit.

We also need way to make different kind of ai. Now it is not
very easy to test "new" adn "old" AI against each other.

        UI
        ==

Units
-----

- Unit-list window, where you could limit units by certain
  criteria and then wake them up and give orders
  * type
  * general type, maybe user settable
  * movementpoints
  * position, like near city, near other unit, near point I've
    clicked at map, able to move to the position I've clicked at
    map
- new orders to the unit, 'go to nearest city', 'search and
  destroy units', 'search and conquer cities'
- new orders to the shipse, 'move between these two cities and
  take sentried units to the other city where you unload'
- way to group units like AI does (attacker + defender)
- way to select several units at once by painting and giving
  them a order
- auto settlers need finer control, you should able to select
  subsets, as you sometimes want only road or sometimes don't
  want mines...

City list
---------

- way to sort columns at numerical order if column is numeric,
  and also way to sort subcolumns, like by prod or trade
- command to reorder workers at city
- command to change workers to other types, I'm thinking about
  popupmenu (right mouse button), with selections like add
  elvis, add taxman, add scientis, remove elvis..., might also
  have build, popup etc. -commands
- way to see number of cities

Map
---

- way to split big map or get several maps and have view at
  different points of world at once
- set one map to follow unit
- smaller map without any fancy icons, like Railroad Tycoon,
  just line graphic, as you sometimes need way to handle bigger
  areas
- set points at map and have a list of these points at menu /
  popup window and that way have a way to have quick goto

General look and feel
---------------------

- at big games server can be unresponsive long periods of time,
  latency can be as high as several minutes even at fast
  machines
  * we need to cut guilty routines (end_turn, ai_start_turn) to
    smaller pieces and run (guess) 'while(sniff_packets()==1);'
    after every one of them
  * or make server send a packet to client to notify it is not
    responsive, and when it is send another packet, that way
    client can display hour-glass icon and maybe beep when
    server is responsive
- way to save client window positions

-- 
//Markus