[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Worklist, take III

[Corin Anderson <corin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2000, John-Marc Chandonia wrote:

> I playtested this yesterday and today (kind of ironic to
> spend the MLK holiday nuking Gandhi back to the stone age),
> and it is very nice!  Somebody please check it into CVS!!!

Thanks!

> 1)  Improvements already built (or that can never be built, such
> as a Wonder that has been built elsewhere, or a Harbor inland) should
> be immediately and silently purged from the worklist, rather than
> cluttering up the list and bothering me later with messages.

Good idea.  For that matter, units that become obsolete should be
(silently) upgraded as well.

> 2)  Improvements that can't be built due to inadequate tech when their
> turn comes up on the list should not be purged, but just postponed.

Huh, I hadn't thought of this.  I like it, though!

> 2b)  Even better would be a check when a new tech is discovered to see
> if any postponed improvements could now be switched to without
> losing shields.  I.e., if I discovered the tech for OP in the
> middle of building a Bank, it would switch immediately without
> even finishing the Bank.  However, it wouldn't automatically do this if I
> was in the middle of building a military unit since I would lose shields.
> (This is of course more difficult, and probably not worth implementing)

This feature would also require additional bookkeeping to know that, eg,
OP has been postponed, and not simply -placed- at the #2 spot.  That is,
you'd need a 'postponed' bit for each worklist item.  You'd also need some
way to convey this information to the player, etc.

> 3)  Color the future improvements in the list red, when showing them.

Ooh, yeah.  Does anyone know, off hand, if this be done in the Xaw client?  
I'm pretty sure it can be done in the Gtk client.

> 4)  Make the OK button bigger.

OK

> 5)  Don't bother showing improvements that can never be built
> in a given city (see 1 above) in the right hand box of local worklists.

This is an "issue", although I think I didn't mention it in my earlier
mail.  I have the code in place to do just this, but the code is commented
out.  The server-side code for deciding if a city can build improvement or
unit X has been in flux (at least, such was my understanding), and I was
waiting for the changes there to settle down.  Search wldlg.c for '!!!'.


On a (somewhat) related note:  I've found a bug in the latest patch.  I
intended the worklists to auto-upgrade production for obsolete targets.
The server seems to do this okay for obsoleted units (phalanx to pikemen),
but not for obsoleted improvements.  I think I know where the problem is,
and I'll see if I can fix it up tonight or tomorrow.

Corey