[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Watchtowers

[Falk Hueffner <falk.hueffner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg Wooledge <wooledge@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Falk Hueffner (falk.hueffner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> 
> > The problem is thta currently terrain improvements have no owner,
> > while watchtowers, of course, should only serve their owner. This
> > would make problems when pillaging the tower: it is not obvious whose
> > vibibility count to decrement.
> 
> The easiest way would probably be to have the tower "owned" by the nearest
> city.  Of course, in the case of a tie, there'd be no clear winner.

That's the problem. I just wanted to avoid somehow to store the owner
of the tower anywhere, to avoid savegame and network incompatibility.

Perhaps it would be possible to recalculate the visibility for all
nations on some tile near the tower, and check for whom it is by 1 too
large. But I don't know if visibility could be easily recalculated.
I'll check that.

> Another possibility is to have the tower only function if a worker is on
> the tower's tile.  That would be a bit annoying, though -- especially
> if the tower is mutually exclusive with a farm, mine or whatever.
> So perhaps it would be better to have the tower also function if a unit
> (even a no-upkeep unit like a Diplomat) is on the tile.

I think this is too annoying. I intended the towers to have a somewhat
smallish range like 2 or 3, so there wouldn't really be an advantage
over just putting the unit there.

> SMAC has "sensors" that have vision radius 2.  They work for whoever
> owns the territory they're in.  (SMAC has a concept of terrain
> ownership, with visible borders.)

I like this concept very much (although I've never played SMAC, but
there's a similar concept in the game "The Settlers".).  If/When we
introduce this concept to FreeCiv, this would be the best solution
IMHO.

> CTP's towers have vision radius 8, which is awfully powerful.

I also think this is too much. I considered increasing the sight
radius when built on hills/mountains, and perhaps also with techs.

> I'm not sure how the game decides which civ gets the vision.  I *do*
> know that they have to be within three tiles of one of your cities
> to work.

I don't like that. I though it would be cool to leave watchtowers on
islands you've explored, to see who else comes along.

> I just don't know how CTP handles the case where a tower is on a
> tile that's within the 3-square radius of multiple cities owned by
> different civs.

Perhaps I should experiment a bit...

        Falk