[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Safe paths for triremes etc. (PR#1007)

[Raahul Kumar <raahul_da_man@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Ross W. Wetmore" <rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> First thing you want to do is change all the storage locations where
> move_costs are used to be at least shorts.

Yes.

 Right now, the max_cost is
> set at 255 so it fits into a uchar - But 255/10 == 25 moves is not a
> useful upper bound for moves on most sized maps. 255/3 at least allowed
> most practical moves on the standard 80x50 map :-).
> 

Exactly what should the bound be? I was initially considering making the
threshold value the size of the maximum moves any unit can make (air unit
can move 12 squares in one turn). For some bizarre reason, threshold
is set to equal 6 * 12. Do you have any insight as to why threshold is
equal to that value?

I'll probably just default to making maxcost 2550. I will be sending the patch
in soon for comments. 

> You should probably consider something bigger than 10 as well. Ideally
> railroad moves should be computed in a separate space. They can then
> be used just to break ties (i.e. infinitely small), or scaled in by
> a settable parameter without impacting the overall storage requirements. 
> This at least gets around the storage update issues, i.e. finding all 
> the corner cases.
>

Go on. Exactly how would I accomplish this? This is a lot harder than you
make it seem. And in fact, I want to find the corner cases. I know that in
a lot of places railroad_move cost is assumed to be 0 (check out the recent
cross country patch that assumed if warmap path cost = 0 two cities were
connected by railroad).

The aim is to make changes so that the next person can easily change
move costs without having to do as much damage as I am going to.
 
> Also, if you do this for railroads, include the possibility of maglev
> or updated railroads as well, i.e. do the base changes once in a way
> that will be compatible with all reasonable forseen upgrades.
>

Multiply by 10 is fine. Consider 3/30 = 1/10 move cost for normal railroad
2/30 = 1/15 move cost for maglev. We have maglev ;). If you have other
reasons for a bigger base cost, let me know.
 



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