[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [Patch][RFC] AI can fly

[Tony Stuckey <stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Mar 02, 2002 at 07:26:05PM +0000, Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> As Tony mentioned, 1 and 2 can be computed using win_chance and such, so 
> if such "infoset" ever surfaces, it would be possible to write ruleset 
> processor to obtain info.  the whole idea of 1 and 2 is to avoid looping 
> through _all_ possible units every time anybody threatens one of your 
> cities.

        Yeah.  I don't like the sound of "looping through all possible
units", since obsolete units will almost certainly not be useful.  (The
Phalanx/Pikemen/Musketeers transition is interesting in this respect,
though.)  Units that you don't have the tech to build would provide a reason
to research or trade for that tech.
        However, doing this in a global table when rulesets are loaded or
games are started wouldn't be incredibly horrible.  ~50 units (squared)
doesn't make life that bad.  The SMAC issue where you have theoretically
64K units would suck a lot.  There you might want to do that simulation
when the Prototypes are built, assuming that doesn't cause a pause in the
game.  And once again, the AI might want to iterate all possibilities, even
though some are "clearly" inferior or too expensive to human eyes.  I guess
the compensation is that each unit type could have it's particular chance
table cached, and freed when it is determined to be obsolete or inferior.
-- 
Anthony J. Stuckey                              stuckey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"And they said work hard, and die suddenly, because it's fun."
        -Robyn Hitchcock.