[Freeciv-Dev] Re: asynchronous unit moves

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, Tom Goulet wrote:
> This mail is to try and convince the Freeciv developers that
> asynchronous unit moves are a good idea.

I am already convinced that it is a good idea.

> I will not code this, but let me know if I can bribe someone to code
> this.

Depends. How big is the bribe? :)

Seriously, though, I don't have time to do it myself.

> Asynchronous unit moves are when players may not move their units at the
> same time.It would work like a normal war game.  Non-unit move
> activity would still be possible.I expect this will solve several
> problems and not introduce many.

I strongly suspect it will slow down the game.

Also, it should be an option. Not all players will want it. Reason: see
above.

Finally, you forget what I think is the "killer argument" for asynchronous
unit moves (as you call it): It is the only way to ensure that players
don't cheat by building autokill clients.

> I attempted to implement my idea.I didn't get very far because I know
> not what the heck I am doing.The AI wouldn't make cities.

Oh, if you implement the rest, I can fix your AI problems :)

In any case, you will need to split up the turn into several "phases" (or
whatever) each with its own timeout. I have been thinking that it might be
possible that allied players may move in the same phase, thus reducing the
slowdown, especially in team games.

There shouldn't be too much architectural changes necessary to accomplish
this. The biggest change I can see is the new timer. Other than that, the
server is in charge of dishing out movement points to units anyway, and it
can just wait with giving a player its movement points until it is his
turn.

Yours
Per