[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#2293) Paratroopers jumping into an empty city

["Anthony J. Stuckey via RT" <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 11:05:29AM -0800, Davide Pagnin via RT wrote:
> On Sun, 2002-11-17 at 19:44, Anthony J. Stuckey via RT wrote:
> > On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 10:01:56AM -0800, Davide Pagnin via RT wrote:
> > > Which should be the correct fix for this problem?
> > [...] 
> > > 1) We can let people declare war automatically if they paradrop in a
> > > not_known no_contact empty city (fixing the problem that the paratrooper
> > > enter a city to which we are not in *real* WAR).
> > > I have to say that this should be the correct answer if we agree that
> > > the pplayer_at_war() function do return TRUE if we are in NO_CONTACT...
> >
> >     I'd go with option 1, and document it in the Paratrooper description.
> 
> I don't agree with you that option 1 is preferable.
> I've said it is correct only because NO_CONTACT is considered WAR in
> pplayers_at_war() function, but I think that pplayers_at_war() is wrong,
> but Per ruled that we cannot change its behavior in the stable brach
> (for now, at least...)

        a) Anyone who has not declared an alliance is a de facto enemy.
        b) Exploring with military units is a hostile act.
        c) Paradropping into FoW/unknown territory is an act of desperation
that should carry potentially severe consequences.

        Which of these do you disagree with?

> > Then people could avoid that behavior if they don't like unexpectedly
> > declaring war.
> 
> How? 

        By not paradropping into FoW/unknown territory.  It's not that hard to
fly an airplane over first.

> The problem is that when you first meet a unit of a player that your
> have no contact with, in normal circumstances (means, not in this
> particular paradrop case) a contact is made between you and that player.

        Yes.  And if the battle occurs, one side will be eliminated, and thus
no contact will be possible.  Destroying the original unit is an act of
war.
        I'm ambivalent as to whether contact should be established with the
owners of the now-destroyed units, but if so, the diplomatic state should
be War.

> In this particular paradrop case, for solving the issue we need to
> iterate on all units on a tile and find out if we have contact with that
> unit, before killing the paratrooper.

        Why do you auto-kill the paratrooper?  Send it right into battle.