[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Single-player Freeciv notices

[Christian Knoke <chrisk@xxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jan 15, 2003 at 10:31:45AM +0100, Stepan Roh wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Ross W. Wetmore wrote:
> > At 12:35 PM 03/01/14 +0100, Stepan Roh wrote:
> > >> >> - after dimplomat/spy investigates the city, it should be possible to
> > >> >> reopen that city window in the same turn without spy entering the city
> > >> >> again
> > >> >
> > >> >This would require that we save the state that the spy saw. If we
> > >> >however save this we can also add a "show last spy report for city"
> > >> >button. This would also work for reports collected 10 turns ago and
> > >> >across savegames and so on. Looks like a nice task for attributes.
> > >>
> > >> Nonsense, it just means setting a per player bit that gets reset at the
> > >> end-of-turn and is checked before opening the city display.
> > >
> > >But what about savegames?
> > >
> > >Have a nice day.
> > >
> > >Stepan Roh
> >
> > If I am correct the initial request was to be able to reopen a city window
> > that a spy revealed during that turn. That just takes a bit per player
> > per city. The spy action sets it and launches the city display, but the
> > player can then launch the city display as long as the bit is still set.

This means that the player gets to know the *current* state of the city,
not the state at the time he investigated the city, because the server
will retransmit the data. And I'm confident that hackers will use it to
explore the city every second :-( (in that turn).

> > If you want to extend this to a savegame/loadgame and continue the turn
> > (which is a useful cheat technique), and still have the bit set then it
> > just needs to be written out as part of the city save data.

Possible, but the problem above gets bigger with it.

> > Saving an entire spy report, or copy of the city information to an
> > attribute block so you keep this for 10 turns is probably overkill
> > for the initial request and certainly not a requirement. It is also a
> > lot more complicated as many pieces of attribute information need to be
> > saved and reloaded into something that the city display can use, or you
> > would need to write a new attributes display. It probably wouldn't
> > happen, and if it did it would be a duplication and waste of effort.

I agree fully. This is overkill. It should be possible to just keep open
the window (minimize it) as long as you need the info, or even better:
remember it!

On the long run, I think, the client should be able to remember such
info, but there are *a*lot* more candidates for this, which are much
more important, e.g. the trace of enemy units.

> > Adding a bitstring to the current city, whether saved or not is relatively
> > painless in comparison, eminently doable and does the basic job just fine
> > :-).
> >
> > Or did I misunderstand the initial request?
> 
> Problem: turn starts, spy investigates city, game is saved, server quits,
> server starts, game is loaded, I want to open the already investigated
> city report, turn ends
> 
> Will it work?

No.

Christian

-- 
Christian Knoke     * * *      http://www.enter.de/~c.knoke/
* * * * * * * * *  Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse dividendum.