[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#6941) Mission Orders

["Arnstein Lindgard" <a-l@xxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=6941 >

I wrote:

> I would like to commit the current patch with
> the understanding that it
> 
> - Remains simple, and
> - Does not set a precedent for throwing more and more (and more)
>   crap into the server.

I forgot one thing: Preordering cities. Thomas has pointed out that
Empire has a nice feature: When a city has produced a unit, it will
automatically move to predetermined point.

For Freeciv, this would mean each city struct has a goto destination,
and a mission order. The player can then issue orders in his remaining
time of the current turn, rather than stress at the beginning of the
next.

Again, if I wrote such a feature, I would prefere to execute in
server, but it would not be a problem to make it client-side. Again,
I don't think it would be a new level of automation, but rather one
new instance of the level that Mission Orders established. Again, I
would argue that this is such a useful feature as percieved by the
player that it should be intgral part of the game and executed where
it makes most sense. And again I would point out that no decision
making is involved.

This illustrates exactly why "attack" is already a part of the goto:

Good players know that giving goto's to exhausted units is very
important. At the end of the turn, warring Frigates or Horsemen often
end up next to each other. Each protagonist issues a goto, hoping to
attack first at the beginning of the next turn, rather than defend.
These "goto duels" can and do sink fleets and win wars.

Freeciv randomizes the order in which players' gotos-from-previous-
turn are executed; this is a very good thing. We know that a city
always gets to build it's unit before any gotos are processed.

Suppose I want my empty city to produce a horseman next turn, which
will automatically move onto (attack) the enemy horseman that is next
to the city. The enemy horseman is exhausted, and is given a goto to
attack the now empty city.

If "city preordering" is a client agent only, the enemy wins this
"goto duel", and the city is captured. I would want to make sure that
the goto the city issues to the unit is part of the randomization in
server.

But at this point one could easily rule that the ordering of a unit
is only available to client the turn after unit is produced, without
losing all usefulness of this future patch. Our city could produce a
phalanx instead, which will exist before the enemy goto. However,
with ships there is a disadvantage for the defending city.

As a side note, "city preordering" will still be able to "assign a
unit to a battlegroup" so that it moves to an appropriate tile within
an area, rather than a specific tile. I intend to implement groups and
such strictly in the client. "City preordering" could be as well,
if a rigidly defined client server model is important.


Arnstein