[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Diplomacy problems and ideas (PR#8394)

["Jason Short" <jdorje@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=8394 >

Per Inge Mathisen wrote:

> Ok, so this is quite a mouthful. Comments, please. If we agree this is the
> way to go, I will code it for the AI and the server, but I will definitely
> need help on the client side.

I like it, for the most part.

I do not think a "diplomacy phase" is helpful or necessary.  This 
discussion is along the same lines as the alternating-movement 
discussion.  Note that with alternating movement there is plenty of time 
for diplomacy in your off-turn (if there are 6 players with 10 seconds 
per player...).  In single-player mode and off-turn is quite illogical 
(but then such games don't have timeouts).  You could have a period when 
it was nobody's "turn": this might even make things more fair since 
everyone could set up gotos during this time.

Will a diplomacy phase solve the problem that some ultimatums must be 
decided immediately?  When love-love-hate breaks out, typically the 
love-love player must pick one of his allies to break alliance with. 
But this must be done immediately: certainly before any of the love-hate 
players gets a chance to move their units (this movement gives 
inconsistencies since a tile may be both allied and enemy).

The idea of an ultimatum is good, but the ultimatums you're talking 
about don't have to be time-based.

My question is, what should the client interface for an ultimatum be? 
Does the user press a different button to start the diplomacy?  Or if 
the other player rejects a "reasonable" request (declare war, remove 
troops from borders) does has_reason_to_cancel get set?

jason