[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#13153) Alliances and stacking

["Jason Short" <jdorje@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=13153 >

> [per - Sat May 21 11:26:42 2005]:
> 
> A few years ago (and unwisely just before a release) I added allied
> ferrying to the code, so that allies can ship each other's units. This led
> to a long chase after obscure and rare bugs in the code, which ended only
> years later. In retrospect, I regret implementing this. It led to a lot of
> complications in the rules and in the code that were not necessary.

Allied ferrying seems unnecessary.  On the other hand we've pretty much
ironed out the bugs in it by now, and it is potentially useful.

> In fact, I think allied stacking as such is a misfeature. It leads to a
> lot of complicated rules to deal with it, and a lot of very bug prone
> code. For example, when an alliance is broken, units that suddenly find
> themselves stacking illegally are teleported all around the map. This is
> very ugly.

I disagree.  Without allied stacking no combined military actions are
really possible.  Bouncing units is ugly but not that bad.  We could
even avoid it if we relaxed the rules on unallied stacking.

> It allows us to dispense with the complicated attack rules for which
> stacks you may attack, depending on the mix of unit ownership in the
> stack. It removes the possibility of hiding enemy units underneath neutral
> units.

IMO the rule that you can only attack a completely enemy stack is bogus.
 You should be able to attack any stack that contains an enemy unit.

> It makes resolving city ownership changes much easier, since the case of
> mixed ownership unit stackeds is then a nightmare, especially if you are a
> ferry ferrying units owned by another player...

How so?

> It also allows us to implement owned fortresses, like in Warlords, where
> the last unit to visit it 'owns' it, without bothering about complications
> like 'what if two units of different owners are on the same square'. This
> is wanted for a better borders implementation
> (http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Borders).

Owned fortresses are possible in any case.  We just need to have rules
for what causes a fortress's owner to change.

-jason