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Re: Standard game parameters (Was Re: xconq on x86)



   Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 20:49:14 +0100
   From: Hans Ronne <hronne@2.sbbs.se>

   >What I find utterly disturbing and disappointing is the fact that
   >the AIs don't actually load up any of these (as Bruno discovered
   >with the carriers).

   I have noted this problem, too, in the ww2 games, where the mplayer
   builds convoys which then fail to pick up units. The problem seems
   to be that the mplayer cannot figure out what to do with the convoys
   when nobody needs transportation, and therefore puts them into the
   passive asleep reserve mode. Once they are caught in this state, it
   is impossible to call them back to duty, even if somebody later on
   needs transportation. I am looking into possible fixes.

Another thing that happens too often is that a transport goes to pick
up the unit that called for it, but then it loads the one unit and
takes off, even though there might be other units needing transport
too.  Transports only get filled when there's a crowd at the water's
edge all trying to move in the same direction.

So it would be useful to introduce some way for units to share the
ride.  One way to be to stack the pickup tasks in the transport, so it
does several pickups in a row before heading out.  The tricky part is
if the several passengers have different opposing destinations, which
could be a problem even if passengers and transport were all assigned
to the same theater.

Another, more ambitious, solution would be the introduce the notion of
a task force into the mplayer.  The object would be maintained
internally by the mplayer (though it's interesting as a generic object
too), and would basically consist of a list of units and a goal,
possibly other properties as well, almost like a plan that is not
attached to a single unit.  The mplayer then makes decisions about
task forces, such as what goals they should have, how many units and
what types to include, etc, then it can use those decisions to choose
the right action for each individual unit in a task force.  Then a
transport can be told to pick up as many task force members as
possible, then told to head toward the destination, while the
passengers all sit quietly until they near the destination.

								Stan

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