Re: Transport system (was: Re: [Widelands-public] Homepage)

[Erik S. <si...@ho...>]

onsdagen den 14 januari 2004 20.12 skrev Nicolai Haehnle:
> BTW, auto-building of roads is certainly interesting.

Not only interesting, it is required (at least for AI players). But how should 
it be done? I am thinking that since roads are free, they could be built on 
demand. Suppose the player places a stonecutter's hut. It will request 
builing materials, say a stone and a plank. Suppose that we find a stone at 
location A and a plank at location B (of course A and B could be identical 
(headquarter!)). Roads will be built from A and B to the building site (some 
pieces along the path may have roads already). Suppose the stonecutter has 
begun his work. The player orders the construction of a farm close to the 
stonecutter. The building site requests a stone and a plank. The closest 
stone is one that the stonecutter has just brought to his home flag. The 
closest plank is in the headquarter. Roads are built between stonecutter and 
the farm and between the headquarter and the farm.

Complications:
1. With the present roadbased system, a carrier needs to walk to the
   stonecutter before he can begin carrying the stone to the farm. This will
   usually take longer time than taking a stone directly from the headquarter
   to the farm.
2. The current assumption "economy = roadnetwork" has to be changed to
   "economy = potential roadnetwork".
3. The present rule that 2 adjacent nodes can not both have flags will make it
   difficult to connect roads.