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autonav: Remove the feature

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The autonavigation feature has issues:

* Autonavigation orders are executed at the update.  Crafty players
  can use them to get around the update window.

* Usability is poor:

  - The order command is overly complex, not least because it can do
    five different things: clear, suspend, resume, declare route, set
    cargo levels.

  - Unlike every other command involving movement, order does not let
    you specify routes, only destination sectors.

  - Setting cargo levels can silently swap start and end point of a
    circular route, because "this keeps the load_it() procedure
    happy".  Maybe it does, but it surely keeps players confused.

  - Setting "start" cargo levels actually sets the "end" levels, and
    vice versa.  Has always been broken that way.

  - Predicting what exactly autonavigation will do at the update isn't
    easy.

* The info pages documenting it amount to almost 400 non-blank lines
  formatted.  They claim only merchant ships can be given orders.
  This is wrong.  Unlikely to be the only error.

* Few players use it, and its workings at the update a fairly opaque.
  Makes it a nice hidey-hole for bugs.  Here are two:

  - Unlike the scuttle command, autonavigation happily scuttles trade
    ships while they're on the trading block.

  - Unlike the load command, autonavigation can load in friendly and
    allied sectors.

* It's more than 700 lines of rather crufty code nobody wants to
  touch.  Thanks to a big effort in Empire 2, it shares code with the
  navigation command.  It still duplicates load code.  The sharing
  complicates fixing the bugs demonstrated by navi-march-test.

Reviewing, fixing and testing this mess isn't worth the opportunity
cost.  Remove it instead.  Drop commands order, qorder and sorder.
Drop ship selectors xstart, xend, ystart, yend, cargostart, cargoend,
amtstart, amtend, autonav.

xdump ship sheds almost half its columns.  struct shpstr shrinks, on
my system from 200 to 160 bytes.

Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org>
This commit is contained in:
Markus Armbruster 2014-12-24 16:33:51 +01:00
parent a4e519c377
commit 48e656c057
37 changed files with 306 additions and 1764 deletions
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2
tests/files/final.xdump
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@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ config sect
owner xloc yloc des effic mobil off loyal terr0 terr1 terr2 terr3 dterr xdist ydist avail elev work coastal newdes min gold fert ocontent uran oldown civil milit shell gun petrol iron dust bar food oil lcm hcm uw rad c_dist m_dist s_dist g_dist p_dist i_dist d_dist b_dist f_dist o_dist l_dist h_dist u_dist r_dist c_del m_del s_del g_del p_del i_del d_del b_del f_del o_del l_del h_del u_del r_del mines pstage ptime che che_target fallout access road rail dfense
/config
config ship
uid owner xloc yloc type effic mobil off tech opx opy mission radius fleet xstart xend ystart yend cargostart(0) cargostart(1) cargostart(2) cargostart(3) cargostart(4) cargostart(5) cargoend(0) cargoend(1) cargoend(2) cargoend(3) cargoend(4) cargoend(5) amtstart(0) amtstart(1) amtstart(2) amtstart(3) amtstart(4) amtstart(5) amtend(0) amtend(1) amtend(2) amtend(3) amtend(4) amtend(5) autonav civil milit shell gun petrol iron dust bar food oil lcm hcm uw rad pstage ptime access mquota path follow name xbuilt ybuilt builder rflags rpath
uid owner xloc yloc type effic mobil off tech opx opy mission radius fleet civil milit shell gun petrol iron dust bar food oil lcm hcm uw rad pstage ptime access mquota path follow name xbuilt ybuilt builder rflags rpath
/config
config plane
uid owner xloc yloc type effic mobil off tech opx opy mission radius wing range harden ship land flags access theta