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>
Also end URIs with '/' where appropriate.
Refrain from touching scripts/ and Stephen Crane's LWP authorship
note.
Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org>
Trade ships are now enabled when a ship type with capability trade
exists. No such type exists by default; to enable trade ships,
deities have to customize table ship-chr.
Before, trade ship types were ignored when option TRADESHIPS was
disabled. Except for xdump ship-chr, which happily dumped unusable
trade ship types.
Why upgrade? I'm not a lawyer, but here's my take on the differences
to version 2:
* Software patents: better protection against abuse of patents to
prevent users from exercising the rights under the GPL. I doubt
we'll get hit with a patent suit, but it's a good move just on
general principles.
* License compatibility: compatible with more free licenses, i.e. can
"steal" more free software for use in Empire. I don't expect to steal
much, but it's nice to have the option.
* Definition of "source code": modernization of some details for today's
networked world, to make it easier to distribute the software. Not
really relevant to us now, as we normally distribute full source code.
* Tivoization: this is about putting GPL-licensed software in hardware,
then make the hardware refuse to run modified software. "Neat" trick
to effectively deny its users their rights under the GPL. Abuse was
"pioneered" by TiVo (popular digital video recorders). GPLv3 forbids
it. Unlikely to become a problem for us.
* Internationalization: more careful wording, to harden the license
outside the US. The lawyers tell us it better be done that way.
* License violations: friendlier way to deal with license violations.
This has come out of past experience enforcing the GPL.
* Additional permissions: Probably not relevant to us.
Also include myself in the list of principal authors.
SLOW_WAR has issues:
* The check whether the attacker old-owns the attacked sector is
broken, because att_abort() uses sect.sct_oldown uninitialized.
Spotted by the Clang Static Analyzer.
* Its implementation in setrel() is somewhat scary. It's actually
okay, because that part of setrel() only runs within decl(). Other
callers don't reach it: update_main() because player->god != 0
there, and the rest because they never pass a rel < HOSTILE.
* Documentation is a bit vague.
SLOW_WAR hasn't been used in a public game in years. Fixing it is not
worth it, so remove it instead.
The abstract idea of tying ships and land units to a logistical tether
is sound, the concrete implementation as option FUEL is flawed. It
adds too much busy-work to the game to be enjoyable. It hasn't been
enabled in a public game for years. The code implementing it is ugly,
repetitive, and a burden to maintain.
Remove selector fuel from ship_ca[] and land_ca[], and selectors
fuelc, fuelu from mchr_ca[] and lchr_ca[]. Remove fields fuelc, fuelu
from ship.config and land.config.
Remove command fuel from player_coms[].
Deprecate edit key 'B' in doship(), dounit(), and don't show it in
pr_ship(), pr_land().
Drop opt_FUEL code from build_ship(), shi(), sdump(), ship_damage(),
show_ship_stats(), do_mob_ship(), nav_ship(), build_land(), land(),
ldump(), land_damage(), show_land_stats(), do_mob_land(),
resupply_all(), resupply_commod(), get_minimum(), has_supply(),
unit_list(), vers().
Remove opt_FUEL, fuel_mult, struct shpstr member shp_fuel, struct
mchrstr members m_fuelc and m_fuelu, M_OILER, struct lndstr member
lnd_fuel, struct lchrstr members l_fuelc and l_fuelu, fuel(), and
auto_fuel_ship().
(show): New sub-command.
(player_coms): Update its c_form.
(show_updates, fmttime2822): New.
(vers): Show game_days and game_hours.
(upda): Mark obsolete and point to show updates.
(vers): Point to show rather than update.
Rewrite much of info zdone.
other. Ensure headers in include/ can be included in any order
(except for econfig-spec.h, which is special). New header types.h to
help avoid inclusion cycles. Sort include directives. Remove some
superflous includes.
(show_nuke_capab, vers, xdvisible, build.t, Options.t):
Remove opt_DRNUKE and replace with the following check
drnuke_const > MIN_DRNUKE_CONST.
Set MIN_DRNUKE_CONST to 0.001 to prevent issues with tiny values.
Change the default drnuke_const to 0.0 because in the stock game
opt_DRNUKE was disabled.
Chainsaw version (4.00 since Empire 2, ca. 1995) and Wolfpack version
(used to be the version number after the first dot).
(KSU_DIST, CHAINSAW_DIST, WOLFPACK_DIST): Unused, remove.
(version): New.
(EMP_VERS_MAJOR, EMP_VERS_MINOR, EMP_VERS_PATCH): Remove. Users
changed to use version[] instead. version[] is slightly easier to
initialize from configure.ac.
(check-version): No longer needed, remove.
(legal): New.
(vers, main): Show it.
(ltend, multifire, quite_bigdef, mine, landmine)
(do_loan, prod, printdiff, sell, sona, stre)
(tend, fire_dchrg, vers, work, ac_planedamage)
(ac_shipflak, ask_off, get_mine_dsupport, att_fight)
(ask_move_in_off, detonate, sd, land_gun)
(land_unitgun, lnd_fort_interdiction, lnd_fortify)
(perform_mission, pln_mine, pln_mobcost)
(retreat_ship1, retreat_land1, shp_sweep)
(shp_fort_interdiction, shp_missle_defense)
(new_work, growfood, upd_land, land_repair)
(get_materials, do_mob_ship, do_mob_land)
(load_it, unload_it, prod_plane, produce)
(guerrilla, upd_buildeff, spread_fallout)
(upd_ship, ship_repair, min, dmin, MIN):
Remove min() and dmin() functions and replace
with a MIN macro in misc.h. Remove local MIN
macros and use the new one in misc.h. This
change removes the need for the special
case for _WIN32.
(fuel, look_ship, multifire, mission, sona)
(plane_sona, ef_open, player_accept, player_main)
(ac_dog, att_get_combat, calc_mobcost)
(ask_move_in_off, intelligence_report)
(build_mission_list_type, perform_mission)
(show_mission, use_supply, dodistribute)
(allocate_memory, max, dmax, MAX):
Remove max() and dmax() functions and replace
with a MAX macro in misc.h. Remove local MAX
macros and use the new one in misc.h. This
change removes the need for the special
case for _WIN32.
