Markus Armbruster
48e656c057
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>
151 lines
5 KiB
Perl
151 lines
5 KiB
Perl
.TH Command NAVIGATE
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.NA navigate "Move ship or fleet around"
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.LV Basic
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.SY "navigate <SHIP/FLEET> <ROUTE|DESTINATION>"
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The navigate command is the \*Qmove\*U command applied to the sea.
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You can control one ship or an entire fleet with it.
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.s1
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A ship must have at least one crew
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(which may be civilian or military,
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but not an uncompensated worker)
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to be navigated.
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When you navigate, you see the hex of sectors around the flagship.
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(The lowest numbered ship is always considered the flagship).
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.s1
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The program will prompt with the maximum and minimum mobility of the
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ships in the fleet, and the current sector of the flagship in the form:
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.NF
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<57.0:23.5: -6,4>
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.FI
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which means one ship has 57 mobility units,
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some other ship in the fleet has 23.5 mobility units and
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the flagship is in sector -6,4.
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You may indicate the direction you would like the fleet to move
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by typing a string of letters consisting of any combination of the
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following:
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.NF
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y for up-left
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u for up-right y u
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g for left \e /
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j for right g -- -- j
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b for down-left / \e
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n for down-right b n
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.FI
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Other commands you may type while navigating are:
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.NF
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M for map
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B for bmap
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f to change flagship
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i to list ships you are navigating
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v to view oil content and fish
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r for radar
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l to look at land and nearby ships
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s for sonar
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m to sweep mines
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d to drop mines
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h for end of movement
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.FI
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.s1
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.s1
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The \*Qradar\*U command will cause the flagship to use it's radar, if any.
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You may also give a ship number or fleet or group of ships on the same
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line: \*Qr 12/13/14/73\*U
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.s1
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The \*Qlookout\*U and \*Qsonar\*U commands work in the same way as radar.
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.s1
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The \*Qmap\*U command will give you a
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map surrounding the current position.
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By default, it will be around the flagship.
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You can also supply additional parameters:
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.EX <32.3: g 6,2>M 3 ls
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.s1
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is equivalent to a \*Qsmap\*U command. like
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this:
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.EX map 3 ls
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The \*Qbmap\*U command works in the same way, it is equivalent to a
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\*Qsbmap\*U command.
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.s1
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The \*Qflagship\*U command will the change the flagship.
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By default, it will select next ship in the list, but you may also
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specify a flagship.
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.s1
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The \*Qdrop\*U command will drop mines using ships
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with mine capability.
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You can specify the ship number or fleet or groups of ships
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and the number of sea mines on the same line: \*Qd 12/13 10\*U.
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An omitted unit number defaults to the flagship,
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for example \*Qd 10\*U drops ten sea mines from the flagship.
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If you omit the number of sea mines as well, the flagship will drop one
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mine.
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.s1
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The \*Qsweep\*U command will have the minesweepers in the navigating
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group search for mines in the current sector.
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This costs them the equivalent of 1 sector's mobility.
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.s1
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Note: the lookout, radar, sonar, drop and sweep commands use BTUs,
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just as if you'd typed them
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separately from the command line.
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.s1
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Since the <ROUTE> can be specified in the command line,
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simple ship movements are often typed as a single line, such as:
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.EX nav 19 jjjh
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.s1
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Or some movements may be done partly on the command line and partly
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interactively:
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.EX nav 18 jj
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.NF
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<112.7:112.7: -4, -2> v
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patrol boat #18 on open sea @ -3,-2
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<112.7:112.7: -4, -2> gh
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patrol boat #18 stopped at -6,-2
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.FI
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.s1
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You may also simply specify the destination sector
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on the command line. In this case,
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empire will set the path to be the cheapest path (in terms of
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length) that currently exists. The unit(s) will move to the
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destination sector, and then ask for more input.
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.s1
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For example,
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.EX nav 18 -6,-2
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.NF
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<104.2:104.2: -6, -2> h
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patrol boat #18 stopped at -6,-2
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.FI
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.s1
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Note that if you are navigating multiple ships, you may only specify a
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destination sector on the command line if all the ships start in the
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same sector.
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.s1
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The formula for the movement cost for 1 sector is:
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.NF
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480 / (( speed + speed * (50+tech)/(200+tech) ) * Efficiency/100)
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.FI
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.s1
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Moving a ship through a sector that has been mined risks hitting a
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mine (see \*Qinfo Hitchance\*U).
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Minesweepers can remove up to five mines per pass through a
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sector (indicated by the message \*QSweep...\*U).
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Minesweepers also take 1/2 normal damage from mines.
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.s1
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Also, note that some things may affect you while you are moving. Forts
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belonging to hostile countries will fire at you when you come within
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range. Hostile land/sea/air units may fire at/bomb your ships, if they're
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on interdiction missions (see info mission). If your enemy has a
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stack of missiles on interdiction mission, then they will
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automatically fire one after another until all of your \*Qvaluable\*U
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ships are sunk.
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The chance of missiles and planes hitting your ships is determined by
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the \*Qworst\*U ship in your fleet (see \*Qbomb\*U for the chance of
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hitting). Any damage incurred by the fleet is divided evenly among
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all the ships in the fleet which are in the same sector.
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.s1
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.L NOTE
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.s1
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While navigating, you cannot enter a sector that belongs to another
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country unless they have FRIENDLY relations with you. This includes bridges, and harbors.
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.s1
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.SA "mine, Ship-types, mission, sail, Ships, Transportation, Moving"
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