Re: Building

[Lincoln Peters <sampln at sbcglobal dot net>]

On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 20:53, mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:
> Has anyone actually built something like the "shop" described in section
> 2.25.3 of the design manual?  I would like to have a unit that builds
> other units of the player's choice, instantly, limited by a material, but
> only on explicit demand and in the amounts requested.  I'm getting a
> variety of bizarre behaviour depending on what settings I use, but the two
> main problems seem to be that the shop doesn't actually build units until
> the next turn after they're requested, and when it does, it builds as many
> of that type as the material allows, draining the material supply
> completely.  It also looks like sometimes twice the intended material
> price is charged.  Is there an example of a file out there where this
> behaviour is used and works?
> 
> Issues I'd like to know about include:
> 
> * does the "shop" need ACP?  does it need to have acp-independent turned on?

If it is supposed to build stuff instantaneously, it needs
acp-independent turned on.

> * can I allow it to build in nonadjacent hexes by turning up the
>   build-range and undocumented create-range values?

Yes.  You need to set create-range an build-range to the same values (I
don't know why they are separate tables).

> * should I be setting the "creation" values or the "build" values, or both?

In theory, you only need to set the "build" values (you mean as in
"consumption-per-build", right?).  However, I find that if I don't
declare the same values in the "creation tables (e.g.
"material-to-build"), you might get a unit that keeps building even when
it runs out of material.

> * can I make this work with take-from-treasury?

I think that someone got this to work in ancient-days.g, but I don't
know how.  If I understood it, the platforms and controllers in
bolodd2.g and bolodd3.g would behave like I wanted them to.

> * how do I get it to only build one unit instead of "as many as possible"?

Type in the number of units to be built before you give it the "build"
command.

(How scary is that?  A game with keyboard shortcuts based on vi?)

> * how do I get it to build them immediately instead of waiting for next turn?

I don't think that you can make acp-independent units build
immediately.  It will probably require some extra code for a game
designer to declare whether an acp-independent unit builds immediately
or waits.

> * there are probably bugs in the code, but at this point I'm pretty sure
>   I don't even have the GDL correct, so it's hard to say which of my
>   problems come from bugs and which are from bad GDL.

Rest assured that you're not the only one who has occasionally been
confused by the GDL.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln@sbcglobal.net>

Are we THERE yet?  My MIND is a SUBMARINE!!