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Topic: Transportation priorities

Venatrix
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Joined: 2010-10-05, 20:31
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Posted at: 2010-10-23, 21:05

Hi, I don't understand in which order the carriers transport the goods from one flag to another. Sometimes it seemes to me to work on the principle LIFO, but I don't really believe it, because I think that would be not the best system… So how exactly does it work?

And another question: Is it possible to implement kind of priority-system for the transport (like in Settlers)? I don't know if it would mix up too much for the game play. But I sometimes wish I could tell them first to carry the iron, then the other wares… I hope it's clear that this feature shouldn't be mistaken for the existing economy options.

Greetings


Two is the oddest prime.

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QCS

Joined: 2009-12-29, 22:47
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Posted at: 2010-10-28, 18:48

From my game observation it's a FIFO (also called queue), but I don't know the implementation details. A priority system might be a good idea... but complex.


CMake is evil.

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ixprefect

Joined: 2009-02-27, 14:28
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Posted at: 2010-11-01, 19:59

The code that is responsible for breaking ties among items is in Flag::fetch_pending_item(), and indeed it effectively acts as a FIFO: newly arrived items are added to the end of m_items in Flag::add_item(), and then the first appropriate item from that array is taken by carriers. So it's very simple and stupid, but I think that keeping it simple and stupid is generally not a bad idea.

One possible improvement would be to always prioritize items whose Transfer was caused by a Request (hmm, some of the comments there seem out of date). Transfers can be caused either by Requests (think of them as e.g. a Sawmill saying that it needs more trunks), or by so-called idle movements. When a Lumberjack drops a newly created trunk on its flag and trunks are currently not needed, then this trunk will get a Transfer into a warehouse. It would be natural to give the latter type of transfer an idle priority in Flag::ack/fetch_pending_item().


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abtools

Joined: 2010-01-08, 16:31
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Posted at: 2010-11-01, 21:02

Hello together,

I agree to Venatrix that a priority system for transportation would be a great improvement: indeed I remember the same situation that I really needed my Iron to get transported through a bottleneck and here a priority system would have been very useful.

Best regards Andreas


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egg

Joined: 2009-06-22, 16:45
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Posted at: 2010-11-02, 01:15

It might also be worth increasing the carrying capacity of beasts of burden- currently an ox can only carry as much as one man. If this was implemented (ten times one man? all the items in the queue?) this would improve transportation considerably, and make building horse farms etc. really worthwhile.


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Venatrix
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Joined: 2010-10-05, 20:31
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Posted at: 2010-11-02, 09:07

egg wrote: It might also be worth increasing the carrying capacity of beasts of burden- currently an ox can only carry as much as one man. If this was implemented (ten times one man? all the items in the queue?) this would improve transportation considerably, and make building horse farms etc. really worthwhile.

Ten times would be too much, I think. But I was wondering if it could transport two items at the same time. At least they are stronger than humans...


Two is the oddest prime.

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abtools

Joined: 2010-01-08, 16:31
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Posted at: 2010-11-02, 09:24

Hello together,

I don't think that the transportation capacity of oxes & co. should be increased at all. It should not be too easy to work around the transportation problem, because this is one of the important things to think about in the game.

But anyway a priority system (like in Settlers itself) would be a great improvement.

Best regards Andreas


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SirVer

Joined: 2009-02-19, 15:18
Posts: 1445
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Location: Germany - Munich
Posted at: 2010-11-02, 13:11

I agree fully with abtools.


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abtools

Joined: 2010-01-08, 16:31
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Posted at: 2010-11-02, 15:11

Hello SirVer,

thanks for your support here.

In this case I allowed myself to add an issue regarding that to Launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/widelands/+bug/669918

So if some of you wants that, too, or have further ideas on that, just add a comment there.

Best regards Andreas

P. S.: Great work at the WiHack, Holger! I followed your news on the weekend. Maybe I've got some time next year to participate myself: Widelands is a great project! face-smile.png


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egg

Joined: 2009-06-22, 16:45
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Posted at: 2010-11-03, 13:42

Of course an ox can carry more than a human, many times more. To me, it looks silly to see an ox plodding along with only a snack on its back. If this is inconvenient for Widelands, then a smaller animal should be used. Or perhaps the Cattle farm could be replaced with a carrier training gymnasium, which would produce carriers capable of handling two loads at once.


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