The "Colonizing" plan

[Hans Ronne]

>While testing the "Colonizer" game that I spoke of earlier, I noticed
>that the AI does some strange things when a unit has a "Colonizing"
>plan.
>
>If a unit has a "Colonizing" plan, it oftentimes has a task such as
>"Move dir E, 6 times."  The choice of direction and distance seems to be
>random; sometimes it will cause a colonizer to try to enter hostile
>terrain.
>
>Is this intentional, or is it just incomplete AI code?

This is intentional. The colonizers do random walks (Brownian motion),
which is the quickest way to spread them out over as large a territory as
possible. In Civ type games, this is very important. Grabbing territory
(and holding on to it) is what the game is all about. If some of them
stroll into enemy territory, so be it. They will not settle unless the
immediate neighbourhood is clear of enemy units.

Hans

P.S. The move at random code for other units works differently, and I think
less efficiently. They frequently get stuck trying to walk into the same
obstacle again and again.

Hans Ronne

hronne@pp.sbbs.se