We need to begin the development discussion for the 'alpha' code of 'turn handlers'. So we start with the questions ---

What 'ends' a turn?

and

When a turn is 'over', what happens?

What 'ends' a turn?

I assume clicking on a 'end turn' button, for one thing. But we should allow many options for people to explore.

Should a turn also end automatically if/when all units have moved, ala SMAC? Time limits? A limit on the number of orders you can issue? Other ideas?

When a turn is 'over', what happens?

We need to make a list of all things that must be cycled/processed after a turn. Then we need to order/organize those things.

Preliminary thoughts, off the top of my head:

• population turn handler:
  
  
  
  • births
    
  • deaths
    
  • consumption
    
  • movement
    
  
  
• ecology turn handler:
  
  
  
  • growth of plants
    
  • change in water levels
    
  
  
• govt turn handler:
  
  
  
  • policy changes
    
  • taxation
    
  • special orders
    
  
  

This is mainly intended to be a starting point/example. We need to list and organize all turn logic in this manner, then decide what order they will be 'fired' in.

This is by no means complete! I'm just putting it up here as a central repository for information that will be frequently updated to further the discussion. At the bottom are a few things I'm still not sure how we should handle. And of course I haven't fleshed out most of what happens in the various turn handlers yet. I start with step 1, which is stuff the player does before ending the turn.

note: the order of these phases is not fixed. I will try and note which models need to go before others, at least as I think it should be. Obviously there is feedback going both ways between each of a pair of models fairly frequently. In these cases I have put the model where the feedback to the other is strongest IMO first. We can see if my proposed sequence is adequate, or needs to be rearranged. Sometimes I will skip numbers, or have them in the wrong order, since there is no point in rearranging all the numbers each time a change is made.

Also, in keeping with our new extreme programming (XP) philosophy we should attempt to come up with "stories" or test cases to go along with these. F. Smith is the one who really knows about this, so he can tell us when it's time to start...

My current take on the overall turn sequence is that each phase should be executed for all civs before moving onto the next phase. This is especially critical for the governmental and military areas, but I expect it may also be important in the economic area if we have merchants making real-time decisions about trade across civs boundaries

1. During the turn the player orders actions like: military movements, changes in economic or government areas, diplomacy, etc.
Also the AI thinks about its moves to whatever extent it can while the player is moving.

Or, alternatively, the turns can be run in "streaming" mode. In this case, the AI will execute turns itself for the player based on the player's general orders. In this case, the "end turn" button is pushed automatically until either a player-set interrupt condition is met, and streaming mode stops, or the number of turns the player wanted to stream has elapsed.

When the turn ends:

(I think the military stuff should generally go first, because it can change the results of most other models. For instance, if a given area was actively fought over during the turn, economic production there will of course be suppressed. However, I have tentatively put the government stuff first, since in principle revolts can be started in response to player actions, and since revolts and riots should be able to surprise the player and cause combats, it needs to go before the military stuff.)

3. AI final decisions for military movements etc. are made. If the AI had a lot of chance to think during the player turn, then the best decisions are used. If the AI hasn't yet had time to think about something it will use the quick-and-dirty action that seems best. After this point the turn handling for the player civ and AI civs is the same.

2. Government/social/riots turn handler (similar to military in that it can affect many other models)
A. Government

1. policy changes applied
   
2. special orders applied
   
3. Change current govt profile a step forward to the already computed equilibrium point. (the eq point is computed after a ruler's intervention in the govt interface or automatically after some years w/o ruler's intervention)
   
4. update Knowledge Levels and Representation Values

4. Execute military actions one tick at a time. TFs for all civs act simultaneously. AI allocates supporting forces according to previously determined directives. Fight battles as they occur each tick. (I'm not sure if TF supplies status should be checked each tick, or just at the beginning of each turn.) If we can it would be good to update map showing locations of battles with some cool graphic at this point.

5. Once the military stuff is done determine who holds which territory securely, and which territory is contested. I'm not sure about this, but it seems we may need to know this information so I put it in.

6. Econ turn handler
A. Calculate production
B. Calculate initial prices
C. Figure Taxes and implement government purchases
D. Trading phase (merchants trade with local economy, taxes on trade can be used next turn)
E. Calculate final prices and wages
F. Consumption and Investment (& people's purchases)

7. Population turn handler
A. consumption (before rest since nutrition is important contribution to others)
B. handle disease model
C. births and deaths
D. migration

8. Ecology turn handler
A. disaster model + pollution effects & climate effects
B. intentional terrain modification
C. plant growth
D. water level changes

9. Tech turn handler (after economy)

10. Advance turn number/year

11. Activate first TF for player to move (if appropriate), update maps and other GUI elements as appropriate

Return to step 1

Some further questions (I'm sure there are a lot more )

When do we do diplomacy between two AIs?

Should we break up the Econ turn? When do merchants search for new trade routes?. Should we do production at beginning of turn, but people don't consume until end? I think for now it will work okay just leaving all the Econ stuff together. Merchants can search for new trade routes during the player move.

I'm guessing disaster model will go with ecology model, since they are so closely linked... in most places anyway...

and disease model will fall in with population model, again since they are so closely linked (death and all), etc...

Correct me if I'm wrong...

Yep, forgot them . I will put them where you suggest on the next revision.

F_Smith:

I'd like to specify a bit further what's needed in the govt/social/riots part:

Govt
1. Change current govt profile a step forward to the already computed equilibrium point. (the eq point is computed after a ruler's intervention in the govt interface or automatically after some years w/o ruler's intervention)
2. Update Knowledge Levels and Representation Values

Riots
1. Compute PAF's
2. Compute probabilities for Events and roll dices for them. Apply events according to dices results.

I quote from my piece above:

quote: In this case, the "end turn" button is pushed automatically until either a player-set interrupt condition is met, and streaming mode stops, or the number of turns the player wanted to stream has elapsed.

Yeah, that was just supposed to be essentially "enter the previously chosen selections into the model guts". I know many things will be passed to other models. I'll try and rephrase it better sometime, but for now I've got some programming to do, so another update of this will probably have to wait a bit.

Cya,

As Mark said, the next step is to come up with 'test cases' for programmers to work by.

The points below each 'turn handler' above are a good example of the test cases. For example, when coding the Government turn handler, the test cases should be --

1) Apply policy changes
2) Apply special orders
3) Change current govt profile
4) Update Knowledge Levels and Representation Values

Each of these is a 'test case', or 'programmer's task'. The programmer picks one, then codes, tests, codes, tests, until that 'test case' works the way it should. The programmer then gets as many others as possible to bang around on the program to help iron out any issues.

We have an early working 'govt turn handler' from the Beast's code that can be used as an example, for anyone that wants to see the code.

quote: Originally posted by Twinge on 12-30-2000 09:17 PMAnyway, I think there should be a "panic" button to interrupt streaming, just in case something happens you didnt set a cancelation for.

Its already there in demo 4. Its called 'Halt'