#109 New Game-Option: Claim Tile dialog at pioneer work

[Fenyo]

Ok, since the SF's Merge-request system is still not working, i try this one.
Although i have not created diff files, because first i want to try that you can merge using other way.
Please Try to pull/merge my branch with this link:
https://sourceforge.net/u/fenyo1/freecol/ci/claimTileDialog/

If you can not pull/merge from my SF, then please try my GitHub:
https://github.com/fenyo1/FreeCol/tree/claimTileDialog

If that is also not working, i will create that diff file.

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New Game-Option: Claim Tile dialog at pioneer work
When enabled, the game asks the player if he/she want to claim the tile when he/she orders a pioneer for some work at that tile.
Of course it asks only when it is not already owned. If he/she chooses yes, it will try to claim the tile before the work (just as it did until this),
but if he/she chooses no, then the work on the tile will be done WITHOUT owning the tile.

Now you may ask: why the heck we even need this?
For the answer, i want to tell a little story what happened to me before.

I really like to trade with the indians.
And to ease the trade with them, i always make roads toward their settlements. (i have to use wagon trains)
And of course if i make a road to a tile, then i will have to own that tile.
And what happened when i made road to all tile around the settlement?
It starved to death! And i even did not need those tiles, i just needed roads!
Price: That settlement died. :(

So with this new feature, it is possible to make roads to indian settlements WITHOUT owning their land!

Default state: OFF

[Mike Pope]

I take your point about wanting roads and trade without starving the settlement. However it is quite clear that the designers wanted there to be adverse consequences to road-building, and the tile ownership is the means by which the native anger is attributed to the builder. This patch allows players to remove all adverse consequences. Therefore I think it is unbalanced and will not be merging this at this stage. However I will set the status to "Open-rejected" as perhaps it is worth reconsidering for FreeCol2, or for "Very Easy" mode.

[Fenyo]

I disagree.
I have just checked the original Colonization in Dosbox.
This is what i found:
If i make a Road to a tile, and leave it with the unit, and a Native unit moves to that tile, it acquires that tile! So the roaded tile will be Native owned land once again!

This balances the game so the user can make roads to Native Settlements for trading, without starving the Settlement.

So i think the way Freecol works now is the unbalanced, and my patch restores this balance.

[Mike Pope]

If i make a Road to a tile, and leave it with the unit, and a Native unit moves to that tile, it acquires that tile! So the roaded tile will be Native owned land once again!

If Col1 did this then we need to implement it. A simple form is easy, but getting the AI to deliberately target tiles for reclamation is harder.

This balances the game so the user can make roads to Native Settlements for trading, without starving the Settlement. So i think the way Freecol works now is the unbalanced, and my patch restores this balance.

Yes, but it is still unnecessary if we implement the above.

[wintertime]

I already saw recently that tiles where I built a road got reclaimed very quickly by natives.
These were tiles outside colony radius I built the road on for faster travel.

[Mike Pope]

I already saw recently that tiles where I built a road got reclaimed very quickly by natives.

OK, that is good news. I was assuming that they would not claim tiles with a non-null owner.
I have found the code. I bet I wrote it.

        // Claim land for tribe?
        if ((newTile.getOwner() == null
                || (newTile.getOwner().isEuropean()
                     && newTile.getOwningSettlement() == null))
        ...

What remains though is for the native AI to target such tiles, as at the moment we are relying on a brave to just wander onto them, I have added it to my list of AI improvements to do.