TODO

Recent Ideas/Suggestions:

! Update genrules to reflect incremental taxes !
 (somewhere near line 2700 in genrules.cpp)

** Economy
   -- allow markets to be switched on or off when disabling/enabling items
      (so that a GM can correct item choices made at world creation time).
   -- add a selection gamedef to allow for enabling individual item types
      (basic resources, mounts, tools, weapons, armor) for markets.
   -- finish hex development/wages/growth stuff.
   -- add a way to create new settlements during the game.
   -- DEVELOPMENT gamedef to control settlement size at start of the game.
   -- trade item prices depend on development (allowing more profit to be
      made the more developed your cities are).
   -- make trade items produceable.
   -- option to have trade structures increase the resource by 50% but
      decrease all others by 33%.
   -- player economy: give each town a trade allotment. Trade factions can
      "withdraw" items from local silver up to the trade allotment per turn.
      This only works if the item can basically be produced in that region
      (from local resources).
      Items withdrawn like this get added to next turn's demand! (thus the
      players make the markets). Silver surplus from these markets is paid
      directly into a development fund (boosts town development).
   -- incremental tax returns: x silver with skill, +y with weapon,
      +z with armor, +a if inside a fort...
   -- let taxation act as a dampener on economic activity, such as lowering
      positive effects on development and wages, which is offset by trading
      non-food items.

** Order Parser
   -- when parsing unit lists, check for multiple unit entries and disregard
      them.
      
** NPCs
   -- add an arm% to MakeManUnit to allow for less than 100% armed units.
   -- add a way of adding game-specific npc factions and a turn phase where
      the npc ai gives orders.
   -- unit control: allow npc units to be controlled by player factions.
      
** Battle
   -- modify chance of attack in free rounds according to tactics (first
      round) and speed (rout).
   -- item loss for winners' casualties too.
   -- item loss in battle due to usage.
   -- mounts: chance for killing mount for each hit on the rider.
   -- need to do something about the 10 men in front protecting 1000 archers
      behind situation (such as a 1% chance to hit the rear rank per
      10x ratio back-to-front).
   -- change CLOA protection to 97% (was 99%).
   
** Spoils
   -- no mounts as spoils! Consequently change the way the spoil flags
      work.
   -- no NORMAL weapons if the unit did't have them.
   -- better spoils distribution: units who need an item will get it
      before others do.
   -- Item spoils only from monster lairs (see below).
   -- less item recovery in battle for: armies on the move, huge battles.
   -- chance of weapon destruction if a soldier is killed by a magic
      attack (fire attacks destroy all wooden weapons etc).
      
** Lairs
   -- can house multiple units, only the first one is visible to the
      outside world and can interact with it.
   -- entering a lair (requiring an OBSE leader or so) causes a fight
      with ALL monsters in the lair. Only these fights give full spoils.
   -- have (some) lairs act as shafts and not have any shafts from the
      surface to the underworld.
   
** Stealth/Observation:
   -- SEARCH command: a month-long order giving a possible OBSE bonus
      for seeing non-moving units in the region. 0.1% for +1 bonus per man,
      0.1% for additional +1 per 10 men and for a third +1 0.1% chance per
      100 men in the unit.
   -- Add a chance where a stealth unit loses one point of stealth after
      performing a theft or assassination.
   -- Figure weight into Stealth.
      
** Movement:
   -- keep a record of unused MP and move direction from turn to turn.
   -- make terrain MP cost more configurable.
   -- introduce an option to double all unit's MP and add together MP cost
      for leaving a hex and entering a hex per move.
   -- implement "AT x y (z)" commands. The unit would stop when reaching
      an AT hex and would add the orders bracketed by AT to the template
      for next turn.
      
** Units:
   -- Unit grouping: implement objects such as "Camp" and "Caravan" that
      allow all units in them to move together. Camp units also fight
      together and caravan units also share weight between them.
   -- Racial leaders.
   -- XP system. XP's are needed for leader skills (OBSE,TACT,STEA,WCRA,
      ACRA, and all magic). They are gained through exploration, battle,
      entering lairs, trading a new trade item in a city, etc.
      
** Faction Point System:
   -- introduce a Faction Efficiency System as suggested on atlantisdev.
   -- some kind of mana system.

** Spells:
   -- modify the way banishing works: A BDEM mage would get 1 to [skill
      level] attacks. Each attack has a certain chance of banishing the
      demon instantly, as per normal contest spell level vs. magic
      defense. (as per Ben Lloyd's suggestion).
   -- change necromancy by creating a raise undead spell that creates
      undead in the aftermath of a battle.
   -- do something about illusions (make them impervious to all attacks
      except melee?).
      
** World Creation:
   -- underworld: more customisability and more terrains (also fix lakes
      in the underworld).
   -- find a new algorithm for making land with the fractal options
      (something that's at least partially based on elevation so that
      worlds don't turn out so different each time).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre-Version 5 TODO:

** Architecture
   -- Improve the item/hex editor [low priority]
   -- I'd like to add some code that will do a bit of validation on a
      rule-set, and make sure it isn't broken.
   -- Rework data storage so game files refer to items, etc. by abbreviation,
      rather than array index. Remove all array indices from game files.
      (partially done)
   -- Move all ruleset static data to human readable (and editable) files
   -- Get rid of indices totally, use item abbreviation or some other
      tag to lookup in various tables.
   -- Localise all strings, to allow for internationalisation 
   -- Exit with an error code on errors

** Combat
   -- Consider a gamedef which keeps tactics skill (and combat skills?)
      hidden from combatants.  (I personally think this a bad idea, but it
      was suggested, thus goes on this list)
   -- Consider hiding battle details from units which are completely wiped
      out?  [You know a battle occured, but no details of the enemy forces].
      Again, I suspect rumors travel (ie, the peasants in the area that saw
      the battle talk and the word of their strenght spreads).   Given that
      generating *inaccurate* reports would be a royal pain, I will probably
      leave this be.
   -- Add more info to battle reports. Need some discussion on what might
      be good items to include.
   -- Consider a gamedef which has monsters only give silver as loot,
      never items (maybe up the amount of silver given slightly under this
      option)
   -- Consider a gamedef which prevents trade goods being given as loot,
      as they tend to just annoy non-trade factions.
   -- Consider having specific types of wandering monsters carrying
      specific types of armor/weapons (such as pirates or skeleton or
      kobolds).  Possibly make those monsters not give normal loot, but
      only the stuff they carried.
   -- Consider Tactics alternative -- High tactics side gets a combat bonus
      of +X to all attacks (decreasing by one per round down to 0) where X
      is the difference in tactical advantage. [Found in an old suggestion
      on the dejanews.comm.atlantisproject newsgroup]
   -- Consider Terrain bonuses for native -- three possible options
      1) creatures in their native territory get a +1 attacking bonus
      2) creatures in their native territory get a +2 attacking bonus
      3) creatures in their native territory add +1 to their sides tactics
      [Found in an old suggestion on the dejanews.comm.atlantisproject
      newsgroup]
   -- Consider Tim Martel's suggestion to allow ranged attacks from front
      row troops to hit the rear row of defenders.
   -- Consider Tim Martel's suggestion of 'low magic'/'no magic' areas.
   -- Consider 'overall' morale score which could affect routing.
   -- Consider Geoff Dunbars more complicated (left/middle/right,
      behind,command) combat system as he proposed it [in atlantisdev message
      #2703].
   -- Consider Tim Martel's suggestion of having tactical advantage be a
      contest of skills, rather than a straight comparison.

** Items
   -- Consider adding the ability to produce trade goods.
   -- Consider an option to disable trade all goods.
   -- Consider reducing the number of trade goods to make viable routes
      more likely.
   -- Consider Duergar's war horses [See atlantisdev post #1119]
   -- Consider having use'd items [i.e., items which are utilised by a USE
      order; may be part of an expanded magic system].
   -- Consider possible tools for increasing building (and ship) production.
   -- Consider multi-race hexes [See atlantisdev post #7] It is potentially
      unbalancing (since it now requires some resource management to get
      good specialists to the right places, but might be nice when combined
      with a larger number of races (such as Ceran))
   -- Consider Tim Martel's idea of a total limit on production of a
      resource in a hex with a chance of regeneration.


** Orders
   -- consider ADVERTISE/PURCHASE orders (ADVERTISE run end of month,
      PURCHASE run at beginning) to allow player run markets in a hex for
      the succeeding month.  [Perennial suggestion.  Reason for using
      different commands than BUY/SELL is a) to have them resolve at a
      specific time in the order processing (different than buy/sell) AND
      to easily allow different syntax (you could advertise teaching in
      addition to items -- If you advertised teaching would have to *FORCE*
      unit to teach the next turn even if noone bought the studying, that's
      the price of doing business in skills)]
   -- It would be nice to have 'overwriting' errors only occur when the
      order being overridden was non repeating.
   -- It might be nice to have "no such unit" errors only occur in
      GIVEs if the order is non repeating (giving to caravans).
   -- Possibly modify the orders processor to replace 'NEW XX' for the
      faction which owns the unit in question (or which the unit in question
      considers ally?) with the actual unit number in templated orders.
   -- Transport/deliver orders (in progress)

** Orders, Conditional
   -- Consider having 'conditional orders' specifically 'AT x,y,z'. 
      [I think that with the advent of the TURN/ENDTURN order this is
      less useful, especially as implementing this 'correctly' would require
      having the ability to run instant orders at the start of each movement
      phase, which is *not* something I wish to begin doing, at least not
      in the 4.0 series of Atlantis.]

** Rules
   -- Consider "building specific" skills. [Meaning here that there are skills
      which could only be learned in that specific location.  Requested for
      Ceran]
   -- Consider having buildings which require specific items/skills to enter.
      [Suggested/requested by Ben Lloyd (I think).  Basically, gives a way to
      add some role-playing elements to the game in the forms of quests --
      especially if combined with the early suggestion about non-teachable
      skills.]
   -- Add a 'MAINTAINONLY' flag to buildings so that a building can decay and
      be kept up, but cannot be constructed. (requested for Ceran)
	  
   -- Unit grouping (eg. Armies or Schools).
   
   -- Show faction of ally in refusal to attack or assassinate.

   -- Add ability to set stances versus specific units, not just factions
      [This would allow you to be unfriendly to a faction but still allow
      specific unit ambassadors to travel through your lands, or trade with
      you, or what not.   Right now, it's all or nothing against a faction
      and this would push the granularity down a level.]

   -- Figure out how an autoclaim option for studying could be made to work
      [Tom Alsen suggested a 'POOL' command which allows you to pool money
      in a hex for things like studying, upkeep, purchases, etc]

   -- Add option for entertain being an instant order.
   -- Make monster movement only choose among viable exits [Perhaps with
      a bias against moving back where you came from.  Also make sure to
      leave a percentage chance for staying put]
   -- Consider some sorts of dangers for production

** Rules, food
   -- Consider allowing luxury food items (chocolate, vodka, cavier) to be
      able to be eaten.  Again, don't think this is a good idea, but will
      at least think on it.

** Skills
   -- Merchant skill (limited number of merchants)
      [The thought on the Merchant skill is that
      a unit with the merchant skill could buy/sell items at a profit of
      (for example) 10% of the listed price times his skill level, so a
      level 5 merchant would be able to buy items from a city at 50% of
      the listed value and sell them for 150% of the listed value.  Having
      that unlimited seemed unbalancing, so I figured limiting it (much as
      total number of mages are limited to mage factions) based on number
      of trade points.
   -- Consider the use of buildings as skill boosters for some skills.
      [Craig had initially suggested  a shipyard which gave the first 20
      men in it a +1 boost to SHIP, but realized that this wouldn't work
      as when they started construction of the ship they'd leave the
      building and enter the new ship, but it might be useful in other
      contexts -- such as horsemen in a stable or farmers in a farm]
      [This would probably be new buildings rather than the existing ones
      since total produce boosters are useful as well]
   -- Consider a tracking skill (contested by stealth or by a new skill?)
      which would allow a tracker to see information like whether a unit
      was deliberately revealing information, who that unit gave things too,
      which direction that unit moved, etc.

** Spells/Magic
   -- Add more items so that apprentices are actually useful. [Tom suggested
      that another way of making apprentices more useful would be to allow
      them to learn magic skills, but none above level 2.. This would take
      a bit more work, but is a valid option]
   -- rethink some of the current spells. [Az's beastform spell]
   -- Clean up spell system -- Damage spells have been parameterized,
      Object creation spells, summoning spells and 'other' spells still
      need some sort of parameterization and genericization so that they
      can be tweaked on a game basis if desired. [This includes the handling
      of things like the speed increase from Summon Wind]
   -- Merge Lacandon spells -- SOME work has been done on this already
      but a LOT more needs to be done before this is really doable without
      a lot of heartache and pain.

** World Creation
   -- Prompt for things like ocean percent and other values used only at
      world creation time.

** Atlantis 5.0.0
   -- Ben Lloyd's class system should go in (probably wait on 5.0.0)
   -- Move String and List over to using a STL implementation
   -- Reconsider XML report generation.