                           Concept : Autonavigation

 In a very short while after acquiring ships the effort of moving ships  after
every  update gets very boring.  And the more ships you have, the more work it
is.  Hence the concept of autonavigation.  Like any self-respecting  dictator,
you  don't  personally  drive  your  ships around (except when you want to) --
instead you command you ship captains to take their  vessels  to  a  specified
destination.  This is done via the order command.

Each ship can be ordered to proceed to a destination.  During each update, the
ship  will  move  as  far as possible toward its destination, stopping when it
runs out of mobility or when it is unable to proceed because it has  run  into
previously  unknown  obstructions.   Note  that  this  movement is done before
mobility is accumlated, so that after the update is  complete  the  ship  will
have some mobility remaining.

The autonavigation capability is dependent upon the per-country  map  database
accessed  via  the  bmap command.  If you order a vessel to a destination that
causes it to cross a previously unexplored area,  the  ship  will  attempt  to
cross  that  area  as if it were water.  One of the features of the bmap func-
tionality is that when a ship is navigated, it automatically uses its radar to
see the local sectors (much like real life).  This sector information is added

                           Concept : Autonavigation

to the per country map database.  Thus upon running into a previously  unknown
obstruction,  that  information  is  added to the map database and on the next
update, a new path to the destination will  be  calculated  which  avoids  the
obstruction.  This process applied iteratively means that a ships will eventu-
ally find its way around any obstruction, provided that  a  path  exists.   In
reality,  this  is  a limit to this process.  In order to limit the processing
that is done to find a path to the destination, the internal  path  string  is
limited to XX characters.

Autonavigation is not limited to  just  ships.   You  can  also  order  tanks,
trains,  and  balloons  to find their way to specific destinations.  The route
taken by each vehicle type adheres to certain terrain restrictions:

     vehicle type         can pass through these sector types
   ship                            . x =
   train                           w x = # +
   tank                all except  . ^ /
   tank (atv)          all except  . /
   balloon             all except  ^

                           Concept : Autonavigation

NOTE: The following feature is not available yet.

The other capability of the autonav function is  autotrading.   By  specifying
two  destinations and two commodities, s ship will move back and forth between
the two destination loading and unloading the appropriate commodities.

See also : navigate, order, ship-types, tank-types, balloon-types, train-types

