Hacking Xconq - Writing New Synthesis Methods

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## Writing New Synthesis Methods

You can add new synthesis methods to Xconq. Synthesis methods should start out by testing whether or not to run, and should never assume that any other method has been run before or after, nor that any particular game module has been loaded. However, "tricks" are usually OK, such as setting a particular global variable in a particular module only, then having the synthesis method test whether that global is set. See the file ``init.c'` for further details.

Synthesis methods that take longer than a second or two to execute should generate percent-done info for the interface to use, via the function `announce_progress`. Be aware that most methods will be O(n) or O(n*n) on the size of the world or the number of units, so they can take much longer to set up a large game than a small one. Players will often go overboard and start up giant games, so this happens frequently. Also, Xconq may be running on a much smaller and slower machine than what you're using now.

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