forum.freeciv.org

One of the functions for units Freeciv has been lacking is the ability to have a unit, such as a worker or the likes, sleep. Currently the closest you can come to making a unit temporarily inactive is by making them go into sentry mode, but the problem is units you want to put aside will just wake up if a foreign unit passes by forcing one to make an enclave somewhere to put the unused units.
Essentially the sleep function would be a copy of the sentry function, just without waking them. Perhaps the shortcut would be something like shift+s?

This is a longstanding annoyance. I have an idea for it in patch #3718; not sure it's going to make it in time for 2.6 though.

[...] new proposal:

• Users' keypresses to specify only the desired attention behaviour:
  • (F) [currently "fortify"] becomes "hold this (F)ixed position and don't wake up"
  • (S)entry means "hold this position, wake up if someone comes near"
• For either key, units automatically fortify if able, otherwise not.

Is there any reason it can't be this simple?

This solves the problem that people are already using (F) to avoid units in cities waking up, and getting annoyed about units which can't get the defense bonus.

I don't think there are any downsides to fortifying, so there's no reason not to do so automatically.