[Rails-devel] M&H/NYC swap thoughts

[Erik V. <eri...@hc...>]

There is yet another aspect of the M&H/NYC swap in 1830 that we
have not implemented entirely according to the rules,
but for that aspect it is not so easy to see how to fix it.
Perhaps we can better not fix it at all.

The rules say, that the M&H/NYC share swap is allowed
- during the player's turn of a Stock Round, or
- between the turns of other players or Railroads in either
Stock or Operating Rounds.

We have so far ignored the latter part of this rule.
My question is: should we do something about it?
Is it worth while? 
The only sensible reason I can think of doing this in an OR
would be that a player would want to hold on the M&H, 
and swap it just before the first 5-train is bought. 
Has anyone ever done that or seen it being done?


To implement it strictly according to the rules would mean,
that the M&H owner would get a turn at each and every player/company
turn change, in which the swap must be done or denied.

In hotseat and moderator play it would not be a problem:
it would be just an extra allowed action (signalled
by highlighting the Special menu). The fact that it would
be executed by another than the current player is not a problem here.

But in internet play I don't see how we can implement this 
smoothly. Giving one player a turn in between all other turns 
would be pretty annoying, and slow down the game
for an action that is almost never taken at all.

So I would propose to make a choice, at least for internet play,
between two options:
- either ignore the in-between-turn option for the M&H swap, or
- always allow it (so the M&H owner can always do the swap
without explicitly having a turn). 

I would prefer to leave the matter as it is, i.e. to ignore the 
in-between-turns part of the rule.

Any comments?

Erik Vos