Re: [Rails-devel] 1856 CGR Diesel upgrades

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

	> FWIW, Dirk Clemens' 18xx moderator enforces train-buying rules,
but
	> does not force the CGR to upgrade a 4 to a Diesel.

	This brings up the broader question of the rules language that, as
	Dirk believes, requires as follows: CGR *must* acquire a permanent
	train ASAP, and cannot pay out or change share price in any way
until
	it has done so.

	In my reading of the rules, *all* the requirements in the preceding
	sentence are part of the paragraph about what happens when the CGR
	borrows a Diesel, and apply only then.  (Meaning that a CGR which
owns
	only 4-trains is free to operate normally in all respects; but if
CGR
	forms with no trains, or it forms with only 4-trains and they die
	before it ever owns a permanent train, *only then* it must borrow a
	diesel, withhold, and not change price until it buys a permanent
	train.)

Assuming that there is no debate on the following:
a. the CGR cannot borrow a Diesel if it owns a 4-train,
b. the CGR price does not change until it has a permanent train,
then I think the only remaining questions are
c. whether the CGR must withhold if it doesn't yet have a permanent train,
and
d. whether it *must* exchange the 4-train for a Diesel as soon as it has the
money.
I'm pretty sure that Rails says "yes" to c and (currently) "no" to d,
but in the latter case only because it never enforces train buying now.

My personal opinion is that both questions should be answered with "yes",
but if people want options, it's probably no big deal to add these.

	At any rate, 1.1.1 does not yet enforce these requirements.  But if
	they are ever implemented, I want the option to have them only apply
	when I believe they're supposed to.

	* * *

	Other noteworthy behaviors I found when trying out 1856 last night:

	1.  If I use the options menu to view the map during a stock round,
	it still contains text directing the company that ran last to buy a
	train or hit Done (even though all action buttons are grayed out).

Yes, it annoys me too, but so far not enough to do anything about it.
Perhaps you have given the final push now...

	2.  I like the use of separate arrows in the red map areas.
(Earlier
	playings of 18AL and 1830 had them looking like "dits" with tracks
	that connected to each other.)

This is a recent change, that applies to all games.

	3.  There are places where "hovering" over the map with the mouse
	does not tell you how much a space pays (Goderich for one).

I'm only aware of Goderich (and the equivalent 18EU Hamburg).
It's because the city does not show and is not included in the descriptive
XML,
which makes the program fail to understand that there is a revenue point.
Should be easy to fix.
Are you aware of any other cases?

	4.  Adding a "bonus" column to the company table in the map window,
	and showing $10 if it has a bridge or tunnel token, is not helpful
	because it doesn't say which is which.  I'd write "Br" or "Tu"
there.
	(And purchases of these tokens are still mis-described as if the
money
	were going to the company it's actually coming from.)

"Br" and "Tu" have in fact already been added.

	5.  The CGR formation is unfriendly and wrong.
	   a)  Before asking for any player's decision, the program should
force
	       all companies that have at least $100 and any loans to repay
what
	       loans they can from treasury.  This is immediate and
compulsory.
	       (It does do this for each company before asking the question
for
	       that company, but that's too late because it makes some
companies
	       look like they could convert when they can't, when the player
is
	       making his decision for earlier companies.)

The program literally follows the rules here.

	   b)  There shouldn't be ANY dialogs asking "Select number of loans
of
	       [company] to repay".  The decision for each company is all or
	       nothing, and each player should be presented with the
decisions
	       for all his companies at once (in one dialog).

The rules do not say or imply anything like "all or nothing".
This aspect has been discussed beforehand in this list, and the 
outcome was that the user should be given all legal options, 
including partial repayment, however stupid that would be.
However, I can see your point from a usability POV. 

The only real deviation from the rules is that each player now does not 
get a choice in which sequence company repayments will be handled; 
the program is imposing that sequence. So I can agree with the 
"in one dialog" part of your request - which, unfortunately,
may not be so easy to do.

	   c)  During those "rescue?" dialogs, the players' cash amounts in
the
	       Game Status window are squeezed horizontally so they can't be
	       read (example: $1... instead of $1445), and it's impossible
to
	       fix it by resizing the window because the dialog is modal.

I'll look at that.

	   d)  After the first decision is made, change the Loans column on
the
	       Game Status window to show "MERGE" for companies that will
merge.

Good idea, but it will require some structural changes that make it
not as easy to do as it might seem.

	   e)  When four companies whose current prices were 65, 65, 75, and
100
	       merged in, the program made CGR's value 200 (and that
actually
	       meant $200 per 5% share).  It's supposed to be the average of
the
	       predecessor companies, but not less than 100, so in this
example
	       it should have been 100, not 200.

That surprises me; I have only seen reasonable results so far.
Perhaps you have hit on a boundary condition.
Do you have saved file that shows it?

	   f)  Those companies had two 5 trains and a 4 train.  CGR was not
given
	       the option of keeping the 4 train, it was discarded with no
prompt.

This has been fixed in the meantime.

	   g)  The table of companies in map window is not updated afterward
to
	       show that some companies have disappeared.

That never happens during an OR. I have toyed with it, but found that the 
bookkeeping of whose turn it is after CGR formation was tricky enough
without such a reorganization. Perhaps later.

	   h)  The table of companies in Game Status window continues to
list the
	       merged companies for the rest of the game, with their final
prices
	       and the number of loans when they died.  They should no
longer be
	       listed at all (nor should any company that went to the Closed
box).

The Game Status window is never cleaned up now. Even the 15 minors 
in 18EU remain visible long after these have closed. 
One day it will be fixed, I guess.

	   i)  In subsequent rounds, CGR is shown as having TWO $10 bonuses
(and
	       thus takes two lines in the table in the map window) because
two
	       predecessor companies had tunnel tokens.  CGR should inherit
only
	       up to one of each type of token (tunnel and bridge);
duplicates
	       should go back to the bank and become available for sale (if
	       played as finite); and in any case, the table should expand
	       horizontally, not vertically, if it must expand at all.

That has been fixed now, except for the expansion aspect, where I'm
undecided which is best.

	6.  The program allows CGR to buy 4-trains after it forms.  It
can't.

If that is so, it's a bug. I don't yet have test cases where CGR 
has less than three trains after formation - can you send me one?

Erik.