[Rails-devel] Playtest: 4-player 1835 in Rails 1.2.2 - A dozen new bugs!

[John D. G. <jd...@di...>]

I tried a four player game of 1835 using Rails 1.2.2 on Saturday 2010-04-17.

When I selected the game 1835, my entry of four player names was erased as
the number of player slots changed from 5 to 7.  All were once again "None"
and had to be re-entered.

No variants were available (or if the option existed I couldn't see it).

The opening stock round went normally, though it would have been helpful to
have the normal visual display of the Start Packet.  The entire Start Packet
sold out except the Ostbayerische/By share combination.  (The one player who
had the money for it had LD/2Sx/M3/M6, and naturally didn't want the By to
float right away, so he correctly passed.)

The program is still using annoying 3-letter abbrevs for most companies.
It's also still listing X-Y coordinates for par values as well as current
values (which is wrong in all games that have par values).

Other annoying things about the main window:  Under "Company details" the
"Revenue" and "Trains" columns are wastefully wide, and resizing the window
doesn't fix that: the player percentage columns shrink to unreadability
instead!  (I'm guessing this is because of the line showing all train
prices, but there's plenty of room for those to take up to three lines.)

It wasn't until most of the minor companies had run that I noticed a major
error: the program had gone ahead and floated By.  That is seriously wrong.
(I understand there are people who play a house rule that it always floats
in the first round, but in the rules as written it definitely does not
unless all 50% in the start packet is purchased.)  Since I wanted more of a
test than I would get by stopping here, I continued the game but had By do
nothing in round 1 except to buy a 2 train.  This means By's price will be
one square too far left for the rest of the game.

Now the second stock round begins, and very annoyingly, the main window
(showing player holdings and company prices) disappears, leaving only the
"start round" window and the map, with no way to get the main window back
since the options menu disappeared with it, so we have to make our decisions
without knowing who owns what.  Never do this!!  No window EVER has business
disappearing unless a human explicitly orders it to close!!

When the Ostbayerische is purchased, the main window reappears.

For the rest of SR2 the button does not light up that would allow any player
to sell By shares.  Since the program considers (wrongly) that By has
operated, this must be another bug.  Also, the player who bought LD is shown
as having "20%" of Sx, not "20%P" nor "20%PU" which would be correct.

The map window now says it is "Operating Round 1.1 (1 of 1)" again.
Apparently the fact that the Start Packet didn't sell out the first time has
confused the program.  This may be why no one was allowed to sell By shares.

By is now, correctly, allowed to place a token with the Nurnberg-Furth before
laying tiles.

By is still, wrongly, asked if he wants to place a token with the Pfalzbahnen
without having laid a tile there (and without Ba having floated).

Companies are correctly prevented from buying trains from one another since a
3 has not been purchased.

In SR3 (mislabeled STOCK ROUND 2 on the title bar of the main window) the
players are allowed to sell By shares.  LD is correctly closed because Sx
bought a train.  The player who began with LD is still shown with "20%" of Sx
until he buys a third share, then it changes to the correct "30%PU".

(I won't mention the round number errors again but they continue to be too
low by one, for both stock and operating rounds, for the rest of the game.)

At the end of SR3, By and Sx, which were both in the same price square, both
go up for being all owned, but By moves from underneath Sx to on top for no
apparent reason.  Another bug.

The stock-price chart then disappears (and goes on disappearing after each
stock round), but I notice upon its next reappearance that the prices on it
are only updated at the beginning of stock rounds -- not each time they move.
I suppose this only matters if there is no way to make the chart reappear
during operating rounds, but it is still annoying.

At this point I notice a map error.  Hex G1 is missing.  In the actual game,
G1 is a preprinted brown (or, if you prefer, gray) hex with a sharp-turn
track connecting Dusseldorf and Essen.  Without it, most of the green XX
tiles become unplayable in Essen, and Dusseldorf can never upgrade to brown,
so I have to call this one a major error.

When it's time for M6 to upgrade Kiel, I see my first tile error: the
program offers to place #12, #14, #15, and #206 in Kiel.  Only 12 is legal,
of course.

In the next stock round, when Ba forms, I notice several things:
*  40% of Pr does become available for sale at the correct time.
*  When a new company becomes available for sale, it shows "1.." in the IPO
   column.  That is, the column has become too narrow to see "100%", and I
   have to correct it by manually dragging the window wider.  This happens
   every time.  It doesn't matter that I dragged it wider earlier; it has
   auto-adjusted itself correctly to every change except that new "100%"
   appearing.
*  I am not allowed to nationalize By shares from other people even though
   I have 60%.
*  The program does allow people with 30% or more in a newly formed company
   (which has not operated) to sell down to the president's certificate (or
   at least their holding lights up to be selected, I didn't try to do it).
*  When somebody does sell By, I'm not allowed to buy them then either, so
   apparently the program still imposes a 60% holding limit in 1835.

The last three points are all major errors, and the last is enough of a big
deal for me that I'm only continuing the game to see how well, or badly, the
program handles Pr formation.

In OR6, now that Ba/Wt/He have all formed, By uses the Pfalz to lay a
tile in Ludwigshafen/Mannheim.  This produces a pop-up which says exactly:
   {0}m select a station on tile {1} for the {2} home base token
Aside from the fact that the obvious variables have failed to be put in,
this is an error.  HiG issued a clarification saying that the Ba home token,
unlike all others in the game, is not placed until Ba's first turn.
(Presumably if the tile does not get laid then or earlier, then when it is,
whoever lays the tile will decide which station belongs to Ba, but that is
unlikely enough to be an unimportant case.)

After I place He's last token in Koln, I'm still asked if I want to place
one using the Pfalz power (so it isn't detecting that you have no tokens).

Next stock round I discover another bug:
*  Buying the final 20% certificate of Ba/Wt/He is correctly done as one
   purchase (though the player doesn't find that out until you click on it,
   if he didn't know), but the program counts it as two certificates, so a
   player who already has 14 is not allowed to do it.  He can click on it
   but is then told no.

Finally, M2 buys the first 4 train.  The 2 trains disappear and he is forced
to discard a train of his choosing, but he is NOT offered a chance to form
the Pr.

At this point I quit.