[Rails-devel] Buying trains

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

My remarks on train buying in Rails (see inclusion below) came hidden behind
a post on a different topic, which is probably why these remarks has not
drawn any attention.
It's about how to incorporate complex features like double-sided train cards
(like the 2/1G in 18VA) and trains that come with privates (18GA). I would
add now: built-in trains, as some 1825 minors have.

The new TrainCertificate objects would normally be hidden and created
automatically from existing XML code like
	<Train name="2" majorStops="2" cost="80" amount="6" />

For double-sided trains I would propose something like (for 18VA):
	<TrainCertificate name="2/1G" cost="100" quantity="6">
 		<Train name="2" majorStops="2"/>
		<Train name="1G" majorStops="1">
			<Score towns="yes"/>
		</Train>
	</TrainCertificate>
Perhaps one or more additional attributes could to be added to denote Mine
and CMD access and scoring details, but actually I think these details are
so game-specific that these might as well be hardcoded.  In any case, I
leave that to Stefan Frey to decide and work out.

In the above case, the price is in the <TrainCertificate> tag, but in 18Scan
it will be in the <Train> tags because there the two trains on one card have
different prices.
(And I would replace the ambiguous 'amount' by the explicit 'quantity'
throughout. Perhaps also 'cost' by 'price'?).

I'm not yet sure how to incorporate the 18GA OSR special property (extra
2-train).  It's not a SpecialProperty in the Rails sense of the word, as
it's invocation isn't a separate user action; it happens automatically at
some point, as a side effect of another action.

Part of the new approach to train buying would be, that new Train objects
are created when acquired by a company, not at the start of the game. That
nicely fits with how the 18GA OSR SP works. 
The extra 2-train creation could be entirely hardcoded,  or we could add a
TrainCertificate to the <StartPacket><Item> or the <Company> tags.  I'm
looking for a solution that would also cover the built-in trains of some
1825 minors.

I'm also not yet sure if this approach will keep old saved files backwards
compatible, although that would be a goal.  But at some point we'll have to
bite the bullet.

Ideas welcome. Otherwise I'll work it out by myself (later).

Erik.

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----> Van: Erik Vos
[mailto:eri...@xs...]
> As an example, I've already concluded that my suggestion to Adam about the
> 18GA OSR free 2-train is too simple and will not work that way.  And there
is
> another looming problem with trains: the two-way train certificates as
exist
> in e.g. 18VA and 18Scan.  My current thinking is that we need to separate
> buyable trains from actual trains throughout. The former could be named
> TrainCertificates. For example: an 18Scan 4/3+3-train certificate would
then
> be linked to two actual trains.  At buying time, the player must decide
which
> train is actually bought, and that train is acquired by the company; the
other
> one is lost.  Similarly in 18GA, a extra 2-train certificate would not
normally be
> buyable, but be linked to the OCR private.
> Once this idea has been programmed, all usual cases would still be
> configurable in the XML.  For 18GA, extra Java programming will then be
> required only to accomplish the automatic transfer of the train, either to
the
> company or to the scrapheap, at the time that the private is bought by a
> company (even that could be made configurable, but I'm reluctant to add
> code to the generic code base that's applicable to one game only).