Re: [Rails-devel] Bug (and patch): THB cannot lay home token with track already in hex

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

I have applied this fix. Thanks, Bill, for catching and fixing this problem.

Later on, when time permits, I will run some other cases to check if all is
still fine.  This is a complex case that has already been updated several
times now, so we need to be careful.
I will also have another deep look at the code (and hopefully not spoil it
again...).

Erik.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Rosgen [mailto:ro...@gm...]
> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 10:58 AM
> To: Development list for Rails: an 18xx game
> Subject: [Rails-devel] Bug (and patch): THB cannot lay home token with
track
> already in hex
> 
> Playing forward an 1856 game I am in, I have encountered a bug: when a
> railroad's home hex has multiple cities (THB in 1856), and there is
already
> track in the hex before it operates for the first time, rails does not
know how
> to lay the home token.  This is only a problem if there is a choice: if
one of the
> cities is tokened out, Rails correctly deduces that the home token is
force
> into the other city.
> 
> Erik has left a comment in layHomeBaseTokens() in PublicCompany that
> indicates this should be fixed in some clever way, but there seems to be a
> slightly newer comment in setPossibleActions() of OperatingRound with a
> work-around for this situation (when a company gets to the lay track step
> and doesn't yet have a home token, it is forced to lay one).
> 
> Unfortunately, in at least the instance I encountered, this workaround
> doesn't seem to work.  The problem is that the layBaseToken action that
> would force the company to lay the home token is created as a
> 'LOCATION_SPECIFIC' layToken and not a 'HOME_CITY' layToken.  This causes
> the action not to be presented to the user, as regular (i.e.
> 'LOCATION_SPECIFIC') token lays are not allowed during the LayTile step of
> the operating round.
> 
> I've attached a patch that fixes this: it's a matter of passing only one
hex to
> the constructor of LayBaseToken, so that the resulting action has the
right
> type.  I've tried to handle the case where there are multiple home hexes,
but
> I'm not sure that it will work, and I'm not sure what game I could test
this
> with.  It at least resolves the problem with 1856.
> 
> I've also attached a savegame that demonstrates the problem: the THB can't
> act, which stops the game from continuing.  Using the patched version of
the
> code, Rails correctly asks the user which city the THB wants to lay a home
> station on.
> 
> Bill