Re: [Rails-devel] A question or two about the Rails XML interface.

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

In my opinion, the biggest novelty is the hexagonal stock market - unless we
settle for a rectangular one featuring diagonal token movements.  In any
case, some new share price movements must be added.

To your questions:

1. Separate train sequences are not supported, and IMO more importantly,
separate phase sequences are not supported yet.
But neither seem to be required for 1837:  the 2G becomes available when the
first 3T is bought, etc.  That can already very well be handled by the
'released' <Phase> attribute.
More important is that we may need to tweak or circumvent the built-in
automatic train progression, either by disabling it (requiring *all* new
trains to be specified with 'released'), or by putting all G-trains at the
end of the list of train types.

However, I suspect the main issue is that (to my knowledge) we haven't yet
any means to restrict the train types that a company can buy.
Per company type we should either add an attribute that specifies the
allowed train types (default: all), or define some higher train type (e.g.
train class) and link that to the relevant company types.

None of this should be a big deal, and I can do the required programming if
you like.

2. Off-limits areas do not yet exist as such.  I believe the Alsace case and
a related case in 1851 are handled by special coding.
I suppose we could add an 'area' attribute to the relevant hexes in Map.xml,
to be used by one of Stefan's tile modifiers.
@Stefan, I vaguely remember we have discussed this briefly before - what are
your thoughts?

3. Auto tile actions would be useful, the main question is what
specification options we need (per hex? per area? per tile id?)

Also: some parts of the Rails code rely on preprinted tiles to have negative
numbers, so we really need those.
The general rule is that for 18xx games where xx is numeric we use xx for
the thousands range.  For 1837 that would be -37001 and following.  
Preprinted tiles that look generic may get a low negative number; in
particular, preprinted tiles that exactly duplicate existing layable tiles
often get the id of the latter with a minus sign prepended.

You can leave actual tile creation to me if you prefer (unless you want to
add artwork, like mine symbols; TileDesigner cannot handle that).
in most cases, I'll have to do some afterwork anyway.

Erik.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John David Galt [mailto:jd...@di...]
> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 11:05 PM
> To: rai...@li...
> Subject: [Rails-devel] A question or two about the Rails XML interface.
> 
> I have not yet got Rails to build on my Windows machine, but I have had a
> look through the code and have started work on a port of 1837, which is
one
> of my favorite 18xx games.
> 
> It appears to me that most of the elements of 1837 already exist in Rails,
but
> there are one or two items that may not, so I want to ask about them.
> 
> Specifically, I would want these new abilities which may or may not exist
in
> any of the games previously ported to Rails.
> 
> 1. To have two different sequences of train types (in this case regular
and
> Goods trains), with each type of trains in the second group made available
by
> specific phase changes that may or may not have anything to do with the
> trains of the preceding type being exhausted.
> 
> The only mechanism of this sort that I know Rails supports is the Pullmans
in
> 18EU, but several other games have these double train sequences (whether
> for narrow-gauge track or alternative train types) -- including the
expansion
> sets for 1825 which has been ported.
> 
> 2. To have certain areas of the map that are "off limits" in certain
phases of
> the game.  1841 also needs this (and arguably 1835, which has been known
to
> allow a run from one city to the Alsace offboard after a 5-train
purchase).
> 
> 3. To remove all tiles on certain hexes, and/or place specific tiles, as
> automatic actions caused by a phase change.  I'm not sure if any other
game
> uses this ability but it would be nice to have.
> 
> Also: how should I handle map hexes with preprinted "tiles" that are
yellow
> or green, look like regular tiles, and are upgradeable?  Just use the
regular tile
> number in the map XML file, or create a negative number?  And are there
> any preferred number ranges I should use for preprinted tiles?
> 
>
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