Re: [Rails-devel] Playtest report of 1837 under Rails 2.0.beta3

[Stefan F. <ste...@we...>]

A few remarks from my side. ;-)

>>
>> 1. After filling in the first three players' names, using the mouse to
>> select the blank for player 4 doesn't work.  I can get there by hitting
>> Tab, but not by using the mouse.
>
> Seems to be an UI problem, perhaps Stefan knows something there.

Yep, that's a bug, will be fixed.

>>
>> 2. The map looks correct except for some cosmetic problems.
>>
>> a) There is NO visual indication of Italy (marked off by a red line in
>> Lonny Orgler's version of the printed map), which becomes off limits
>> when a 4-train is purchased.
> I intend to place a "real map" in the background. This map should show
> the border. Currently i dont know or rathter the mechanismn to mark
> overlays on the current system is unknown to me :(
>>
>> I suggest showing it by making those hexes a little darker than the
>> usual starting pale-green color (say RGB 62,193,118).  I would also make
>> Bosnia a lighter shade of yellow so as to avoid giving the impression
>> that green tiles are to be laid there (as in the Erie and B&O home hexes
>> in 1830).
> Since those map is generated from normal tiles, i would have to generate
> additional tiles with different colours just for the background map.
> Thats time consuming for a cosmetical fix.

Yes a background map seems to be the better solution.

>
>> b) Coal company start hexes show a "dit" (sometimes badly drawn) but do
>> not show either their company name or run value (until the company is
>> purchased; then a black "token" is placed).  The run values are
>> adequately displayed as tooltips (though in the case of ZKB they forgot
>> to mention the 10K dit in the same hex!), but I'd like to preprint a
>> black square "mine" on each one (probably using a graphical overlay),
>> and not show "tokens" for them at all.
> Nice idea if i would know or someone else can tell me to put overlays
> there i would be willing to do this since this is necessary info imo.

Overlays are done in class HexMap (package net.sf.rails.ui.swing.hexmap)
There are several static nested classes for the different layers (e.g. 
the TokensTextLayer).

>
>> c) All company start spaces except S5 are labeled on the map even though
>> it means that "Sd" clobbers "S1", "KK" clobbers "K1", and "Ug" clobbers
>> "U1".  1835 has this problem too.  I'd like to have an option in Rails's
>> game definition XML to turn off these labels for individual companies or
>> hexes.
> Since S5 has two start hexes that are determined by the player this is a
> dynamic info that should be handled by overlays also. See problems above
> :) I agree with you about the clobbering of the map. Game definition
> might be a good way but this might lead to a major effort for all other
> games also.

I fixed that for the 1835 PR/M2/M5 case in Berlin recently.
Use the unlaidHomeBlocksTokens="no" as attribute for the hex.
If that is set, there is no indication of a reserved home token.