[Rails-devel] 1835 presidency swap: Bug fix required

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

Another 1835 implementation issue:

President swaps are not easy to understand for newbies in any 18xx (you 
are not allowed to sell the president share, however you are allowed to 
tear it apart, virtually sell one half of it to the pool and then 
receive two shares by the new director, who gets the fixed director 
certificate, then the old director puts one of received shares into the 
pool and keeps the other).

In 1835 the 20% shares make selling the presidency even more interesting.

Selling the president certificate involves two steps of share movements:

A) Exchange the president certificate with shares from the new president

B) Move the remaining sold shares into the pool

In 1835 both steps could include either 10% or 20% shares (PR: 5% or 10% 
shares)

Depending on what the president received in A) this might even change 
the possible options for B.

However it implies that the current president has to choose both A) 
which certificate to exchange with the new president and B) which 
certificate to put into the pool.

The current implementation only asks for A) and has some serious bugs in 
executing the share transfers.

I intend to fix those bugs before the next release, however I would ask 
if anyone has a different opinion on how it works for 1835?

Example:

In the attached save file OL has the following share distribution:

(Remark: this is from a replay of one of Bill Stoll's 1835 pbem games - 
see http://askwaltstollmd.com/bill/archive/1835zwolf/index.html
Fun fact is that I played 1835 ftf with one of the players before he 
moved to the US)

Eyal: 50% (1 20% director, 1 20% share, 1 10% share)
Marco: 40% (1 20% share, 2 10% share)
Nick: 10% (1 10% share)

What are the possible scenarios for Eyal to sell his directorship?

** Eyal selling 20% of shares:

- Receiving 1 20% share from Marco-
- Putting 1 20% share into the Pool
Eyal ends up with 1 20% share, 1 10% share
Marco ends up with 1 20% director, 2 10% shares
Pool ends up with 1 20% share

- Receiving 2 10% share from Marco
- Putting 1 20% share into the Pool
Eyal ends up with 3 10% share
Marco ends up with 1 20% director, 1 20% share
Pool ends up with 1 20% share

- Receiving 2 10% share from Marco
- Putting 2 10% share into the Pool
Eyal ends up with 3 10% share
Marco ends up with 1 20% director, 1 20% share
Pool ends up with 2 10% share

There are similar cases for 30%, 40% and 50% selling of shares.

Some special (hypothetical) cases:

A) No shares in Pool

Eyal: 40% (20%P + 20%)
Marco: 20% (20%)

IPO: 40% (4 10%)

Is it possible for Eyal to sell 30%?
Answer: No, as it not possible to get a 10% share out of IPO to Eyal.
Eyal has to sell all 40%.

B) 10% shares in Pool

Eyal: 40% (20%P + 20%)
Marco: 20% (20%)

Pool: 40% (4 10%)

Is it possible for Eyal to sell 30%?
Answer: Likely yes? Is it possible for Eyal to swap the received 20% 
share from Marco with a 10% of the Pool?