[Rails-users] Bugs and wishlist for 1856 on rails 1.9.0

[games.bazin <gam...@or...>]

Greetings all. 

 

Short introduction.

Im french (so please excuse my non native english).  I'm a long time and regular 1856 player.  I usually play face to face with a group of friends.  I have also organized a couple of 1856 pbem games back in 2000-2002.

 

I've just discovered 18xx rails 1.9.0 a couple a days ago, and my first comment will be a big congratulation to the authors for the amazing work.  It's nearly perfect.

 

I've digged back two of my old pbem games to check if rails 1.9.0 would behave normally. Here are my findings (some anomalies and a wish list).

I understand that a 2.0 version is under development, so maybe it can help for that.

I tryied 1.9.0 under linux on one game, and under windows for the second game if it matters.

 

note : I know that some rules are suject to interpretation, and ymmv.  Please let me know if what i consider an anomaly below is in fact a feature :)

 

anomaly 1 : seen in both games :

In 1.9.0, the +20 bonus from the port disapears when the first T5 train is bought.

According to the rules, the private companies disapear when T5 is bought, but the +20 bonus continues to exist and disapears when the first T6 train is bought.

reference : GLSC paragraph on page 5 of the rules

 

anomaly 2 : seen in both games :

situation : company A must buy a train and decides to it from company B (lets say a T4 for example). Assume company A has only $100 in cash.

1.9.0 displays a text like : "you may add up to $250"  (i.e. difference between T4 nominal value and cash availble in A).

According to the rules, the president may not add money to buy a train if company A buys from company B, only if it buys from Bank or Open Market 

reference : paragraph 5 on page 19

note : this behaviour appears only if company A must buy a train.  If company A already owns a train and tries to buy another train from company B, the message isnt displayed.

 

anomaly 3 : seen in both games : 

situation : at CGR formation, GW has 3 loans and posseses only $34 in cash.

1.9.0 offers to the president the possiblity to repay from 0 to 3 loans.

According to the rules, the president should only be offered the choice of 0 or 3, but not values in between (1 or 2 are not allowed in this situation).

reference : loan repayment paragraph page 22 ("the player may repay the remainder")

 

anomaly 4 : seen in both games : 

company tokens are not properly displayed on the gray toronto tile #124

 

anomaly 5 : seen only in game 1, situation didnt arise in game 2 :

situation : during the operating round of company A, his president must sell actions from company B to raise money according to forced sale rule.

as a result, this changes the position of company B on the stock market (drops to lower values)

1.9.0 doesnt update the company operating order (behaves has if B was still in it's original position before the sale)

According to the rules, public companies operate in share value order

reference : operating round paragraph on page 14

 

anomaly 6 : seen only in game 1, situation didnt arise in game 2 :

situation : during an operating round, after T6 has been bought, a company is in C11 ($30) and has no train. It thus enters the void area and disapears.

1.9.0 doesnt update the certificate limit according to the new (lower) number of available companies

reference : 4th paragraph on page 6 of the rules

 

anomaly 7 : seen only in game 2, maybe I didnt pay enough attention  in game 1 :

situation : during stock round, before the purchage of the first T6, player's worth is sometime wrongly displayed at the begining of the stock round.

Exemple: Bruce has $117 cash and owns 40% LPS.  LPS is worth $100 (H4) and has $300 loans, therefore reducing its value to $70. All private are already sold. Thus, Bruce's worth should be $117+4*$70=$397 but 1.9.0 displays $437

Note that if you then save and reload the game, the correct $397 value is displayed.

 

anomaly 8 : seen only in game 2, situation didnt arise in game 1 :

situation : bankrupcy. during an operating round, forced sales, the president has $36 cash, must raise more cash but cannot sell anything.

1.9.0 ends leaving $36 in the president's cash and worth

According to the rules, the president's cash should be reduced to 0

reference : bakruptcy paragraph on page 21

 

anomaly 9 : seen only in game 2, situation didnt arise in game 1 :

situation : CGR formation.  After all is decided, 5% shares are used.  1.9.0 puts 30% in the open market, while it should have put 25% in the open market and 5% in the bank.

 

whishlist 1 : 

Add a more general moderator option that allows to transfer shares between bank and open market, and that allows to change the position of the shares on the open market.

 

whishlist 2 :

During the stock round, in the game status - stock round window, add a "-" to indicate that a player has already sold from a given company.

Thus,  "10%-" means that players owns 10% but has already sold from that company,  "50%P-" means that the president owns 50% but has already sold from that company, and "-" means that the players owns 0% and has already sold from that company.

The goal is that when player X plays, he knows what player Y is or isnt allowed to buy.

Remove all the "-" at the end of the stock round, during the operating round.

 

 

That's it.  I hope this helps.

Keep up the good job !

 

Thanks,

Eric.