Re: New game: Piecepack Subways

["Benedict" <boycat_oh@...>]

> 1. can a player place a Grand Centeral station as one of their 
initial 
> two stations?

No.  I am not sure how clear the rules are, but the 2 start stations 
are placed in districts.  Grand central is not a district.  Sounds 
like I need to add this clarification.

> 
> 2.  The cost of a track segment is unclear.  I think you are trying
> to say that it is the average of the values of the two tiles 
rounded up,
> correct?

Correct.  Is it clearer if I use "average of two tiles rounded up"?

> 
> 3. It is intended that a track segment from one blank district to
> another blank district cost $0?

Yes.  

> 
> 4. Does a track segment from the board to Grand Central 
connect to
> all the stations there or just the player's who built it?  
Apparently
> not, but the rules are unclear.

I think somewhere in the rules (unless I accidentally deleted it 
during revision) it says that stations do not connect to each other 
at Grand Central.

> 
> 5. You need to make it clear that you can't operate your train 
until
> you have connected up at least two of your stations.

OK, but I am not sure how you would trace a path to a second 
station you own if they aren't connected... I will look at this bit 
again and see if I can make it clearer.

> 
> 6. you appear to have made loop runs (that start and end at the 
same
> station illegal, correct?

Correct.  The problem with loop runs is that they generate the 
same income each turn (unless other players can strategically 
add their own stations to the loop in some way) and I thought 
that could lead to a boring game if one player constantly gains 
money at the same rate.  Of course if you maneuvered it so that 
you had two equally good value stations on your line you would 
get the same result, but this should be harder to achieve than a 
high profit-loop assuming the other players are trying to acheive 
the same thing.

> 
> 7. Is a Grand Central station always a terminal station or can
> a player build more then one track segment to it?

Always a terminal - and that isn't in the rules, thanks for pointing 
that out.

> 
> 8. Neither City variant has a Grand Central district, correct?

Correct.  With the London variants (or the 2 player version of the 
main game) connections to national rail are made 'off board', but 
no actual GCS is there - I should point that out as a difference.

In New York there is no GCS or additional off-board connection 
(also needs to be pointed out in the rules) as I think the goal is 
hard enough in that scenario as it is.

> 
> 9. Did you consider a setup with a pseudo-hex grid by 
offsetting each 
> row of tiles by a half tile?

No, actually I hadn't, but that might be a fun variant setup way to 
play - that gives you 6 possible connections for a tile, right?  I 
wonder if that would decrease the amount of player subway line 
interaction?

Thanks for the initial comments - all going to help towards 
version 0.2

Phillip