Re: [piecepack] Re: New game: Piecepack Subways

[Mark Biggar <mark.a.biggar@...>]

Benedict wrote:
> Mark, thanks for all of your input.
>
> Actually the game as written currently is flawed, so it needs 
> some adjustment in certain areas (probably initial station 
> placement and scoring, or maybe initial setup).
>
> And I agree, expanding the rules with some examples + 
> diagrams will be helpful - I will be working on that fo rthe next 
> edition.
>
> In the meantime, everyone,  - don't play this game until version 
> 0.2 is up!

Speaking of flaws ;-)

Tried it out 4-handed solitaire as a dry run last night.  Ran into an
interesting problem, the game never ends.  As all information is public,
specifically the amount of money and loans each player has, no player
will be willing to build the last track segment or connect his last
station, if he is behind in the cash race.  So if the top two players
have runs that produce the same amount (probably in a cycle of turns),
then you can get into situation where the only correct action on each of
thier turns is the operate their train to jump over the other player
and take the cash lead, the other player's only rational choice is to
do the same on his turn.  You need some other event that ends the game
that is not under the player's complete control, e.g., a finite bank
like in 1830 where when the bank is out of money the game is over.
Another possibility is to give the player that connects his last station
a free operating round as part of that turn or add some other part to
the final score (like an evaulation of the worth of a players network,
score = money - loans + (# stations * value of best run)) to give
incentive to end the game.

--
Mark Biggar
mark.a.biggar@...