Files
station-master-startos/instructions.md
T
Jesse e84c640067 Bundle Station Master v0.6.0: updates stop destroying games in progress
Pin moves to v0.6.0, package version to 0.6.0:0.

README and instructions.md both promised the opposite of what now happens
and had to be rewritten: an update keeps games in progress unless the rules
actually changed, and a game that genuinely cannot replay is named in the
log rather than described as a version mismatch.

Verified on phoenix.local by doing the thing the release is about. A game
(MAIL-4571) was created on the installed 0.5.6:0, then this build was
installed over it. All four saved games on the volume came back:

  Resuming 4 saved game(s)…
  Resumed HOPPER-4607  — 37 intents replayed.   (written under 0.5.2)
  Resumed TRESTLE-5109 —  5 intents replayed.   (written under 0.5.3)
  Resumed TENDER-8092  — 38 intents replayed.   (written under 0.5.5)
  Resumed MAIL-4571    —  0 intents replayed.   (written under 0.5.6)

The first three had been refused on every boot since the release that
stranded them. They were never damaged, only unreachable, and replaying
them is all it took to get them back — which is the clearest evidence that
the version comparison was answering the wrong question. All four now show
in Games in Progress with the correct Day, Stage and waiting-on player.
2026-08-21 21:56:58 -04:00

3.4 KiB

Station Master

Documentation

  • Rules and design docs — the rulebook implications, the multiplayer design, and the game's architecture.

What you get on StartOS

This service runs the multiplayer server: a lobby, and a table for 2 to 4 players to play a competitive or cooperative game together from their own browsers. Everything a player needs — the game itself, the lobby, and the connection back to this server — is served from the single web interface below; there is nothing else to install or configure on a player's side.

Getting set up

  1. Run the Get Join Secret action from this service's Actions menu, and copy the value it returns.
  2. Share that secret, and this service's address, with everyone you want to play with. Anyone holding the secret can create a new game or join one that hasn't started yet.
  3. Open this service's Multiplayer Table interface. You'll land on the front page, which offers three ways in: solitaire, the replay viewer, and multiplayer.
  4. Click Play multiplayer, then Create Game (or Join Game with a game code someone else created), and enter the join secret when asked.

Using Station Master

Multiplayer Table

The front page offers solitaire, the replay viewer, and multiplayer. Play multiplayer takes you to the lobby: create or join a game, seat players (including filling empty seats with a bot), and start. Once a game is underway, this same interface is where every player plays their turns and watches the table — there is nothing else to open.

Solitaire runs entirely in your own browser and needs nothing from the server, so it works here exactly as it does on the public Station Master site.

Get Join Secret

Run this whenever you need the current join secret again, or want to shut out anyone still holding an old one. Every run replaces the secret and immediately puts the new one into effect — players already seated in a game are unaffected, but the old secret stops working for creating or joining games from that point on.

Games in Progress

Shows every game on the server: who is playing, which Day and Stage they have reached, and whose turn it is. It changes nothing, so run it whenever you are curious. It is also how you spot a game nobody is coming back to — one whose last move was days ago, still waiting on a particular player.

Manage Game

Pick a game, then either save a copy of it or end it.

Export hands you the whole game as text and leaves it running. Save that text as a .json file and you can open it in the replay viewer later to watch the game back.

End the game deletes it and disconnects anyone still watching. This is the only way to clear a game that will never be finished — otherwise it sits there, and comes back every time the service restarts. It cannot be undone, so the game's save is handed back to you when it happens: that text is the only copy left, so keep it if the game was worth watching.

Games in progress normally survive an update of this service. When the update changes the rules of the game itself, a half-played game cannot be resumed under rules it was not played by, and that game is set aside rather than continued — you would see it disappear from the lobby. Nothing is ever deleted, so going back to the previous version makes it playable again.