v0.4.9e — five of six playtest bugs: one button per train, and a load that has to go somewhere

Gameplay testing on 0.4.9d returned six reports. Five are fixed; the sixth could not be
reproduced and is written up in TODO.md with the two questions that would pin it down.

TWO TRAINS AT ONE PLATFORM ANSWERED TO ONE BUTTON. `porter.board` and `porter.detrain`
carried no tray, so there was one button per platform however many trains stood at it and
the reducer filled the first empty coach on the A/D tracks. `check` and the reducer were not
even asking the same question: `check` skipped a train whose card refuses passenger work and
the reducer did not. Both intents now carry an optional `trayId`, one function resolves the
train and the coach for check/execute/reduce alike, `legal.ts` offers one candidate per train,
and the label names it.

A LOAD COULD BE MADE AND BROKEN WITHOUT GOING ANYWHERE. A Freight House could unload the
boxcar it had just loaded; a platform could detrain the passengers it had just boarded. Full
Revenue at both ends for a movement that never happened. Jesse's rule: a load made anywhere in
an Office Area may not be broken anywhere in that Office Area, ever — it has to be carried to
another district. The load carries the seat that made it (`RollingStock.origin`), stripped by
`pooled` at every yard push. Measured at -0.60 +/- 0.10 Revenue a game (t = -6.1) over 400
paired deals: 78 worse, 3 better, 319 unchanged — free Revenue coming off the board, not a nerf.

THE GROCER'S WAREHOUSE SHIPPED AND THE REFINERY RECEIVED. Both were `flow: 'both'` on the
reading that "Freight House" was a collective term for exactly those two, and therefore what
§9.3 described. The engine has dealt a Freight House CARD since before v0.4.9, so §9.3 names
it and the argument goes. The card set agrees: all three Refinery modifiers grant +1 outbound.
Refinery outbound-only, Grocer's inbound-only, Freight House the one two-way industry — which
leaves exactly the one same-district pairing the rule above refuses.

NOT REPRODUCED: cars left behind when backing up over them. Five layouts tried, including cars
spotted at an industry; every one couples the lot. Three are pinned in `apply.test.ts`. One way
to create such cars was closed anyway — `flyingSwitch` wrote its cut past `carsOn`.

Both published replays that had gone dead were re-recorded; a rules change retires a save, and
`harness.test.ts` is what catches it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011nbvwWMef8CuEP6t5cgkTv
This commit is contained in:
Jesse.Markowitz
2026-08-21 23:55:08 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent f9c4d9fa92
commit 7c35e002af
25 changed files with 2753 additions and 1812 deletions
+30 -13
View File
@@ -42,17 +42,33 @@ Operational Rail wheel icon, an industry track of the stated length, Laborer ico
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Mine Tipple | Hopper | Outbound only | 3 | 3 | — | 4 | 2 |
| Produce Shed | Reefer | Outbound only | 2 | 2 | — | 3 | 2 |
| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Both | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Oil Refinery | Tank car | Both | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Grocer's Warehouse | Boxcar | Inbound only | 2 | — | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Oil Refinery | Tank car | Outbound only | 3 | 2 | — | 4 | 2 |
| Power Plant | Hopper | Inbound only | 3 | — | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Directions follow the commodity: coal originates at a Mine Tipple and is consumed at a Power Plant;
produce ships out; a warehouse and a refinery do both. This gives §9 all three of its cases —
outbound-only, inbound-only, and both.
produce ships out; a warehouse receives. This gives §9 all three of its cases — outbound-only,
inbound-only, and both — with the **Freight House the one card that does both**.
**"Freight House"** (§9.3, Appendix A) is not a card. It is the collective term for a freight facility
that loads *and* unloads — the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery. §9.3's "Passenger Facilities
and Freight Houses permit cars to move each direction" therefore names exactly those two.
**The Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery are ONE-WAY** (corrected v0.4.9e, from gameplay
testing): "Grocer's Warehouse should be receive only, does not ship anything out"; "Refinery: only
ships out tanks, does not receive anything" (Jesse). The Direction column read "Both" for both, on the
reading below that "Freight House" named exactly those two.
**And that reading is wrong.** §9.3/Appendix A's "Passenger Facilities and Freight Houses permit cars
to move each direction" names a CARD: the engine deals a `freightHouse` industry, 6 copies, one
Laborer and one slot each direction (`content.ts`), and has since before v0.4.9. This paragraph used
to read "'Freight House' is not a card — it is the collective term for a freight facility that loads
*and* unloads, the Grocer's Warehouse and the Oil Refinery", and that premise is what made those two
two-way. `StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md` prints them one-way, and the modifier set agrees: all
three Refinery modifiers (Pipelines, Oil Depot, Viscosity Breakers) grant **+1 outbound**, which would
be an odd card set for a facility that receives half the time.
<!-- The Laborer and capacity numbers in the rows above were NOT re-verified against the engine in
this pass — only the Direction column was, which is what playtesting reported on. `content.ts`
gives every industry base 1 out / 1 in / 1 Laborer, so the table's 2s and 3s and the "Throughput"
reasoning built on them are likely stale. Flagged rather than silently rewritten: Laborer counts
are a balance question, not only a docs one. -->
### Throughput — why these Laborer counts
@@ -80,9 +96,10 @@ deliberately slower industries, unable to quite keep up with a dedicated player.
That is why Laborer counts track Outbound capacity: Mine Tipple 3/3, Power Plant 3/3, Produce Shed
2/2, Grocer's Warehouse 2/2. The numbers are derived from the action budget, not chosen freely.
The Oil Refinery is the exception at 3 Laborers against 2+2 capacity, and deliberately so: it serves
two flows through one three-box pipeline, so its pipeline stays fuller than a one-way facility's and
the third Laborer is earning its keep.
<!-- The paragraph that stood here explained the Oil Refinery's third Laborer as the price of serving
two flows through one pipeline. It serves one flow (v0.4.9e), so the explanation is gone with the
premise; whether the Laborer count is still right is part of the same unverified block flagged
above and in TODO.md. -->
Even so, Laborers are rarely what limits a player — spotting the empty car and hauling the loaded one
away both cost switching actions from the same budget. See §7.
@@ -258,12 +275,12 @@ with all boxes full:
| Car | Facility demand | Supply | Headroom |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Hopper | Mine Tipple 3×2 + Power Plant 3×2 = 12 | 12 | exactly met |
| Tank | Oil Refinery (2+2)×2 = 8 | 8 | exactly met |
| Boxcar | Grocer's (2+2)×2 = 8 | 12 | 4 spare |
| Tank | Oil Refinery 2×2 = 4 | 8 | 4 spare (was "exactly met" while the Refinery was two-way) |
| Boxcar | Grocer's 2×2 = 4 | 12 | 8 spare (same correction) |
| Reefer | Produce Shed 2×2 = 4 | 8 | 4 spare |
| Coach | Terminal 4+4, per Office | 16 | scales with Office count |
Hoppers and tank cars are exactly met in the theoretical worst case, which cannot occur in practice —
Hoppers are exactly met in the theoretical worst case, which cannot occur in practice —
only 10 freight facility cards exist across a 52-card deck shared by all players, and the §2.2
Classification Yard recycle returns stock to the Division Yard whenever it empties. Both are worth
watching in playtesting.