v0.4.9f — an Extra starts where you put it, a train card is never discarded

The 0.6.2 change, ported to the playtest line. Three from the v0.4.9e gameplay-testing round —
Gitea#4 extras did not start where the player said, #6 train cards could be discarded, #7 four
train cards had the wrong coach counts — plus two bugs found underneath #4. Gitea#2 is diagnosed
but NOT fixed; it needs a ruling, and the reasoning is in TODO.md.

GITEA#4 — AN EXTRA STARTS WHERE THE PLAYER PUTS IT. Both Division Points are offered now, and the
START decides the direction rather than the number: an odd westbound Extra placed at the WEST end
would otherwise leave the Division on its first move having crossed nothing and be paid for the
run. At an Interchange or a Control Point the player picks the direction. The Interchange start is
a YARD, off the running line, which is what makes the Superintendent clause work — placing an
Extra there can never force a collision, a guaranteed one holds it for another Stage, and a
potential one is the Superintendent's to rule on, which are §8.1's two existing answers. Where an
Extra may start is a new setting in the New Game dialog, defaulting to what the engine already did
so this build does not change under its testers mid-line.

FOUND UNDERNEATH IT, both already shipping: an Extra started away from a Division Point could
never be given a consist and ran empty, so the Control Point start has been broken since it was
added; and collide left destroyed trains' transits on the Mainline card, permanently poisoning
that card for every later train.

THE MAINLINE CARDS ARE DEALT FROM THE PRINTED DECK NOW, without replacement. They were drawn from
the nine types with replacement, so a Division could hold two Interchanges — and "an Extra may
start at the Interchange if one is on the board" only reads as a rule if the board holds at most
one. This re-deals every seed, so both published replays were retired and re-recorded.

GITEA#6 — A TRAIN CARD IS NEVER DISCARDED, Timetabled and Extra alike. No forcing mechanism was
needed: nothing discardable plus a hand over the limit leaves exactly one legal way to end the
turn, and playing a train is unconditionally legal, so a hand of four cannot trap anyone. The hand
panel says so on the train, and the blocked end-turn button changes its wording.

GITEA#7 — COACH COUNTS. 1/2 Crack Limited 3 -> 2, 5/6 The Sparrow 2 -> 3.

WHAT DIFFERS FROM THE MAIN LINE. The car-placement round rotation test that accompanies #7 there
arrived with the 0.6 multiplayer work and does not exist here, so there was nothing for the
coach-count change to follow. src/web/main.ts and test/web.test.ts needed hand-resolution: this
line's New Game dialog has neither the mode radios nor the victory dials, so only the Extra-start
parts were taken. The content.ts comment pass came across whole; main's TODO documentation item
did not, since this line keeps its own TODO.

623 tests pass, tsc clean, site builds.
This commit is contained in:
Jesse.Markowitz
2026-08-22 21:06:54 -04:00
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@@ -486,13 +486,19 @@ Hotel) are what grow them.
| # | Name | Speed | Consist | Rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1/2 | Crack Limited | Fast | 3 coaches | Stop at Terminals only. No switching. Expedite. |
| 1/2 | Crack Limited | Fast | 3 coaches † | Stop at Terminals only. No switching. Expedite. |
| 3/4 | Express | Fast | 2 freight | May drop or pick up one freight car at every location. Expedite. |
| 5/6 | The Sparrow | Fast | 2 coaches | No switching. Expedite. |
| 5/6 | The Sparrow | Fast | 2 coaches † | No switching. Expedite. |
| 7/8 | Local | Slow | 1 freight + 1 coach | Coach must remain on station track if switching. |
| 9/10 | Heavy Freight | Slow | 3 freight + caboose | |
| 11/12 | Drag Freight | Slow | 2 freight + caboose | |
† **The two coach counts have since been swapped by Jesse** (Gitea#7, 2026-08-22): the Crack Limited
now carries **2** coaches and The Sparrow **3**. The table above is left as `Trains3.pdf` prints it,
because that is what this section is for — what the design SAYS. What the game plays is
`src/engine/content.ts`, with the per-card table in
[`../StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md`](../StationMaster-Home-Deck-v0.4.5.md).
### Extras (X13–X22) — ten distinct trains, not four generic ones
Appleseed Extra (MT freight only, may drop but not pick up), Fruit Growers Express (reefers only),
@@ -783,3 +789,122 @@ Crossing is counted in Stages (Q1), so both trains simply run their counters dow
Until this is settled the clearance buttons describe only what the engine actually does — they say
the train "closes up behind" rather than promising a −5 risk that cannot occur. Wording that invents
a consequence is worse than wording that under-sells one.
---
## §7 — where an Extra starts, and which way it runs
**Reported from playing v0.4.9e** (Gitea#4): "When extras are played the player doing so may choose
where the extra starts. They may choose either division point. And if the interchange mainline card
has been played, they may start the extra on that card and choose the direction from there. If there
is potential for conflict with other trains in that area the superintendent may hold the extra."
**This supersedes an earlier ruling**, and the supersession is the interesting part. §2.3 gives every
train its direction from its number — odd runs west, even runs east — and an earlier pass extended
that to Extras explicitly: *"the number decides, like everything else on the timetable."* That reading
cannot survive "either Division Point". An odd Extra placed at the WEST end would run west, leave the
Division on its first move having crossed nothing, and be paid the completion Revenue for the run.
So for **Extras only**, the start decides the direction:
| Start | Direction |
| --- | --- |
| Western Division Point | east |
| Eastern Division Point | west |
| Interchange | player's choice |
| Control Point (any Office above a Whistle Post) | player's choice |
A timetabled train is unchanged: its number still decides. The Extra cards were always printed
`direction: 'playerChoice'` (§5) and the engine had been overriding it; they now mean it.
### The Interchange start is a YARD, not a spot on the running line
§7's last clause — "the superintendent may hold the extra" — is what settles how this is modelled.
An Extra started at an Interchange stands in that card's **yard**, off the running line, and highballs
onto the card itself at a later Mainline Phase. Three things follow, all of them Jesse's rule rather
than an implementation convenience:
1. **Placing it can never force a collision**, however busy the card is. It is not on the road yet.
2. **A guaranteed collision holds it in the yard** for another Stage, and it tries again next Stage.
3. **A potential collision is the Superintendent's to rule on.**
Those last two are exactly §8.1's two answers — an absolute bar against a facing train, a judgment
call against a following one — so the Extra leaves the yard through the same clearance check a train
leaves a Division Point through. Nothing new decides collisions.
The Interchange keeps its printed "sort cars in new order" concept, still unimplemented (§6). Being
the card with a Yard Limit is what makes it the one Mainline card a train can be made up on.
### Which starts are offered is a setting
The Division Points and the Interchange sit on shared ground and belong to nobody; starting an Extra
inside a player's own district does not. That is a table preference rather than a rule, so it is set
when the game is dealt (`extraStart`): Division Points and Interchange only, plus the playing
player's own Control Point, or plus any player's Control Point. A **Whistle Post never qualifies at
any setting** — being a place an Extra can start is part of what upgrading buys (§11).
### Two bugs found underneath it
- **The Mainline cards were rolled, not dealt.** `buildDivision` drew uniformly from the nine card
TYPES **with replacement**, so a Division could be dealt two Interchanges or two Tunnels, and
Plains — printed twice in the deck — carried the same weight as cards printed once.
`docs/StationMaster-Mainline-Deck-v0.4.5.md` had already flagged the mismatch as needing
correction; "an Extra may start at the Interchange if one is on the board" is what forced it, since
that only reads as a rule if the board holds at most one. Now dealt from the printed ten-card deck
without replacement.
- **An Extra started anywhere but a Division Point ran empty.** `isBeingMadeUp` asked only "is this
tray standing at a Division Point", which was the whole truth while that was the only place to
build a train — so the Control Point start had shipped since it was added with a train that could
never be given a consist, and the Interchange start would have shipped the same way. Found by
playing it, not by the tests, which had only ever asserted where the tray landed.
---
## §6.2 — a train card is never discarded
**Jesse's ruling, v0.4.9e playtest** (Gitea#6): "Players are not allowed to discard Train cards. They
may keep the card in their hand for multiple stages and even multiple days, but they may not discard
it. If a player has three train cards in their hand, and they draw a fourth, then they must play one
of those cards."
**Extras count.** An Extra is a train, even though it runs once and ends in the Salvage Yard where a
Timetabled card joins the timetable for the rest of the game.
§6.2 as transcribed says only "the player must reduce his hand to no more than three cards" with no
exception for any card type, so this is a ruling rather than a gap — the prototype rules do not
address it either way.
### It needs no forcing mechanism, and that is the point
The interesting property of this rule is that the forced play falls out of two rules that already
exist rather than needing a third:
1. a train card cannot be discarded, so it is not among the ways to shed a card; and
2. `draw.end` already refuses while the hand is over the limit (§6.2).
A player holding four trains therefore has exactly one legal way to conclude the turn — play one —
without anything in the engine ever computing "you must play a train". The corner cannot lock a
player in, because **playing a train card is unconditionally legal**: `card.play`'s train case
refuses only a board placement, and a train card played when the timetable is full still leaves the
hand (it simply schedules nothing). Confirmed by playing it: a hand of four trains offers zero
discards, no `draw.end`, and four plays.
The bot needed no rule of its own either. `legal.ts` enumerates candidates and filters them through
`check`, so the option stops being offered; and the developer bot already reaches for `card.play`
before it reaches for a discard. Measured over 400 games: 400/400 finished, revenue unmoved, and
**trains scheduled 1.2 → 1.3** — the rule's intended effect, small because a bot rarely held four.
### Consequences
- **Two of the three published replays discarded train cards** (2 and 15 of them) and were retired
and re-recorded. Jesse's call: "I'm okay with retiring the replays that no longer work under those
old rules."
- **The opening six-card hand is not exempt.** Under *six random cards* a player opens holding six
against a limit of three; if four or more are trains, they all go onto the timetable on turn one.
Jesse's call: "If the opening hand has lots of trains, then lots of trains will be placed on the
board." Rare — roughly 1.5% of deals — but deliberate.
- **The player is told, on the card and on the button.** `handDiscardable` on the Frame marks which
cards may be shed, the hand panel says so in the card's own tooltip, and when EVERY card held is a
train the blocked end-turn button changes its text to say a train must be played. That is the
Gitea#2 lesson applied: a rule the player cannot see is a board with nothing to click and no reason
given.