Updated Train Card Rule - TimeTable trains can be discarded #9

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2026-08-24T11:30:08Z

Jesse.Markowitz commented

2026-08-24 11:30:08 +00:00

Okay, only comment - timetabled trains are at the choice of the player - they can either play or discard. If someone else wants to pick it up, they are more than able to. The reason - I don't want (if you decide to play a game longer than five days) to decide that maybe there are too many trains, the stations are jammed, and the railroad doesn't need any more. You can toss it. Someone else might disagree and pick it up.

Jesse.Markowitz commented

2026-08-24 11:30:45 +00:00

This is may be another create game variable

Jesse.Markowitz referenced this issue from a commit

2026-08-25 14:46:52 +00:00

v0.7.1 — a caboose is not a load, a Day that says it ended, and a train you may throw away

Jesse.Markowitz closed this issue

2026-08-25 14:46:52 +00:00

Jesse.Markowitz referenced this issue from a commit

2026-08-25 14:47:25 +00:00

v0.4.9g — a caboose is not a load, a Day that says it ended, and a train you may throw away

Jesse.Markowitz commented

2026-08-25 14:51:54 +00:00

Done in v0.7.1 (4414476) and on the playtest line as v0.4.9g (9735468).

This supersedes #6, which shipped three days earlier in v0.6.2 / v0.4.9f and made every train card
unconditionally undiscardable. Two things narrow your ruling rather than reversing it wholesale:

An Extra is still never discardable. It never joins the timetable, so it can never be what jams
it — the jam you describe is a timetable problem, and an Extra runs once and ends in the Salvage
Yard. The only rule an Extra would dodge by being thrown away is the hand limit.
On main the Timetabled half is a start-of-game option, discardTimetabled, on by default
— a checkbox in both the New Game dialog and the multiplayer lobby, and listed in the rule set a
joiner reads before taking a seat. Your reasoning is explicitly about games run longer than five
days, and a five-Day game may well still want #6's pressure. The 0.4.9 playtest line has no
settings scaffolding, so it takes the plain rule. Both lines play the same game at the default.

The second half of the ruling needed no code at all. "Someone else might disagree and pick it up"
— a discard already goes face-up onto a Department pile, and a Department pile is exactly what a
rival draws from. That was already built; only the first half was a change.

#6's corner survives, narrowed. A hand where nothing may be discarded still has exactly one legal
way on — play one — with nothing in the engine ever computing "you must play a train". With the
setting on, the only hand that reaches it is four Extras; with it off, any four trains, as before.
Both are pinned by tests.

Done in **v0.7.1** (`4414476`) and on the playtest line as **v0.4.9g** (`9735468`). **This supersedes #6**, which shipped three days earlier in v0.6.2 / v0.4.9f and made every train card unconditionally undiscardable. Two things narrow your ruling rather than reversing it wholesale: - **An Extra is still never discardable.** It never joins the timetable, so it can never be what jams it — the jam you describe is a timetable problem, and an Extra runs once and ends in the Salvage Yard. The only rule an Extra would dodge by being thrown away is the hand limit. - **On `main` the Timetabled half is a start-of-game option**, `discardTimetabled`, **on by default** — a checkbox in both the New Game dialog and the multiplayer lobby, and listed in the rule set a joiner reads before taking a seat. Your reasoning is explicitly about games run *longer than five days*, and a five-Day game may well still want #6's pressure. The 0.4.9 playtest line has no settings scaffolding, so it takes the plain rule. Both lines play the same game at the default. **The second half of the ruling needed no code at all.** "Someone else might disagree and pick it up" — a discard already goes face-up onto a Department pile, and a Department pile is exactly what a rival draws from. That was already built; only the first half was a change. **#6's corner survives, narrowed.** A hand where nothing may be discarded still has exactly one legal way on — play one — with nothing in the engine ever computing "you must play a train". With the setting on, the only hand that reaches it is four Extras; with it off, any four trains, as before. Both are pinned by tests.

Jesse.Markowitz referenced this issue

2026-08-25 14:51:55 +00:00

Train cards (including extras) are DND - do not discard #6

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Reference: Jesse.Markowitz/station-master#9