Locomotives - [EBPEdit Help Contents]

You can customize the Locomotives available during play on your map. We recommend your locomotives do not vary significantly from those typically available in the board games because EBP's AI is unlikely to handle them well. If you do not provide custom Locomotives with your map, EBP will automatically supply to players those typical of the game.

# SLOTS

There are 10 slots available for locomotives. Slot #0 is reserved for the locomotive to be employed at game start if the user elects to begin with a Slow train. The slots in between are available for locomotives as you see fit, except you should make the final locomotive in your list one that becomes available only if the user enables the Ultra Freight option. Normally, at the start of a game, EBP assigns each player the locomotive you list in Slot #1.

NAME

Each locomotive must be assigned a unique, non-blank name.

SPEED

Enter the max milepost movement per turn, typically 6 to 16.

LOADS

Enter the max number of loads carried by the train; the range is 1 to 5 but typically the values 2, 3 or 4 are employed.

QUAN

For each type of locomotive, enter the total number available in the game, usually 6 (one for each potential player). If you offer fewer than 6, be sure there is an alternate upgrade path, that is, a sufficient quantity of another allowed locomotive upgrade.

STYLE

Choose the shape with which to display the locomotive on the map.

FILL

Choose the design with which to fill the interior of the locomotive's shape on the map.

UPGRADES

Enter a comma-delimited list of upgrades that a player can make from this locomotive and their cost. For example, if a given locomotive can be upgraded to both a type #2 (i.e. the locomotive you have listed in slot 2) and a type #3 for $20, in this field you would enter 2@20,3@20

CROSSGRADES

Similar to Upgrades, except these are allowed only when the player enables the Crossgrading variant.

SOUND

To play a sound effect when a player upgrades his locomotive, place a digit in the sound column, where the digit represents the # of a XXXeng#.wav file name containing the sound effect, and XXX is the three-character base name of your map. For example, if your map is named XYZ and you want the sound stored in xyzeng3.wav to play when the user upgrades to a particular engine, set the Sound field of that engine to 3. Sounds files must be placed in the same directory as the XXXmap.ebm file.

LOCO IMAGES

At your option, you can supply with your map custom locomotive images for EBP to display in the background in the "load chip" area above each player's contracts. The images should be of very low contrast so as to not visually interfere with the information EBP overlays, which includes the player's name and loads onboard.

You can 1) place each locomotive image in its own file, or 2) place all locomotive images into the same image file as the load icons. To do the latter (recommended), refer to the Icons topic. To do the former, leave the Icon column fields blank and see below.

Name your loco images XXXloco#.jpg (or .gif or .bmp) where XXX is the 3-character base name of your map, and # is a digit from 0 to 9 that corresponds to the slot number used in the locos table. During play, these image files must reside in the same directory as the EBP.EXE program.