Information - [EBPEdit Help Contents]

Via the Info pull-down menu, you can learn about the map.

MAP INFO

Map Info opens a window with more information. Click a city to learn its size and what it supplies and demands, or a load to learn where it is supplied and demanded. Don't miss the pull-down menus which analyze the map and supply various reports. Maximize the window to see more.

City Value is based on total payoff / distance of both supplied and demanded loads. Load Value is based on number of demands and payoff / distance to the closest supplier. Note the values in EBP may be somewhat different than those displayed in EBPEdit because EBP is able to incoporate more information.

RAIL CORRIDORS

Rail Corridors displays the results of a mathematical analysis of the map's most popular railroad routes. The thicker the line, the more frequently traveled the route. The program generates the corridor display by examining all loads demanded and their delivery payoff, finding where those loads are supplied, building an efficient connecting route, allowing for the geography of the map and proximity of the supply, then combining all the data.

FIND BEST TRIP

During game play, for each set of contracts there is an optimal pick up and delivery route that maximizes the payoff per unit distance traveled. Finding this route is a primary challenge of crayon rails, and is a non-trivial task for both human and computer.

The Find Best Trip feature finds this route for you, starting at the city you specify; it can also find the best starting city, as you would need to know at the beginning of the game. Note that it does not consider the cost of building the route, rather only the distance and payoff. Click on the contracts to include in the set you wish to analyze; use Ctrl+click to select multiple cards.

Find Best Trip performs this task by attempting all possible combinations of trips (brute force) to pick up and deliver the loads on the contracts you select.

Find Best Trip is a form of the classic computational challenge known as the Traveling Salesman problem (search via Google to learn more). In the problem, a salesman must visit N number of cities via the shortest total trip. As N increases, the number of possible trips between all cities increases dramatically (N factorial, 1 x 2 x 3 x ... x N), such that before N reaches 100 checking all possible combinations of trips requires more computing time (on current computers) than the age of the universe.

Consequently, solutions to the Traveling Salesman problem involve reducing the number of trips to check by making intelligent guesses about which to ignore. After such optimization, the resulting computed solution might not be the best possible, but should at least be a good one. If you select more than 4 contracts, Find Best Trip uses optimization techniques to avoid checking all possible permutations.

SPANNING TREE

Spanning Tree draws the shortest (or close to shortest) route that connects all cities. It has no real application in the game, and exists simply for testing and curiosity.

DOT INFORMATION

For details about a specific dot, point to it on the map, right click and from the pop up menu choose Information.