Game Setup - [EBP Help Contents]
The Game Setup window appears when you choose Start from the Game pull-down menu. In the Game Setup window you choose the configuration of the match you wish to play.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS
You can choose from 1 to 6 players by clicking one of the 6 option buttons in the # column found to the left of player names. Any combination of computer and human players is allowed. A computer-only game can be operated in continuous play mode, which runs one or more matches without stopping in order to collect statistics and study other aspects of the game.
NAME
Enter a unique name for each player. The default name matches the default player color. Click the Name label at the top of the column to reset the player names to match their color.
COLOR
Choose a color with which to depict the player's track and train. If you prefer a color not in the list, choose Custom. In Web or Pbem matches, white and black are not recommended as player colors since many people use one of those two colors as their preferred display background.
TYPE/STYLE
Designate the player's type in this column: human or computer AI. Several different types of computer players are available; each computer player type makes slightly different play decisions. As you make a selection, a brief description is given in the Type/Style Information box.
The ability level of the built-in AI computer players differs. On most maps, their order, from toughest to weakest competitor, is as follows: Hill, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Gould, Pullman, Newby.
To set up a Play by Email match choose the Human, Pbem type for your opponent(s). You will be prompted to enter their email address.
For live Web and home network play, do not manually choose Human, Remote, instead put your name into player slot 1, and begin a Web match via the Web, Make me GameMaster or Web, Make me a Player pull-down menus. See the Web Play topic for details.
SKILL
Choose a skill level for each player. The skill level influences how deeply EBP's AI searches for good combinations of pickups and deliveries. Higher skill levels generally find better combinations, but play more slowly. For a human player, the skill level determines how deeply EBP searches when you ask it for a play suggestion. Click the Skill label at the top of the column to advance the setting of all players.
RANDOMIZE TURN ORDER
Choose how you want EBP to determine the turn order of the players at the start of the game.
ROUND STYLE - TURN BASED
Choose this for a match in which each player takes a turn in sequence, as in typical board games.
ROUND STYLE - BLITZ
Choose this for a match in which each player takes turns repeatedly/rapidly without waiting for other players. Recommended for experienced players only. See Blitz Play.
ROUND STYLE - PAUSE / ROUND
For turn-based matches, enter the number of seconds to pause after each computer turn. Enter 0 for no pause, or -1 to pause until you click OK (done). For use with Blitz matches, see Blitz Play.
MAP - Randomize / Reprice
Via the Randomize features, millions of possible map variations can be played. Alternatively, you can tweak the contract demands by hand, or reprice their payoffs, as described below.
Use this pull-down menu to change the contract demands (payoffs, loads, etc.) and/or city locations. For contracts, you can 1) edit the list manually, 2) click Randomize, or 3) copy and paste demand sets of your own, such as from the Crayon Rails Deck Generator on the Web. Any such changes are not permanent, i.e. they are not saved with the map; to restore the original contracts and city locations, simply reload the map into EBP (File, Load Map).
The Randomize button generates delivery demands at random, using various formulas and metrics so that the resulting contract set is similar to the one that comes with the map. You are given the option to add random variance to the delivery payoffs; some skilled players enjoy the challenge of finding and fulfilling contracts that contain oversized payoffs, something EBP's AI bots know to do. If you prefer a contract set with fewer low-paying demands, increase the value of the "favor source to demand city mps of at least" field which avoids demands for loads that are supplied nearby.
As of this writing, the Crayon Rails Deck Generator is found at http://www.icynic.com/cgi-bin/rails . Visit the site with your browser, and choose the appropriate map. For "Output format" choose Plain Text. Then click Generate a new deck. When the deck appears at page bottom, highlight and copy it from your browser into the clipboard. Next in EBP's Randomize / Reprice window, click Paste from Clipboard. Do not worry if the Deck Generator abbreviates city names, EBP should recognize them anyhow by looking for the closest match. If you want no events to occur except Taxes (common with the Deck Generator), finish the Randomize / Reprice window, and back in the Game Setup window choose Map, Event Info. In the window that appears, check mark the Tax event, then Shift+click on the Toggle button. Those steps will toggle off all but the Tax event. Finally, back in the Game Setup window, click More Game Options, and in the Variants panel make sure Events are enabled otherwise Taxes will not occur.
To retain the contracts displayed and only reprice their payoffs, click the Reprice Only button. In the Reprice Delivery Payoffs window, adjust the parameters to your liking, and click OK. EBP will recalculate the payoffs accordingly, and let you view them in the Randomize / Reprice window. If you do not like how they turned out, you can use Reprice Only again and try different parameters.
For more variety, try the Randomize City Location feature found at the bottom of the Randomize / Reprice window. It relocates cities randomly, and adjusts the contract payoffs to match the supply/demand locations. Enter a number that acts as a randomizer seed, or have EBP pick one for you. Any such changes are not permanent, i.e. they are not saved with the map; to restore the original contracts and city locations, simply reload the map into EBP (File, Load Map). To later recreate a particular city randomization, reuse the same seed number.
LEVELS
Use these pull-down menus to select a built-in computer opponent configuration (i.e. easily change the player type and skill levels to one of various predetermined settings).
WEB
Use these pull-down menus to play a game via the Internet versus remote human opponents, or against local opponents via your home network/router. You can also Play by Email.
MORE GAME OPTIONS
Click this button to open a window with more configurable game options. such as number of starting contracts per player, circus, warehousing, fast trains, open contracts, and much more.
EVENTS
If a map has an events or two you particularly abhor, use the Map, Event Info menu to open a list of events. There you can checkmark the ones you dislike, and click Toggle to turn them off so they will not occur during play.