Project Description

This is a dice-and-pencils game implemented in Java, using JavaFX, called [Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition]

Rules

Railroad Ink is a solo game, but can also be played as a competition by having multiple players compete using the same dice rolls. The objective is to place Tiles representing Highway and Railway routes so as to create a network connecting as many Exits as possible.

The game is played over seven rounds. Each round, the four tile dice are rolled to determine the tiles that may be placed for that round. When placing a tile, it may be flipped or rotated in any direction. All four tiles must be placed, unless doing so would result in an illegal placement (see Tiles. After placement is finished, the dice are re-rolled and the next round begins.

In addition to the regular tiles, each round the player may choose to place one of six special tiles, with a maximum of three special tiles per game. The special tiles may also be flipped and rotated.

In competitive play, each player constructs their network independently using the same sequence of dice rolls, with their own private set of special tiles.

The game ends at the end of the 7th round, and scoring determines the winner.

In the below play-through: the dice rolled for the turn are "B1A3A0A3". A0B30 is placed first, followed by A3C10 and A3C23. B1B20 is then placed last. B1B20 is a valid (but perhaps poor) choice of placement. (See rules below for Legal Placements.)

The dice are then rolled again and a new round begins.

Board

The game board is a 7x7 grid with rows labelled A-G and Columns labelled 0-6. Around the edge of the board are 12 exits, each with a corresponding type: Railway or Highway (r or h). The centre grid (italicized) has no impact on the tile placement, but is important for scoring at the end of the game.

---	---	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	---
---	exit	-	h	-	r	-	h	-	exit
A	---	A0	A1	A2	A3	A4	A5	A6	---
B	r	B0	B1	B2	B3	B4	B5	B6	r
C	---	C0	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6	-
D	h	D0	D1	D2	D3	D4	D5	D6	h
E	---	E0	E1	E2	E3	E4	E5	E6	-
F	r	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	r
G	---	G0	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6	-
---	exit	-	h	-	r	-	h	-	exit

Tiles

• There are two different types of dice used in this game. One type of die (A) has six different faces and the other (B) has three different faces (i.e. each pair of opposing faces is identical).
• Each round, die A will be rolled three times and die B will be rolled once.
• There are six special tiles (denoted by S0-5) which do not appear on either die; each of these may be used at most once per game, with a maximum of three special tiles placed per game.
• There are three different route types: Highways (A3-5), Railways (A0-2), and Stations (B0-1). Stations are denoted by a black box in the middle of the road. Some special tiles are also stations. Stations act as a connector between Highways and Railways.
• The Overpass (B2) is both a Highway and a Railway, but does NOT connect the two. It is represented by a Highway passing over a Railway, and it simply allows them to cross paths.
• Altogether there are 15 different tile types.
• Tiles may be rotated, or flipped across the x or y axis. Altogether there are eight orientations, although you'll notice that for some tiles, some of these orientations are equivalent.
• Orientation 0 is the unrotated state. Orientations 1, 2, and 3 represent rotations of 90, 180, and 270 degrees clockwise, respectively. Orientation 4 is created by mirroring orientation 0 over the y-axis, and then 5 through to 7 are rotated 90-270 degrees clockwise from orientation 4.

Legal Placements

• A tile must be placed such that at least one edge connects to either an exit or a pre-existing route. Such a connection is called a valid connection.
• Tiles may not be placed such that a highway edge connects to a railway edge; this is referred to as an invalid connection. Highways and railways may only join at station tiles.
• A tile may have one or more edges touching a blank edge of another tile; this is referred to as disconnected, but the placement is still legal.
• Routes may not cross over, with the exception of the overpass tile.

In the image below;

• 1 is illegal because a highway has an invalid connection to a railway exit.
• 2 is illegal because a railway has an invalid connection to a highway.
• 3 is illegal because there is no valid connection to either an exit or pre-existing route.
• 4 is legal because it has a valid connection to a pre-existing route, and is disconnected from the railway exit.

Encoding Game State

The game state is represented by a board string consisting of a number of tile placement strings. Each tile placement is represented by a string of five characters:

• The first character tells you which die (or special tiles) (A, B or S)
• The second character tells you which tile on the die (0-5)
• The third character tells you which row the tile is placed in (A-G)
• The fourth character tells you which column the tile is placed in (0-6)
• The fifth character tells you the orientation of the tile (0-7)

The special tiles are described similarly (even though they aren't on a die) with S for special, and 0-5 representing the tile.

For example: the tile placement string B0A53 tells us that the tile on die B face 0 is placed at grid A5 in orientation 3, whereas S3G26 tells us Special tile 3 is placed at G2 in orientation 6. The entire board string: "A4A12B2B16A1B01A1B23S1B32A1A32B1B44B2A44A4C16A3D15A4D01A5D23A4E20B1F24A2F17A1F01B0G16A5C34A4C43A5C53A3D50A4D61S4E50A0F51A1F67S2E46B1E31A1F30A2G36A1G41B1G52" encodes the game we used in the scoring example.

Scoring

• Each player scores points based on how many exits each of their routes are connected to.

Number of Exits connected to route	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Points Awarded	4	8	12	16	20	24	28	32	36	40	45

• Each player then loses one point for each 'Error'. Errors are the edges of routes that are not connected to an edge of the board. Routes that end at the edge of the board (whether on an exit or not), or exits that are not connected to a route DO NOT count as errors.

• Each player gets one point for each of the squares of their centre grid that are covered.

• Each player counts their longest Highway and gets one bonus point per square the highway covers.

• Likewise, each player counts their longest railway and gets one bonus point per square the railway covers.

• If a player has multiple Railways (or Highways) of equal longest length, they only score bonus points for one.

• In competitive play, the player with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the person with the fewest errors on the board wins.

For Example:

For Basic Scoring:

• The purple route is connected to 4 exits so we score 12 points.
• The orange route is connected to 6 exits so we score 20 points.
• We have a tile in 6 squares of the centre grid so we score 6 points.
• We have 5 errors/unconnected edges (shown as red crosses) so we lose 5 points.
• So for our basic score we have 12 + 20 + 6 - 5 = 33 points.

For Bonus Scoring:

• Our longest highway (blue) spans 8 tiles, so we score 8 points.
• Our longest railway (green) spans 5 tiles, so we score 5 points.
• In total, we scored 33 + 8 + 5 = 46 points.