What is supported, what is missing
Dampfross for Windows is still under development. Even though it aims at a full implementation of the board game's concept there are currently some differences some of which should be resolved in future releases.
The board game
A major problem arises from the fact that there is no such thing as the board game. There are different editions from several toy factories which differ in some (mostly minor) aspects of the rules.
Dampfross for Windows targets compatibility with the Schmidt Spiele edition which was released under the name of Dampfross in Germany in 1983 and elected Game of the Year in 1984. Some enhancements are taken from the 1992 edition published by Laurin.
What is supported?
- The official maps (Edition Dampfross 1: Germany, Eastern USA, Western USA, France; Edition Dampfross 2: Northern Italy, Southern Italy, Austria, Switzerland) are fully supported. This includes rules for home towns, ferries, and special (international) transports.
- The building stage can be played with 1 die (default) or 2 dice.
- It is optionally possible to use the same die roll for all players within the same turn.
- Income and expenses are fully supported, defaulting to the Schmidt Spiele official rules. All incomes and expenses are configurable.
- Races between destinations are fully supported. Destinations can either be manually selected or determined by chance.
- If desired, the current race's end terminal can automatically become the next race's start terminal. Unfortunally, the official rules are not clear on how to deal with special (international) transports. Currently (as of beta 1), this means that with special transports enabled, the next race will start at a special (international) destination if the previous race has terminated there. This might change (or be made configurable) in an upcoming release. Please feel free to give suggestions about how to handle this situation.
- The game may end at a certain account balance (by default, 200‑250 credits, depending on the number of participants) or after a certain amount of races. Both variants are fully supported. Both the account balance and the number of races at which to end the game are configurable.
What is missing?
- The official rules allow building joint-ventures of two players. This rule is already implemented, but it is currently (as of beta 1) not enabled for public use. Unfortunately, the rule is kind of vague and requires some clarification especially regarding payments from other players to the players who have built tracks as part of a joint-venture.
- During the operating stage, one is allowed to freely choose which player's tracks to use on sections where no own tracks have been built. This is fully supported if the rivals' tracks form different routes. In the case where two (or even more) competitors have tracks on the same hex, it is currently not possible to choose which player's tracks to use. This decision is currently been made automatically.
- According to the official rules, no player is allowed to pay more than 10 units to a competitor for renting his tracks. The rule is basically supported, but not fully regarding the total payments between two players which are renting tracks from one another. To support this case, it is planed to allow all players to simultaneosly choose their routes so that it can be determined whether or not the routes are valid. It is still a difficult rule to handle, though.
- Joint-venture races are already implemented, but currently (as of beta 1) not enabled for public use. As with joint-venture building, there are some details which have to be clarified.
- There is a game variant in which all income and bonuses are credited to the account and players may spend up to 10 % of their current balance of account to extend their networks. This rule is currently not supported at all. It will be available in a future release.
- Ferries are supported, but need clarification in complex situations. This is especially the case for the two Italy maps. Which combinations of ferries are allowed here? Are two or more players allowed to purchase the same ferry line (the broader fields suggest so)? Overall, ferry support is currently limited to a basic level and needs improvement. Feel free to send any suggestions.
- Pre-built tracks (e.g. on the Nothern Italy or Austria map) are not yet supported.