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2.2. Strategy concept

A Strategy is the participating programmer's contribution to the game, and the means by which he competes. At the start of a game, each Player is bound to a Strategy, and the Strategy controls its Player.

A Strategy is represented by a class (or set of classes) which implements the Strategy interface.

A Strategy receives this information from the conductor:

at the start of a game, a reference to the Game object. From this, the Strategy can obtain game-constants, the Board object, PlayerView objects for each player, and can see the owner of a Route.
at the start of a game, a PlayerView object representing the Strategy's Player.
at the end of the game, the player-index of the winner.
the player-index of a player who purchases a Right-of-Way, whenever that happens.
notification that another player has paid a fare to the Strategy's player.
the route-index of a route which changes ownership (either by purchase or sale), whenever that happens.
notification that the Strategy's player's turn has begun.
notification that the Strategy's player's turn has ended.
the Strategy's player's Destination choices, at the start of each delivery.
notification that the Strategy's player has arrived at his Destination, whenever that happens.
notification that the Strategy's player is Bankrupt, when that happens.

But once a player is Bankrupt, the Strategy will receive only the bankrupt-notification, the ensuing end-of-turn notification, and the end-of-game notification.

A Strategy may make these decisions:

on arrival at a Junction: which Segment to follow. (But if that Junction is the Destination, the decision is made next turn, after the new Destination is chosen.)
on arrival at a Destination: what, if anything, to purchase.
after paying fares, and thereby having negative cash: which Route to sell. (If the player has no Routes to sell, he is Bankrupt, and is so notified instead.)

In each case, a Strategy is given the opportunity to choose, even when there is only one legal choice. The pseudo-choice serves as a notification.

A Strategy may make those decisions, but is not required to make them. If not, the conductor will choose.


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