A constant feature of Civ, and something that seems to persist in Civ 4 examples that I've seen, is that after the early stages there are too many roads on the map.

Of course a real country has lots of roads. But they divide into major and minor roads. On the scale of the Civ game we should be seeing only major roads, and we should be seeing them only on direct routes between cities -- not "There's an empty square, build a road on it!"

It's both ugly and unrealistic to see a map saturated with roads -- or, worse, railways -- over every square.

To avoid this, I suppose roads should either be more expensive to build, or (better) they should have a maintenance cost, as they have in reality. In the latter case, they should disappear if not maintained. Remember that this game covers thousands of years.

I wonder if the game will be sufficiently modifiable for this maintenance cost to be added later if Firaxis doesn't want to do it...

I think, since roads don't give commerce bonuses, that roads will be used less.

A constant feature of Civ, and something that seems to persist in Civ 4 examples that I've seen, is that after the early stages there are too many roads on the map.

To quote the developers:



GS: We've heard that roads no longer grant commerce. What's the reasoning for that? We assume this will cut down on the habit of planting roads and rails in every square inch of your empire. This created such an unseemly sight, as roads and rails littered every square.

BC: Roads no longer grant commerce because we completely overhauled the trade system and it just didn't make sense, in light of the new rules, to also give roads/railroads a blanket bonus. The other problem with the old way was that there was really only one choice that made sense--you build a road any chance you get--and having only one real choice is not very fun. There are plenty of ways to generate trade in Civ IV and they are more strategic and fun than simply sprinkling roads everywhere. The fact that it will help prevent the "every tile has a road" phenomenon is a bonus.

Thanks for the quote. Removing the commerce bonus will help, but I still see a lot of roads in some Civ 4 example screens.

In reality, roads (especially major roads) cost a lot to build and a lot to maintain. If in Civ they cost little to build and nothing to maintain, then I think too many will be built.

Civ 4 cities are said to have a significant maintenance cost that increases with the number of cities. At least some of this maintenance cost could have been assigned instead to the roads and railways.

Well, AFAIK in Civ4 they still will cost nothing to maintain, but now they will have alternative cost (aka opportunity cost). That is, building roads is no more the only way to get money from tiles, and by building a road you might lose some other resource from that tile that could be more important for you. Essentially that means that roads have some cost attached to them.

Let's hope the AI will value roads like we do and build them in a reasonable manner. I'd hate to see them build roads like crazy when they have nothing else to do.

-Pacifist-
"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason" -J.S."

I found the railroad option even worse than roads in Civ III. A map with railways over every nook and cranny of land is just ugly.

The aesthetic part, just doesn´t worry me at all.

However, I´d like to know how will you reflect the advantage of having roads all over your empire for unit movement -when being attacked, or when planning an invasion to a neighbor- if not by building and showing them?

The movement advantage of having roads all over the place is obvious -- which is precisely why too many roads are built when they're too cheap to build.

There should be a proper balance between costs and benefits so that some roads are built, but not too many.

Looking at the latest screenshots, I see there are still too many roads (though fewer than in Civ 3), and furthermore the layout is eccentric and inefficient. Obviously the programmers have tried to provide artistic winding roads instead of boring straight ones, but they've rather overdone the effect. Furthermore, in places there are two more-or-less parallel roads where one would do.

You get this sort of thing happening with minor roads in reality, but the roads in Civ are major roads. In a game on this scale, we shouldn't see minor roads at all.

Well, you are always satifyed to be able to move your units quickly everywhere on your own land, and even some times, beyond.

Anyone who likes having the map covered with roads is welcome to it. But whenever I get the game I'll be looking for a way to make roads (and especially railways) more expensive.

All thanks to Firaxis for going to such lengths to make the game modifiable. Maybe we can all get what we want out of it.