I've never liked that you can't make roads without The Wheel tech, given that many civs (e.g. the Inca) had advanced road systems without/before the wheel, but the question is how do I change this?? I want change the prereq to a different tech, but I've looked through the XML files and can't figure out how to change what tech roads come with. I thought it would be in with the other improvements but it is not there, nor is it in the "routes" file (can't remember exact name, in the Misc directory). Does anyone know how to modify this? Can it be done in XML or did the devs randomly (stupidly) decide to put it in Python when all other things like this are done in XML?

CIV4BuildInfos.xml

Very few things are defined in python by default. The interface is pretty much the only one you'd want to change in there. In fact... off the top of my head I think the only other thing defined is the positions of the units when they are moving.

I've never liked that you can't make roads without The Wheel tech, given that many civs (e.g. the Inca) had advanced road systems without/before the wheel, but the question is how do I change this?? I want change the prereq to a different tech, but I've looked through the XML files and can't figure out how to change what tech roads come with. I thought it would be in with the other improvements but it is not there, nor is it in the "routes" file (can't remember exact name, in the Misc directory). Does anyone know how to modify this? Can it be done in XML or did the devs randomly (stupidly) decide to put it in Python when all other things like this are done in XML?

I think the intent of the designers of the game in regards to the "The Wheel" tech and formal roads is that before the invention of the wheel there were no "roads" but just paths. It took the invention of the wheel for people to say, hey, it might be good to clear this path of hazards, flatten it, maybe pave it, etc.

So I don't argue with you that there were roads/paths before the wheel but, real roads such as the roads built by the Romans did require some type of technology - thus you have the wheel as a prereq tech to roads. I think the fact that units can go anywhere pretty well represents the concept of the path and that units get movement bonuses on roads proves my claim above.

I think that built roads ingame also represent the investment of a society in carts, wagons, stagecoaches and livestock to pull those vehicles.

Thanks for the heads-up on the file name. I'll check it out.


... before the invention of the wheel there were no "roads" but just paths. It took the invention of the wheel for people to say, hey, it might be good to clear this path of hazards, flatten it, maybe pave it, etc.
I disagree. As per my parenthetical example, the Inca had a highly developed road system -- some of their roads are still used today. The Inca had no draft animals (llamas aren't draft animals), and so they never had a reason to invent the wheel. The wheel is only really useful for long distance transport if appropriate draft animals are available, so by the logic you've stated above, in order to build roads a civ should require both The Wheel and some draft animal resource such as horses (the only one included in the game, really). However, it still stands that peoples without draft animals or the wheel managed to construct functional road systems, so such strictures wouldn't make sense.

So I don't argue with you that there were roads/paths before the wheel but, real roads such as the roads built by the Romans did require some type of technology - thus you have the wheel as a prereq tech to roads.
There were roads (and wheels) long before there were Romans, or Roman roads. I think that Roman roads would be best represented by the +1 movement bonus you get from Engineering. But that's just my interpretation. Perhaps the bonus should actually come with Construction.

I think the fact that units can go anywhere pretty well represents the concept of the path and that units get movement bonuses on roads proves my claim above.
From a gameplay standpoint, the problem with the The Wheel : roads correlation is not one of movement, but of resources. Without a road connecting you to a given resrouce, you can build as many mines, camps, quarries, plantations, etc. as you please, but you won't have access to the resources, only their food/shield/gold benefits. This implies that societies that didn't have the wheel didn't have any way to aquire resources, which is a bit unrealistic. To be certain, the wheel can improve resource transport speed, but only really if your civilization has proper draft animals. The Maya and Aztecs had the wheel, but didn't have much use for it except on children's toys because people don't make good draft animals.

What I'd like to do is allow "slow" roads (2 moves instead of 3) with a new starting tech, a tech that would be a prereq for The Wheel. The Wheel itself would then give a +1 movement bonus on roads, much like Engineering, bringing road movement up to it's base speed in the vanilla game. However, I'm not sure if this is going to be practical or even possible yet.

EDIT: Well, I've looked at CIV4RouteInfos.xml, and it looks like it might be possible to do what I've proposed just above (messing with road movement), but I'm not entirely sure what the numbers signify nor whether I should modify both <iMovement>#</iMovement> and <iFlatMovement>#</iFlatMovement> or even what the second one is for. :P I'll have to do some tweaking I suppose.

Thats all well and good to make slow roads, but doesn't everyone pick up roads as one of the first techs that they research?

No, typically I will pick the religion track first: Myst. then Meditation or one of the other ones.

I really like to start hooking up resources as quick as I can. My expansion/invasion strategies tend to revolve around snagging every new resource that I can.