damnrunner
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 2,004
I have never really understood the reason why railroads give such ubiquitous advantages in all of the civ games. I don know about you but if my hometown had its roads replaced with railroads I would not get an econ or production bonus. Also it just looks sort of odd to see a map completely covered with traintracks.
My suggestion is that roads keep the same benefits. With the invention of automobile you can upgrade them to paved roads which have an increased movement rate. From 3-5 squares. They could also have increased commerce or production rate.
The real modification though would come with rail roads. They should provide and increase in movement rate (10 squares) but should also come with a disadvantage. This could be decreased food production and possibly commerce and hammer production as well. Another possibility is that they could cause unhappiness in nearby cities. Later in the game a technology should allow for maglev trains which have infinite movement but even worse (or perhaps just different) disadvantages.
This addition to the game would add an entire new dimension of strategy as one tries to optimize troop transport as well as tile improvement. It would also create interesting military situations where you could disrupt strategically important supply lines. Although changing the benefits and values of roads / rails would be fairly easy to implement getting workers and the AI to adapt to these new rules would be difficult. Since workers on auto already seem to be fairly inept I doubt they would make good decisions on railroad placement.
My suggestion is that roads keep the same benefits. With the invention of automobile you can upgrade them to paved roads which have an increased movement rate. From 3-5 squares. They could also have increased commerce or production rate.
The real modification though would come with rail roads. They should provide and increase in movement rate (10 squares) but should also come with a disadvantage. This could be decreased food production and possibly commerce and hammer production as well. Another possibility is that they could cause unhappiness in nearby cities. Later in the game a technology should allow for maglev trains which have infinite movement but even worse (or perhaps just different) disadvantages.
This addition to the game would add an entire new dimension of strategy as one tries to optimize troop transport as well as tile improvement. It would also create interesting military situations where you could disrupt strategically important supply lines. Although changing the benefits and values of roads / rails would be fairly easy to implement getting workers and the AI to adapt to these new rules would be difficult. Since workers on auto already seem to be fairly inept I doubt they would make good decisions on railroad placement.
