AI and Road Spammin

[rocklikeafool]

Why do the AI always spam roads?

 

[Pyr0mancer]

Uh, because they're incredibly useful to have? Doubling or tripling (w/ engineering) movement is pretty much essential to success for any strategy, and unless your workers have something better to do, they should be building roads. Roads are a massive defensive advantage, unless the enemy has Raiders, in which case they're pretty much just a break-even.

 

[rocklikeafool]

Overuse of roads is rediculous, man. They only need roads to connect cities and ressources, not every frickin tile possible. It's annoyin when you conquer an AI city and find that you have to rework the road system cuz it makes no sense.

 

[Demus]

when there's an enemy stack somewhere halfway through your lands, i often find it quite usefull to have roads leading off and to the point that enemy stack is, so i can do swift strike and return actions against that stack. Having a lot of roads helps tremendously for doing this. Raiders is a different story though, tasunke can pretty much pillage every cottage in your BFC in 1 turn if everything is roaded up.

 

[rocklikeafool]

That's one reason to not spam roads. Raider trait. So, why doesn't the AI realize this?

 

[slowcar]

because it is useful to have roads everywhere?
the raider trait just makes it a break even.

to defend the own country roads are quite essential. and there is no backdraw.

 

[rocklikeafool]

But you don't need roads all over the place. Only to connect cities and resources and trade networks. But not all over the place.

 

[Caradoc]

At least they are not spamming railroads, like in some other game I know.

 

[Bringa]

Well, then maybe there should be some game-mechanic that discourages road spamming. I don't know, road maintenance?

 

[Uberness]

Unless your surrounded by raider trait aggressive horse users, there is no reason -not- to road everywhere with your workers when there isn't anything else to do, just so you can strike at some random unit in your land and not being stuck because your not on a road, or so you can go anywhere from anypoint even if something suddenly blocks the one road or pillages it.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

That's one reason to not spam roads. Raider trait. So, why doesn't the AI realize this?

I don't buy this. Unless every enemy unit has commando, roads everywhere still gives you and advantage, as ALL of your units will have reduced movement, compared to only some of theirs.
The fastest route between two points is a straight line, and if you can reinforce a distant city a turn early because of excessive roads going in a diagonal direction, it'll be a slight advantage. If the workers have nothing better to do, might as well, unless you just find it unsightly.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I don't really have a problem with road spamming. I do it myself when there is nothing else for my workers to do. It is certainly better than leaving them on their own to building forts everywhere. It isn't nearly as much of a deal if you (like xienwolf and vehem) and make Raiders grant an auto-pillaging Raider promotion instead of Commando.


I did have a big "railroad" spamming problem once, when I decided to add a Royal Highway route. These were just railroads with normal road graphics that had very high build costs and required clearing features (this is allowed in the normal schema, although never used. I was thinking these should clear improvements too, but I don't think it had that ability) and required Engineering, not one of the types of unique roads I suggested when I first joined civfanatics. (I'd still like them, but I doubt they are possible to implement.) I abandoned the idea when I found out that the elven civs don't leave forests behind when building routes like they do when building improvements. As soon as the elven civs acquired Engineering they went about clearing every ancient forest from their empire.

 

[smjjames]

I don't really have a problem with road spamming. I do it myself when there is nothing else for my workers to do. It is certainly better than leaving them on their own to building forts everywhere. It isn't nearly as much of a deal if you (like xienwolf and vehem) and make Raiders grant an auto-pillaging Raider promotion instead of Commando.
.

Same thing here, I like to make the entire BFC roaded up, probably a bit of a holdover from previous Civ games where roads actually provided a gold bonus to the tile. I also do the same thing when my settlers are not doing anything.

 

[rocklikeafool]

Ok, bottom line, road spammin annoys me. Apparently, no one agrees with me. I wanted to know if anyone did. Guess not.

 

[DuckAndCower]

It bothers me, too. I actually wrote a letter to my state representative today. It's absolutely ridiculous that in Connecticut, there are roads connecting just about EVERYTHING. Roads go to farms that aren't built on wheat resources. Roads go through forests that don't lead anywhere. Roads even lead to rival states! It's unsightly and unnecessary.

I would urge all CT residents to vote Yes for Proposition 183 this coming election, which will remove these horrible eyesores from our beautiful state.

Honestly, if you don't have roads in all your territory, or at least on all of your improvements (not just resources), you're just waiting to get pillaged to death. Also, good luck reinforcing your cities when you have to route everything through your capitol.

 

[Arcite36575]

Ok, bottom line, road spammin annoys me. Apparently, no one agrees with me. I wanted to know if anyone did. Guess not.

Yup. I think you got it right. Nobody agrees with you

Seriously though, there's lots of very serious problems with the AI. I can't understand why "this" would be such a major pet peeve with you.

I, as well as most everyone else here, spam roads over my entire empire, except if I border a civ with the raiders promotion. As mentioned before, it's better logisticly for defense. You are giving yourself a disadvantage if you don't.

Also, realistically, nations spam roads everywhere in real life because it's good for commerce and for moving troops around. It doesn't make any sense to have only a single road for transportation between cities.

 

[Annex]

You should have roads in every tile of your empire. You never know when you will need to attack an invasion force. An invading army will likely plunder improvments and roads. If you have a road in every tile, you will have a better chance of using a road to attack with a movment level 2 or greater unit and be able to make it back into the safety of your city.

Besides, Civs with the Raider trait can still use your "strategic roads" to reach your cities anyway.

 

[MrPopov]

there was work on a modcomp a while ago I remember reading that changed the road system a bit that I think would be interesting for FFH.

It basically gave all improvements the movement bonus function of roads, but restricted them such that roads themselves were still required for connecting cities and resources. Might be interesting coupled with the raider trait if commando only helped you on enemy roads, but not their improvements. You would have to increase the build time or something for the improvements and hopefully adjust the AI to not overdo the roads like they do now.

 

[Ecofarm]

It is unsightly. My problem with not spamming them is not so much that I might lose an extra 1/2 move between cities for some unit 1/2 way between cities (if the game is so critical, I've pretty much lost control anyway) but that the enemy, no matter how nicely I ask, doesn't stay on my pretty roads... or could break a trade route, sending a city into chaos... so I must have them everywhere

Roads should incur a penalty to the tile (or city within 3-ring radius, -1/4 health?), perhaps removed with a late tech(s).

2. Chopping at a reduced speed and/or hammers should be possible at game start; crafting adds hammers and bronze/iron adds speed.

 

[rocklikeafool]

You should have roads in every tile of your empire. You never know when you will need to attack an invasion force. An invading army will likely plunder improvments and roads. If you have a road in every tile, you will have a better chance of using a road to attack with a movment level 2 or greater unit and be able to make it back into the safety of your city.

Besides, Civs with the Raider trait can still use your "strategic roads" to reach your cities anyway.

Here's the thing. I don't want roads everywhere. I think it's a waste. So, everyone, quit tellin me roads should be everywhere!