Are ancient roads permanent?

[boghog]

Every city must have roads for quick military access in case of sudden crisis. Also to transport workers to improve the area, as they become available.

Too gamey for my taste. But of course you can have them if you want them. But it will cost you: Researching the necessary techs (and possibly civics*), creating enough builders** of course has an opportunity cost.
If you think it limiting not to have precise control over roadbuilding in the early ages, consider this: You can now build a road right up to an enemy city and they can't stop you without declaring war. Neat, isn't it?

* What should we call it instead of research?
** or possibly there's another unit type for this: a Renaissance military engineer or an earlier Roman UU

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Trade Routes Length is based on Distance.

All it could take is 9 or even less turns for a Route from City A that is three tiles away from City B to complete (if not less)

So you could have a "worker route" that builds roads only.

You mean duration, right ?

and talk about a dedicated trader ?

 

[AriochIV]

The map was too crowded for me to be sure whether it upgraded automatically over time (not that that would necessarily happen in a staged preview even if it happens in game), but its entirely possible that trade routes later in the game will create more advanced roads. Not saying this is necessarily the case, just that we don't know yet one way or the other.

It's certainly possible that Trader from later eras create more advanced roads (and not just Military Engineers), but I don't see that that in any way implies road decay. The new roads would simply replace the old ones.

In screenshots we have seen three road types: the dirt Ancient Roads, gray stone roads, and black paved modern roads. We haven't yet seen railroads.

 

[Amrunril]

It's certainly possible that Trader from later eras create more advanced roads (and not just Military Engineers), but I don't see that that in any way implies road decay. The new roads would simply replace the old ones.

In screenshots we have seen three road types: the dirt Ancient Roads, gray stone roads, and black paved modern roads. We haven't yet seen railroads.

Right, I wasn't taking a position on the decay issue, just pointing out that since we don't know if later era traders create more advanced roads, it may not be accurate to use Ancient Roads as a synonym for Trader-Created roads (as the thread title does).

 

[Inawordyes]

I could see the system being that the ancient roads don't cost maintenance since they are automatically generated, but have the chance to decay if there isn't an active trade route using them. As you upgrade the roads, they don't decay [as fast] but cost maintenance since they're manually-placed and therefore manually-upkept.