Civ 5 - roads

[KrikkitTwo]

Amusing thought; does this mean no more road construction in open borders territory? So you can't link up trade inside other countries?

Otherwise, you could wreck their economies by road-spamming them.....

it probably also means that roads outside of cultural borers have an "owner" and can be 'pillaged' by that owner

So, how will international road trade work; you can't trade by land unless the other country builds a road up to their border?

Or you link by Sea.

This change makes sea trade better than land trade beause it is Cheaper


The maintenance cost also provides something that can be lost if revenues go too low (besides units)

 

[Schuesseled]

Edit:/ Roads will probably not do anything to stop additional building of farms or towns in the same tile as a road. As Roads are clearly seen built in the same tiles as farms in the following screen shot.
Also to back up a previous statement, roads will surely only be utilised for connecting cities for the most part as can also be seen in the screen shot, no more road spaghetti .
http://www.civilization5.com/?lang=us/#/media/
The last screen shot and the 4th from last screen shot hold the pictures of roads i mentioned.

 

[asboethius]

Roads should be representative of major roads, not farm trails and simple cart lanes. If that is the theory they are going with, then we will likely not need to connect resources by road anymore. As long as the copper in your zone of control has a mine on it, for instance, copper is available to your civilization. That would leave roads useful for speed of travel and establishing trade between cities. No more spaghetti.

 

[timtofly]

It is to be assumed road maintenance will be for the roads in your borders.

I also think that a worker will lay down a road just as they would "place" one of the other "objects" in the tech tree on a tile.

 

[Ahriman]

One assumes the civilisation who builds the road would pay maintanence for the road.

Keeping track of who *built* a road (separate from whose territory it is in) would be horribly confusing. Does each tile of road get a flag on it indicating nationality?

I'd be amazed if you didn't pay maintenance based on roads that exist within your cultural boundaries.

Or you link by Sea.

But this will make maps (and wars) really weird, if there are no roads crossing major international borders. No cross-border land trade?

The maintenance cost also provides something that can be lost if revenues go too low (besides units)

But doing so could push you into a death spiral; lose roads, lose trade routes, lose trade revenue, go further into deficit.

 

[sucksforyou112]

I dont mind having to upkeep roads, but there better be an option to close them, and thus not have any bonus associated with them, nor any cost.

Or maybe have two types of roads- one that costs nothing but provides a small trade bonus when used to connect cities, and can be used to connect resources, but does not provide a very big movement bonus. Then there can be a better road, that costs maitenence, and provides a bigger trade bonus and movement bonus.

 

[Schuesseled]

there was a road on one of the videos and im pretty sure it reduced tile yield but maybe i was seeing things, ill shall have a look ever em all again.

 

[Schuesseled]

Road on plains hill:

Trade route, 2 hammers

Plains hill next to river no road.

3 hammers 2 commerce.

conclusion road decreases productive output of hill by one hammer. extra conclusion hills get 2 commerce for being next to a river.

To confirm found a mosue over of a plain hills not next to a river but without a road. 3 hammers.

So yes roads decrease tile yield! But provide a trade route!

no idea about extra movement, but one would assume so

if you want to see for yourself watch for the mosue overs during the medieval era fights in jon shafer interview vid.

 

[Rexflex]

I dont mind having to upkeep roads, but there better be an option to close them, and thus not have any bonus associated with them, nor any cost.

I'd expect that we will see road pillaging or closure as an option, even if at a zero return or even a one-off cost. I don't think we will see retained ownership of roads on border changes. That would not only be overly complicated both for game and player and lacking gameplay value, but it wouldn't reflect realism - the unholy trifecta.

Likewise building roads in other territories doesn't seem likely to be allowed - too easy to exploit.

International connections where borders have expanded on all sides beyond the city tile will probably have to involve both parties building the road connections on their respective sides and either party on neutral ground. The AI would have to be programmed to understand the benefit of connecting their road to the other nation's road efficiently.

 

[Ahriman]

Can you link to the source please?

And make sure that they're from the same screenshot, and not screenshots where one is in golden age and the other is not?

Thanks.

I really hope they don't reduce tile yields, that would be ridiculous and unnecessary.

 

[Schuesseled]

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6266579/?hd=1

from that video, ill see if i can get some screenshots up in a bit, but it might be easier if you find it yourself.

start watching at 2.15, after the fight with longswordsman, the player directs his trebuchet to a tile with a road, the mouseover pop up in the bottom of the screen shows the tile yield, keep wathcing pausing and playing he will scroll to the right click something then when hes scrolling left you get to see a plains hill without a road.

 

[Schuesseled]

Great General

Spoiler :

Hill with road, 2 hammers, trade route

Spoiler :

Hill on a river, 3 hammers & 2 commerce.

Spoiler :

Hill, no river, no road, 3 hammers

Spoiler :

p.s. all hills are plains

 

[AlpsStranger]

It is to be assumed road maintenance will be for the roads in your borders.

I also think that a worker will lay down a road just as they would "place" one of the other "objects" in the tech tree on a tile.

Erm... I feel like I am getting ready to start WW3 here... are there workers in Civ5? I somehow have a hunch that there aren't workers anymore. Perhaps improvements are hammer-built right out of city centers now?

 

[Ahriman]

@Schuesseled
Not 100% confirmed, but I agree that your interpretation is the most likely.
Bah! What a stupid system - areas with good infrastructure are less productive? And there's no *need* for it! There's already a stick for controlling road sprawl using maintenance.
Looking forward to that getting modded out.

I somehow have a hunch that there aren't workers anymore.

We've seen screenshots with workers. Workers are in.

 

[Never]

I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know if somebody has thought of this before but perhaps if you connect a resource with a road the yield of that resource would increase? So for example in one post it was stated that in a preview there was a lone road connected to a cow... If this whole idea of roads only making money if they are connected to cities then why a lone road connecting a cow? Higher yields seems like the only logical answer.

Perhaps it would only be economically viable (due to the implementation of road maintenance costs [edit: and decreased tile yields]) to build a road to a resource if you knew you could trade or utilise that extra yield.

 

[AlpsStranger]

We've seen screenshots with workers. Workers are in.

I found 'em after I read this. They were *barely* visible in the corner of one shot. Good eye

 

[Schuesseled]

Well roads may not have maintanence if they have a cost on the tiles food/production/income already subjected to the tile a road is built on.

So if Road Maintanence is not in the game, and thier is no cost other than tile reduction, we may still see road spaghettis in neutral territory perhaps, which would presumeably give your troops a slight bonus as you have built roads for your knights or w,e to flank the enemy. A possible strategy. Or if you can spam road's all over an enemy city's radius to hamper thier production, thats another possible strategy, if Road's dont have too high a cost ontop of the tile reduction.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

International connections where borders have expanded on all sides beyond the city tile will probably have to involve both parties building the road connections on their respective sides and either party on neutral ground. The AI would have to be programmed to understand the benefit of connecting their road to the other nation's road efficiently.

That seems likely... and probably possible.

AI would have to make sure The diplomatic relationships were stable.

An advantage of 'owned roads' in neutral territory would be that you might be the only one to use them for 'full' movement bonus, and they could provide vision

I really hope they don't reduce tile yields, that would be ridiculous and unnecessary.

I agree, if they Only reduced tile yields that would be OK, but the maintenance is a good enough alternate limiter

 

[Thyrwyn]

The reduction in tile yields was in one of the first interviews/articles. I don't remember maintenance.

 

[Ramesses]

I honestly liked the CivRev implementation of roads. Call me crazy I guess.

I did like the idea of roads being constructed all at once and and how the system prevented the roads from becoming a tangled mess, but I didn't like how you could just build them instantly with a one-time payment. It needs to take some time to construct the road, and you should have more ways to build them besides gold rushing.