Does anyone else think it's stupid to have railroads as transport in the modern era?

[Gerad]

This bothers me a bit why did they decide to make railroads the final improvement for transportation. did they forgot that in the modern era Railroads are not what connects nations
Highways are. I don`t see why they kept railroads for the modern era but then again there are other things I could metion but this bothers me the most all they would really have to do is change the graphics of the railroads. Once you get to modern age the graphics for railroads changes to highways or better yet once you discover motorized transport you get highways
does this bother anyone else?

 

[Psychlone]

The American railroad network isn't what it once was, but the industry still transports a vast amount of goods. Particularly, when large military formations are moved from place to place, rail is still the preferred method. It's far easier to move a 60-ton tank via train than on the highway.

It might be faster to ship things by truck, but the rails in-game still adequately portray the fact that you can shuffle around military units anywhere within your nation given the timeframe of a turn.

Changing it to highways really wouldn't affect gameplay much, aside from graphically. If you want such a change, I would think it wouldn't be too hard to edit the railroads.pcx file to make the railroad overlays look like highways.

What I find to be a screwier transportation goof in the standard rules is why you can airlift a mechanized unit but not a leader. Which is easier to move by air, one guy, or a tank division...

 

[etj4Eagle]

Very true, the big chemical industry still uses the rail network. It is much easier to use a train of tanker cars than to attempt to service a fleet of tanker trucks. And doesn't europe make much more use of their railnetwork (and have a much better designed one wrt their cities).

 

[Dantos]

Most raw materials (ie coal) are transported by train. You'll often find train loops at mines and distribution centers so trains can quickly do a U-Turn and be quickly filled.

 

[Gerad]

Ok all that stuff about railroads is true, but thats besides the point the life of any nation is not railroad system it's the highways railroads are second at best to highways few people travel by train anymore and most frieght is moved by trucks not by train look at the freeways if you don`t beleive me. In the modern era roads are the circulatory system of nation rails are just support.

 

[Sgt Zimm]

Railroads were and still are the primary means of transport for foodstuffs, industrial products, etc.

Highways have replaced railroads for the transport of private citizens. Thats it.

Semi-Trucks are so numerous because they transport (typically) finished goods from the manufacturer to the retailer.

Railroads are still the best and most efficient means of land transport for industry.

 

[Ironikinit]

From a game play point of view, having rails be the last word in land transport makes sense because no better movement bonus can exist than movement = 0 points.

 

[Hurricane]

I´d say the land transportation system is well portrayed in the game. Only after WW2 did highways become the preferred way of transportation for individuals, and a few decades later also for many types of goods. However, railroad is used when moving large amounts of soldiers, tanks and other military equipment. This way it is perfectly reasonable that Civ3 has railroads, not highways, as the main industry-era transportation method.

As many have pointed out, highways are used for personal transportation and transport of consumer goods. This was portrayed well in Civ2, where the superhighway-improvement gave a nice commerce boom in the city.

 

[Dinorius R.]

Perhaps the view that "highways are it" is just a particularly American (or even Californian) view of the world. If you look at continents other than North America you probably find that rail is vastly more economically important than highways in terms of tonne-miles of freight. I wonder which way it will go when oil starts to become more scarce and expensive in future.. Makes me wanna go and play Railroad Tycoon all over again!

 

[Brocky]

Perhaps with a future version of Civ 3 when you discover automobile all roads could become twice as effective (ie. 1/6 of a movement point is used up per square moved)?

 

[Akka]

Originally posted by Dinorius R.
I wonder which way it will go when oil starts to become more scarce and expensive in future..

Hydrogen engine.
Thinking that's already ready and that's still not being built is such annoying...

 

[BigBirdZ28]

I think railroads are pretty good.

the othe alternative I can think of wouldbe highways, which dont seem as fast for diesel powered tanks !