fabulous railroads !

[Captain Pugwash]

Wow, those railroads make so much difference.

In most of my games to date I havent had coal or I got it so late that I only had time to connect my cities so that workers could get to pollution quicker. In a recent game I got coal early in my own territory and started to build the usual city connections. I wasnt paying much attention to the squares chosen for the railroads but then I began to notice some wondrous things. A railroad improves just about every square in a very useful way..even desert and tundra. It goes way beyond what the Civilopedia entry says.

I ended up building railroad on just about every square. The downside is that it makes the map darn ugly because the railroad graphics are not nice and uniform (fix this please Mr Firaxis) but the effects are just too good to ignore.

I guess most of you folks knew this already but for those that didnt...check it out ......(if you should happen to get some coal)

 

[BigBirdZ28]

Railroads are the bomb !!!!!

A lot of people want to reduce their movement bonus though, which i feel is REALLY WRONG.

 

[pompeynunn]

Yes, the best thing about railroads is the ability to produce more food from irrigated squares - useful in those desert regions. It would be nice to get a bonus from railroads on forest areas (like in Civ 2).

I suspect that the reason there is no movement penalty for railroads is that it would be difficult to implement. Railroads should give every unit the same movement per turn (after all, they all use the same train) - but what would that be? 6 squares? Knights can do that on roads. 9 squares? Cavalry can do that already. Lets say double that then - 18 sqaures. Now we are getting towards the whole width of a continent. Oh sod it, unlimited movement on railways it is then. Not realistic, but for gameplay purposes the only practical solution.

I would, however, put a limit on getting on and off a railway tile from a non-railroaded tile. Doing these actions should finish a units turn.

I would also implement a Civ specific attribute for the English railways - no movement allowed due to rail strikes or train crashes!

 

[rdomarat]

Originally posted by Captain Pugwash
The downside is that it makes the map darn ugly because the railroad graphics are not nice and uniform (fix this please Mr Firaxis) but the effects are just too good to ignore.

If you don't like the railroad graphics that Firaxis made, then you can always modify the graphics yourself. Even better, just use the work that someone else has already done and made available. Check out the following thread for some Civ2 style railroads :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14987

IMHO, asking Firaxis to fix something that they've allowed you to customize is sort of pointless, but that might just be me.

 

[Becka]

Originally posted by BigBirdZ28
Railroads are the bomb !!!!!

A lot of people want to reduce their movement bonus though, which i feel is REALLY WRONG.

I agree. I mean, in the later stages of the game when you use the rail roads, one turn equals a year, and who believes that it would take more than one year to take the rail road from one end of the continent to the other?