Let railroad movement be moddable in the editor. I hate infinite railroad movment!!!

[iceboy]

I want my railroads to allow double the movement of roads but not speed of light movement!!!

 

[Commander Bello]

I don't hate it, but the more to be edited the better, I say

 

[Turner]

I agree, CB. I like it the way it is, but let's have the ability to mod it.

 

[warpstorm]

Warp jumps on the bandwagon. I too like inifinite movement in the epic game, but for a mod I might want to change it.

 

[Chieftess]

I like infinite movement too (also hops on the bandwagon). Same reason as everyone else.

 

[GrandpaCat]

If you are going to have only railroads and not roads in your scenario (ie not mixed... this wouldn't work epic game), then you could get around it by changing the road pictures into railroads and doubling the movement rate there.... at least, I think that's possible. I'm not big on customization, but in my previous forays into the editor it looks possible.

 

[unscratchedfoot]

I totally agree with iceboy. Railroads should be renamed 'Teleportation System' because you can move across an entire continent and still attack on the same turn! Which is insanely unrealistic. It's a no-brainer strategy because it negates strategic deployment and enables silly exploits like dumping down settlers to push back your opponent's border to allow instant attacks on cities with arty. If railroads worked like this in real life, there would be no convoy ambushes in Iraq.

Also, railroads in the game are heniously ugly and cover the entire map with the grey swirls.

Here's a solution: remove railroads from your game and rely on roads like in real life so you can have a strategic modern game. To remove them easily, just use the editor to make a new resource that railroads need but is not on the map. Voila, no more ugly rr's and your game is a hundred times more fun.

 

[silver 2039]

I modded it take 40 turns to build a railroad so the entire map is'nt covered. Maybe I should make it higer.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by unscratchedfoot
Here's a solution: remove railroads from your game and rely on roads like in real life so you can have a strategic modern game.

Not like my real life. My real life has most of this continent covered with rail lines where I can cross the country within a couple of days. And the USA has a much less developed rail system than Europe (conversely it has a better developed road system). The rail lines in the USA do carry a lot of goods.

 

[Qpdaj]

What makes railroads hard to simulate is that all units travel the same speed once loaded onto a train. So simply making railroads 1/6 movement points (like roads are 1/3) doesn't really make sense.

I suppose they could do something like make "trains" which could hold, er, five (to accomodate armies) units and could travel 10 or 15 or whatever tiles. Loading and unloading the trains would be just like boats; in a city it would be free, but elsewhere it would cost movement. Only trains would get the increased movement by rail. All other units would only get the road bonus.

Eh, it's one idea.

Mostly, though, I like infinite rail movement.

 

[unscratchedfoot]

Originally posted by warpstorm
Not like my real life. My real life has most of this continent covered with rail lines where I can cross the country within a couple of days.

Aha! "A couple of days" is the key here, not instant. Can't you see my point now? Instant does not equal a couple of days. And do railroads cover each and every square metre of landspace in weird looking swirls where you live?

 

[nullspace]

Rails let you move across an entire continent in one year. That part of infinite movement makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that you can move across the continent and attack before your enemy can react. If the unit has 2 movement, it can even retreat to a safe place after attacking. Fighting a war (on multiple fronts, even) is simple and takes little planning.

Perhaps it would be better if a unit that moved an infinite distance can't attack on the same turn, or if railroads can only be used to start moving at a city, and end moving at a city. Then they wouldn't be faster than airports. Of course, make it moddable .

 

[redhulkz]

Originally posted by silver 2039
I modded it take 40 turns to build a railroad so the entire map is'nt covered. Maybe I should make it higer.

indeed its very unrealistic to see AI rail the whole every single tile.. what a nonsense

those who support speed of light rail just wants to exploit it

 

[EdwardTking]

I agree.

I think that each rail square should take up 1/8 of a move.

 

[LordKestrel]

I like it the way it is, but mostly because I'm used to it. If railroads had originally been a 6-1 movement, and someone suggested to change it to infinite movement, I'd think it's stupid, because I'd be used to 6-1 movement. Conversely, I don't want to change it from infinite to limited, mostly because I'm used to infinite.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by unscratchedfoot
Aha! "A couple of days" is the key here, not instant. Can't you see my point now? Instant does not equal a couple of days. And do railroads cover each and every square metre of landspace in weird looking swirls where you live?

A couple of days is instant in Civ time scales. Even at the end game when turns are only a year, this means crossing a continent in less than 1/100th of a turn.

If you consider a tile to be the size of a Civ3 tile, yes, there is a swirl of rails going through the tile (and in every place I've lived or worked over the past few decades).

Do you live near a city? Have you actually looked at the rail system in and near it?

Now get a Civ map of your country and a rail map of your country. You will see that unless you live in BFE (and probably even then if you live in the USA or Europe) there are rails going through nearly every Civ tile of it in real life (odds are there is a rail going to every city (even ones to small to rate as cities in Civ and to many towns and industrial sites)).

I see and hear trains every single day and often take them.

 

[lbhhh]

Originally posted by Qpdaj

I suppose they could do something like make "trains" which could hold, er, five (to accomodate armies) units and could travel 10 or 15 or whatever tiles. Loading and unloading the trains would be just like boats; in a city it would be free, but elsewhere it would cost movement. Only trains would get the increased movement by rail. All other units would only get the road bonus.

I like your idea. I'd like to see that in civ4. You may want to post it in the civ4 forum, see what other people think.

 

[unscratchedfoot]

Originally posted by warpstorm
A couple of days is instant in Civ time scales. Even at the end game when turns are only a year, this means crossing a continent in less than 1/100th of a turn. Based on your logic: at the start of the game 1 turn = 50 years. A conservative estimate based on the lack of roads at the time means a settler or warrior could move perhaps 30 tiles in 1 year. So 30 x 50 = 1500 movement per turn for a settler or a warrior. How long does it take you to finish a turn with that kind of crazy movement warpstorm?

If you consider a tile to be the size of a Civ3 tile, yes, there is a swirl of rails going through the tile (and in every place I've lived or worked over the past few decades).

Do you live near a city? Have you actually looked at the rail system in and near it?

Now get a Civ map of your country and a rail map of your country. You will see that unless you live in BFE (and probably even then if you live in the USA or Europe) there are rails going through nearly every Civ tile of it in real life (odds are there is a rail going to every city (even ones to small to rate as cities in Civ and to many towns and industrial sites)). Let's say one civ tile represents 50 square kilometers and than we take the average between rural and urban population. How many toilets are there one 1 square km? Let's be really conservative and say 5 toilets per km. So we get 50 x 5 = 250 toilets per civ tile. How does your game look warpstorm with 250 toilet images on each tile?

I see and hear trains every single day and often take them. Wow

 

[warpstorm]

Well, that is true. There are lots of toilets in my world too.

Coming soon -- Warpstorm Watercloset Terrain.

I never said I was against modding this. I have asked for it myself previously. I just like the way it is now as a default (whether or not it makes logical sense or even internally consistent sense).

 

[explodin dog]

Originally posted by unscratchedfoot
Aha! "A couple of days" is the key here, not instant. Can't you see my point now? Instant does not equal a couple of days. And do railroads cover each and every square metre of landspace in weird looking swirls where you live?

yes, but lets remember, this is when game turns can represent a year or more..

unless you played it by the week or month, it would make perfect sense.

but adding another editor option would be awesome.

it really depends on the circumstances.