No Rail Links / Factory Doesn't Appear on the Build List

[vorlon_mi]

Last night, I was setting up a lot of factory resources to make a run at the Economic victory in Modern. I discovered the techs, build a rail station and factory in my capital. So far, so good.

But as I built rail stations in other cities, the option to build a factory didn't show up.In some cities, the option to build a rail station didn't show up.
The tracking item in the upper left showed "1 / 5 settlements connected by rail." What??? I have roads criss-crossing my empire. All of the settlements in the homelands are reasonably close together. Why are they not considered "linked"?
I tried a couple things: improving trade relations, then sending a merchant from a southern town to a neighbor in the north. I even sent a merchant to a city state I had befriended. Still no connections. No connections mean no factories, fewer legacy points.

Has anyone else seen this? I have three navigable rivers running north-south, like fingers on a hand. Do I need to build bridges on the rivers, so that the trains can pass over and link the cities?

 

[Fluffball]

Connections for rail can be quite wierd. In a recent game i had a city next to my capital that obviously had a road connection to my capital but would not connect by rail untill i sent a merchant to manually do it. I also had cities which were connected (i could build a factory) but i could not visually see a rail link).

You could build a port in the cities which should connect them by sea or you can try having a merchant build a connection between the city and your capital as cities need to be connected to your capital by rail/port to count.

 

[CliffCo]

Last night, I was setting up a lot of factory resources to make a run at the Economic victory in Modern. I discovered the techs, build a rail station and factory in my capital. So far, so good.

But as I built rail stations in other cities, the option to build a factory didn't show up.In some cities, the option to build a rail station didn't show up.
The tracking item in the upper left showed "1 / 5 settlements connected by rail." What??? I have roads criss-crossing my empire. All of the settlements in the homelands are reasonably close together. Why are they not considered "linked"?
I tried a couple things: improving trade relations, then sending a merchant from a southern town to a neighbor in the north. I even sent a merchant to a city state I had befriended. Still no connections. No connections mean no factories, fewer legacy points.

Has anyone else seen this? I have three navigable rivers running north-south, like fingers on a hand. Do I need to build bridges on the rivers, so that the trains can pass over and link the cities?

We need bridges for roads to connect so its highly possible you'll need a modern bridge for railroads to connect also.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Connections for rail can be quite wierd. In a recent game i had a city next to my capital that obviously had a road connection to my capital but would not connect by rail untill i sent a merchant to manually do it. I also had cities which were connected (i could build a factory) but i could not visually see a rail link).

You could build a port in the cities which should connect them by sea or you can try having a merchant build a connection between the city and your capital as cities need to be connected to your capital by rail/port to count.

Fortunately, that game ended with a cultural victory. Only one city generating factory resource points is SLOW.

I may have been tripping over a bug, or just an unusual map layout. At the end of Antiquity, Rizal of the Maya only had two settlements, capital and a town. I took both, eliminating him. The tile footprint of those cities didn't intersect/overlap with the rest of my empire. I got roads built in Exploration with merchants, but still had them not connected by rail in Modern. I purchased Rail Stations in several towns, even those adjacent to the capital with no navigable river between. No joy... did not get Factory in my list of buildings for either purchase or production.

At one point, I followed a path from the capital to my 2nd most productive city, tile-by-tile with the mouse, seeing "Railroad" in every tile. Still no connection. This next game, I'm being more careful in city placement, trying to avoid barriers.

Does anyone know if the tile placement of the Rail Station itself matters? Does it need to be adjacent to the city center?

 

[noise36]

I found that when this happens building a port fixes it. Other things that can fix it are building a road with a trader.

I still dont fully understand the dynamic between ports and rail lines yet, when to build one or when to build both.