It seems many people here are off the rail car idea, but to me it's the most appealing of all the ideas listed so far.
Obviously, no one wants a 'rail car' unit to load and unload their other units with limited mobility, it'll just slow down the pace of the game creating basically 'land transport' ships. Instead, what about the idea of creating a 'rail car unit' within your cities, only that it is not a physical unit, but one which is shared by the entire civilization after completed. Much like freighters were used in master of orion, once completed, the unit would allow for one of your military units to travel a certain distance [a fairly high limited number] along the rail lines you've constructed with your workers each turn. The more rail car units you build, the more units you can move along the railway system in a given turn. Kinda like building trains as well as building building the tracks. The only specific reason as to why you would build a railway unit in a specific city would be that if your railway system does not link your entire civilization, then the rail car would only have access to the rails connected to the city in which it was build from until you have connected the remaining cities to it.
And if that isn't enough to limit transport, especially instant transport to a threatened city, employ a maximum amount of rail cars able to enter a city or even a map square during a specific turn. the amount of troops able to stack per turn on a rail square could even be modified based on terrain. You could allow say 2 units for non-city terrain, 3 for a town, 4 for a city, and say 5 for a megapolis [numbers obviously would be subject to game balance], reflecting the amount of rails that would be found within cities at different levels of development. That way, the defender would be able to assist his threatened city to some degree, but he may have to wait 2-3 turns to have an overwhelming defense set up, and that should be ample time to wage a strong seige.
I'm not a fan of the restricted access, as to me, every square withing my cultural borders to me I feel is settled on, as each square has a number small towns not large enough to warrent putting a name on in the grand scheme of world politics [like Paris, Ont., Canada, really who gives a **** about that town?]. Besides, what's stopping you in real life from stopping a train in the middle of the tracks and unloading in the middle of nowhere?
The disembarkment penality seems a bit too harsh as well, as it takes only like 10 minutes in real life to organize troops coming off a train and getting them into fighting order.
the maximum transport idea is already merged with this one.
Basically, I would envision a button on the bottom of the screen like pillage, or fortify for units located on a railroad, and while pressed, you'd get the benefits of a rail car, using up one rail car unit every time you press it. The way I see it, reward the players for investing in a great transportation system, just make it harder to do.
Obviously, no one wants a 'rail car' unit to load and unload their other units with limited mobility, it'll just slow down the pace of the game creating basically 'land transport' ships. Instead, what about the idea of creating a 'rail car unit' within your cities, only that it is not a physical unit, but one which is shared by the entire civilization after completed. Much like freighters were used in master of orion, once completed, the unit would allow for one of your military units to travel a certain distance [a fairly high limited number] along the rail lines you've constructed with your workers each turn. The more rail car units you build, the more units you can move along the railway system in a given turn. Kinda like building trains as well as building building the tracks. The only specific reason as to why you would build a railway unit in a specific city would be that if your railway system does not link your entire civilization, then the rail car would only have access to the rails connected to the city in which it was build from until you have connected the remaining cities to it.
And if that isn't enough to limit transport, especially instant transport to a threatened city, employ a maximum amount of rail cars able to enter a city or even a map square during a specific turn. the amount of troops able to stack per turn on a rail square could even be modified based on terrain. You could allow say 2 units for non-city terrain, 3 for a town, 4 for a city, and say 5 for a megapolis [numbers obviously would be subject to game balance], reflecting the amount of rails that would be found within cities at different levels of development. That way, the defender would be able to assist his threatened city to some degree, but he may have to wait 2-3 turns to have an overwhelming defense set up, and that should be ample time to wage a strong seige.
I'm not a fan of the restricted access, as to me, every square withing my cultural borders to me I feel is settled on, as each square has a number small towns not large enough to warrent putting a name on in the grand scheme of world politics [like Paris, Ont., Canada, really who gives a **** about that town?]. Besides, what's stopping you in real life from stopping a train in the middle of the tracks and unloading in the middle of nowhere?
The disembarkment penality seems a bit too harsh as well, as it takes only like 10 minutes in real life to organize troops coming off a train and getting them into fighting order.
the maximum transport idea is already merged with this one.
Basically, I would envision a button on the bottom of the screen like pillage, or fortify for units located on a railroad, and while pressed, you'd get the benefits of a rail car, using up one rail car unit every time you press it. The way I see it, reward the players for investing in a great transportation system, just make it harder to do.
