Railroads

[Kailric]

I been working on code for the next release. There are now three routes.. trails, roads, and then Railroads and three new Route to commands for each. You must first build a trail, then you can build a road, then railroads.

I was wondering though should players be allowed to build all three routes from the very start of the game? Trails and roads would seem to be fine this way but maybe for Railroads there could be special needs. Railroads where a huge thing back in the day. They would spell the success or doom of towns all around them. So in Westward Ho getting your rail roads all the way out west should be a big deal. More so now than just building your first rail at the onset of the game for just a few gold spent.

So, here is a couple ideas on this...

1. A new Profession called Engineer is required to build Railroads. Engineers work much like Pioneers except they only build routes and faster at this as well. To make an Engineer requires 200 tools. When building Railroads the Engineer spends some of his tools, say 20. Once his tools are spent he can no longer build railroads and must return to a city to "reload" on tools. Engineers can also reload from wagon trains or Locomotives if there is ample tools aboard.

2. Much like gold is saved to be spent Railroad tracks could be saved up as well. A player accumaltes railroad tracks by making them in IronWorks. By clicking on the Ironworks building a popup appears asking how many Railtracks the player wants to make. Once the amount is selected tools are then consummed to build the tracks. The amount of tracks a player has is shown on screen near where the Gold icon is displayed. Each time a pioneer builds a railroad a track is consummed.

3. A combination of both 1 and 2.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

You could have an event that fires around a certain date that would enable railroad building, IMO that would work better.

If you are set on doing either or both of the two options you posted though, then I personally would prefer just implementing the first one, perhaps requiring too that the player have an Ironworks built in any city in order to be able to build railroads.

 

[TC01]

Interesting ideas.

I think the event would be simplest, but I like the engineer idea the best. The Ironworks one is just too complicated.


Another Railroad-related idea I had was a "Railroad Victory". The idea would be that you needed to lay Railroad track over X percent of the map. You would also need to control all of these plots (so if X is 20%, and you control 20% of the map, every plot you own needs to have a Railroad to win). This might sound impossible, but one of the things I want to add for 0.4 are Forts, which can be claimed to spread your culture around the map.

I think something like it was proposed in the Ideas Thread as an alternate victory condition.

 

[Androrc the Orc]

Interesting ideas.

I think the event would be simplest, but I like the engineer idea the best. The Ironworks one is just too complicated.

A mix of them could be achieved... having the event fire after a certain date with, a chance of firing of, for example, 1% * the number of Ironworks owned by the player. Then, that event would enable Engineers and Railroads. The first would represent the technological development of railroads, while the latter would represent the difficulty of implementing a railroad system.

 

[Kailric]

Well, does anyone know of a good unit that can be used for Engineers? The simplest way to implement them would be to just have them able to carry Tools and only tools then those tools get used up as they lay tracks. I could easily code that.

 

[Kailric]

OK, here is another thought... should Locomotives be the only Unit to take advantage of RailRoads or should we assume that other units simulate taking a train when they use railroads?

By making Locomotives the only unit to use Railroads it will make them a lot more unique and a lot more valuable to the player.

Also, on the to do list I was given was to add a feature where units in cities can simulate riding a train if another city is connected by railroad. The travel would be instant. If we did add that feature then Locomotives transporting Colonist wouldn't be that big of a deal. Or, another thougth is if it worked like "Airlifting" in CIV4 then each city could only transport one unit a turn this way right? I believe thats how "Airlifting" worked.

As a side note has anyone looked into fixing the animation of the Locomotive as it runs backwards?

 

[TC01]

OK, here is another thought... should Locomotives be the only Unit to take advantage of RailRoads or should we assume that other units simulate taking a train when they use railroads?

By making Locomotives the only unit to use Railroads it will make them a lot more unique and a lot more valuable to the player.

Also, on the to do list I was given was to add a feature where units in cities can simulate riding a train if another city is connected by railroad. The travel would be instant. If we did add that feature then Locomotives transporting Colonist wouldn't be that big of a deal. Or, another thougth is if it worked like "Airlifting" in CIV4 then each city could only transport one unit a turn this way right? I believe thats how "Airlifting" worked.

As a side note has anyone looked into fixing the animation of the Locomotive as it runs backwards?

What I was actually thinking was that a Railroad Station building would be required to "Airlift", and then cities with Railroad Stations could only "Airlift" once per turn. Railroad Station buildings would cost Coal (Coal being a new yield also required to build Locomotive units in the first place).


I think I agree that it would be better for only Locomotives to gain advantages from travelling on Railroads. Or bMechanized units, anyway.

 

[Kailric]

What I was actually thinking was that a Railroad Station building would be required to "Airlift", and then cities with Railroad Stations could only "Airlift" once per turn. Railroad Station buildings would cost Coal (Coal being a new yield also required to build Locomotive units in the first place).


I think I agree that it would be better for only Locomotives to gain advantages from travelling on Railroads. Or bMechanized units, anyway.

K, I am starting to work on the code for Railroad Stations. Was there building art you had in mind for this?

 

[TC01]

K, I am starting to work on the code for Railroad Stations. Was there building art you had in mind for this?

No, there wasn't. I was planning to just reuse something already in the game unless I could find something better from Civ 4 or it's mods.

Anyone have any suggestions as to good art for this building?

 

[Kailric]

No, there wasn't. I was planning to just reuse something already in the game unless I could find something better from Civ 4 or it's mods.

Anyone have any suggestions as to good art for this building?

Well I found this one that may do for now.. the French Salon in Civ4

 

[Willi_Tell]

Anyone have any suggestions as to good art for this building?

Well, maybe this might exactly what you're looking for:

This has been created by Fankman for "TAC: The Authentic Colonization" (German mod for Civ4Col). If you are interested in this graphic, just contact him on German Civforum - or, If don't have the nerve to log in there: I can also be your broker and ask him instead...?


P.S. The TAC-Modding-Team is watching your discussions and proceedings (Forts, etc.) with big interest

 

[TC01]

Well, maybe this might exactly what you're looking for:

This has been created by Fankman for "TAC: The Authentic Colonization" (German mod for Civ4Col). If you are interested in this graphic, just contact him on German Civforum - or, If don't have the nerve to log in there: I can also be your broker and ask him instead...?


P.S. The TAC-Modding-Team is watching your discussions and proceedings (Forts, etc.) with big interest

Yes, that looks perfect!

Considering that I don't speak German it might be a good idea if you asked him for me. I would appreciate it.

 

[Willi_Tell]

Yes, that looks perfect!

Considering that I don't speak German it might be a good idea if you asked him for me. I would appreciate it.

OK, I gonna ask him

 

[Fankman]

Yes, that looks perfect!

Thanks for your interest in my models

Here are the files (Nif, Textures and Button), the model was tested under Civ4/Col-TAC (The Authentic Colonization-Mod) and works great. i hope you can implement it, otherwise be free for asking me.

A little Tip:
If you don't have a railway-system and the station is a standalone-building, then i would fade out the both ends of the rails (make the ends of the rail in the texture-file semi-transparent).

If i make more models for the wild-west-setting, i will post them here.

Regards

Fankman