Some say that the social policy 'Triangular Trade" is a representation of the Atlantic Slave trade. I have no idea if that's accurate, but the name seems to suggest something like that.
Of course sustained serious political opposition to slavery didn't exist till the late 18th century; so we need to be careful how much a dislike for it is put into the game pre Industrial era.
You don't have to 'build in' the modern 'civilized' aversion to Slavery, just build in the disadvantages as well as the advantages of slavery: Slavery provides Cheap Labor, but not necessarily that cheap when you consider that you have to house and feed them, as opposed to simply paying them a wage and letting them fend for themselves. In addition, slavery may provide cheap labor, but it doesn't provide skilled labor, and it includes constant concerns regarding Security agains slave revolts - from Spartacus to Nat Turner, always a concern in slave-holding societies.
Movement increases should absolutely not be tied to map size! I play huge for reasons that involve everything taking longer and being more epic! I think you'll find most huge players feel the same way - why else play on huge?
I agree, as I thought my musings in the previous post indicated. There should be consequences and different kinds of problems on the different sizes of maps, just as there are on the different types of maps.
I'm really not sure why you think that movement in the late game isn't realistic? A case could be made that rail speed up transport more than Industrial roads reflect in game, but the majority of people still traveled on roads (or what passed for them) most of the time up to the 20th century. Rail was still new and expensive infrastructure before then that most people used sparingly. Armies utilised rail, but not as much as they should have even into the early 20th century either. Modern roads are fine movement wise; and given the small size of even huge maps you don't want units moving any faster than they do.
Not True. The majority of people may have traveled on roads for short distances not exceeding a day's travel (10 - 20 miles) but virtually ALL long distance travel went by rail or water except for Migrations where there was neither (the 'Westward Trek' in North America, which lasted for about 25 years, until the first trans-continental railroad covered the same distance). Rail was expensive infrastructure, but one astounding fact about the railroad is how fast the amount of track expanded: from a start of zero miles of track in 1820, in less than 40 years northern Europe, the British Isles and the eastern half of the USA all had virtually every major city connected by railroad.
And armies were among the first to recognize and use railroads. The Prussian/German state actually planned many of the railroads inside its territory for military mobilization purposes, to deliver troops and supples to threatened borders (or borders they intended to threaten themselves). By 1870 - 50 years after the railroads started - the entire mobilization of armies was based firmly on Where The Railroads Ran, and the entire US Civil War can be studied as a lesson in use and abuse of railroads (and was, by European Staff Officers, especially from Prussia)
As late as World War Two every single army used railroads as the basis for supply over land: the only exceptions were when the railroads weren't there (parts of Soviet Russia and the Western Desert) or had been too badly damaged to operate (northern France in 1944). And lack of railroads could be strategically Decisive: in front of Moscow in October 1941, the German Army Group Center was supplied by a totally inadequate rail net so that delivery of supplies could not keep up with the consumption. By the end of the month in all of the forces directly threatening Moscow there were 8 Panzer Divisions and 3 Motorized Divisions, and in all the depots supplying the forces there was enough fuel to move a single Panzer Division 60 kilometers - quite literally, they could not even reach Moscow except on foot, unsupplied! The German officers after the war blamed 'General Mud' for stopping them, and they lied through their collective Nazi-Sympathizing Teeth - it was the inadequacies of their own supply system (and a little matter of a Red Army in front of them which never quite disappeared) that stopped them, and probably lost them the war.
Now, all that said, in the last half of the 20th century (Atomic - Information Eras in game terms), while railroads still reman crucial for long distance bulk transport (there is still no other economical way to move 10,000 tons of Iron Ore over land) in total tonnage moved and people transported, the modern All Terrain, multi-lane, 'superhighways' have superseded them. This, I think, is what we should mean when/if we talk about late-game Roads. The change isn't so much in speed (in 1930 a Name Passenger Train could cross the country in 3 - 4 days, you can't do much better than that in a tractor-trailer on the Interstate highway system today) But the highway system is immensely more flexible, and combined with the Containerization of cargos, it allows freight to be delivered untouched direct from origin anywhere in the world to the doorway of its final destination.
So, if you've managed to read this far, here's how I see it:
Ancient Roads - as now, not much bridging, basically tracks so that wheeled vehicles can slowly get from point to point.
Classical Roads - basically just add bridges. The only thing I'd change is that some Civs could benefit from Really Good Paved Roads (Rome, Gaul) which don't make travel that much faster, but do increase the regularity with which goods and people can travel, so perhaps would provide extra Gold, Production to Trade Routes over them.
Industrial Roads - become
Railroads, with a change in requirements to 'Upgrade' them, but providing an increase in movement by reducing the Movement Cost to 0.25, providing Bridges, and greatly increasing the Gold, Production, Science, and other influences traveling over them. I could also make a case for a change in how Food is distributed among cities all connected by railroads, but that's perhaps for another Thread/Post
As an Aside, the hard surfaced 'tarmac' road was not invented until 80 years After the railroad, so prior to railroads, the graded, drained 'Roman Road' was the best anyone could do, and had been for over a thousand years!
Modern Roads - are too early. IF we assume the Atomic Era started in the early 1940s (along with aircraft, tanks and aircraft carriers) then in the 'Modern Era' the only dense network of hard-surfaced roads anywhere in the world was in northwestern Europe and the northeastern USA. Period. Instead:
Atomic Roads - representing the multi-lane concrete/tarmac Superhighways that proliferated in the last half of the twentieth century. This includes both the limited access 'Interstates', 'Autobahns' or 'National Roads', and the network of hard-surfaced roads feeding them. The gives the same Movement Cost as Railroads (0.25), provides Bridges, and again greatly increases the Production, Gold, and Food among the cities so connected, and also, perhaps, an Amenity bonus - the ability to Go Anywhere in a private car has been an aspiration among populations, even those well-served by public transportation (Europe and parts of Asia, for instance)
