[GS] railroads

[Disgustipated]

After looking at the beginning of video #15 (of a Canada Let's Play), it does appear the AI is not building railroads. The bright side is you don't have to worry about the carbon emissions from the AI building railroads, they are bad enough with carbon emissions as is. The bad thing is this is a mechanic the ai is not using, and presumably your trade routes in their territory won't get any bonus.

2 problems that I can see is the AI has never been taught to connect its cities together since trade routes do so automatically. The other problem I mentioned above is the AI just likes to make mountain tunnels and use all its charges. The ai has aircraft and GDR's, but no railroads.

It's possible this can be fixed in a patch, or may be working on the release version of the game.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Well we know railroads allow units to move quicker across the map, that is their primary bonus in Civ IV and V IIRC. Increased trade routes on yields that pass over them is a sweet bonus. I'll definitely have a railroad between all my cities.

In Civ IV if you had a resource (like Iron or Copper) and built a railroad to it you'd get a bonus hammer, I hope that happens in GS too.

Civ 5, connecting a city to your capital by railroad gave a % boost to the city's production. Fairly boring.

In Civ 1 (and 2, I think), every tile with a railroad got bonus production. A bit over the top.

Civ 6 missed, I think, a good opportunity to boost mines, or at least resource mines, connected to an Industrial Zone with a Factory. Or to boost the Factory. Required connection would be some combo of railroad-harbour-sea (including Canals). Basically, they gave that ability to trade routes, instead. Feels less immersive than the early industrialization era of canals and railroads moving coal and iron ore into the smoke belching steel mills that shaped the modern world.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Civ 5, connecting a city to your capital by railroad gave a % boost to the city's production. Fairly boring.

In Civ 1 (and 2, I think), every tile with a railroad got bonus production. A bit over the top.

Civ 6 missed, I think, a good opportunity to boost mines, or at least resource mines, connected to an Industrial Zone with a Factory. Or to boost the Factory. Required connection would be some combo of railroad-harbour-sea (including Canals). Basically, they gave that ability to trade routes, instead. Feels less immersive than the early industrialization era of canals and railroads moving coal and iron ore into the smoke belching steel mills that shaped the modern world.

Some sort of link would be good, Civ III & IV I think you had to actually link your resources into your trade network. Worked well for me.

 

[UWHabs]

One thing they could have done is to limit the factory/power plant "area of influence" to only include cities connected by rail (or perhaps only cities connected by rail or shipyards). Or if you don't want limit it, then you do something like double the area yields if your cities are connected by high-speed links. That seems like it would be a way to handle things to give a little more purpose to the railroad.

 

[playshogi]

I think it's kind of funny (sad) that they were very creative to eliminate tedious road building by workers, and have brought it back with tedious railroad building by military engineers. Why not let the traders build the railroads, too? Or, just have a project that converts all roads to railroads?

 

[Isengardtom]

They cost 1 Iron and 1 Coal per tile. They contribute to Global Climate change. They are built by Military Engineers.

They move faster than roads. They increase yields on Trade Routes that pass over them.

For this yield increase from trade routes over them how does that work?

Does the entire route need to be rail? Is one tile enough and do the yields go up with the amount of rail tiles or do 2 rail connected cities that are part of the route and are in the middle of it provide a bonus already?

 

[Hatchie]

For this yield increase from trade routes over them how does that work?

Does the entire route need to be rail? Is one tile enough and do the yields go up with the amount of rail tiles or do 2 rail connected cities that are part of the route and are in the middle of it provide a bonus already?

There is a value showing how “effective” a trade route is. The more of it passes through railroads, canals, tunnels and bodies of water the more effective the route is. So you want to pass as many of these tiles on your way as possible. I think they stated the gold income from city state can up to double for very effective trade routes. Not sure tho if all the tiles improving efficiency are equaly strong (e.g. sending naval trade route is just as good as sending one via railroads and tunnels).

 

[Victoria]

I think it's kind of funny (sad) that they were very creative to eliminate tedious road building by workers

Because I prefer external trade routes my cities are rarely connected. I think it is sad that roads just do not appear over time naturally like they do in the real world.

 

[Uberfrog]

I think it's kind of funny (sad) that they were very creative to eliminate tedious road building by workers, and have brought it back with tedious railroad building by military engineers. Why not let the traders build the railroads, too? Or, just have a project that converts all roads to railroads?

Well this way better reflects the fact that railway construction was a huge and expensive engineering project. As long as the rewards make their construction a good investment, this approach is better than simply mindlessly converting every road into a railway.

 

[Red_warning]

This was a really helpful video, displays both canal and railroad construction.

 

[orochi2k]

AI running logical: RR = global warming = sea level increase -> computer doesn't like water -> thus, let's not build RR and denounce anyone who builds

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

For this yield increase from trade routes over them how does that work?

Does the entire route need to be rail? Is one tile enough and do the yields go up with the amount of rail tiles or do 2 rail connected cities that are part of the route and are in the middle of it provide a bonus already?

There is a value showing how “effective” a trade route is. The more of it passes through railroads, canals, tunnels and bodies of water the more effective the route is. So you want to pass as many of these tiles on your way as possible. I think they stated the gold income from city state can up to double for very effective trade routes. Not sure tho if all the tiles improving efficiency are equaly strong (e.g. sending naval trade route is just as good as sending one via railroads and tunnels).

My understanding is that the formula will work like this:

Gold yield = Base yield x (1 + (boosted tiles travelled / all tiles travelled))

Where:
Base yield = current gold yield from R&F
Boosted tiles = sea, railroads, tunnels, and canals
All tiles travelled = length of the route travelled by the trader between the two cities

Whether that's how it will actually work when GS is released, I guess we'll find out. The effect of this is that a route that travels only over seas or railroads or some combination of the two will generate twice as much gold as a route that passes exclusively over regular roads.

 

[ExemplarVoss]

Because I prefer external trade routes my cities are rarely connected. I think it is sad that roads just do not appear over time naturally like they do in the real world.

I'm very certain roads don't work like that in the real world. From first hand experience, Even minor road projects eat absurd amounts of time and money, and far, far too many meetings to be 'natural' in any sense of the word.

 

[Victoria]

I'm very certain roads don't work like that in the real world. From first hand experience, Even minor road projects eat absurd amounts of time and money, and far, far too many meetings to be 'natural' in any sense of the word.

In England, the Romans built an extensive network of very straight roads. Historians state that when the Romans left the local population took the shortest route between towns which often was not roman roads and our road network built up from there. Roads have only been heavily maintained in the last couple of hundred years.
Hence we have lots of winding roads... and some very straight.
Very certain of modern roads, sure.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

In England, the Romans built an extensive network of very straight roads. Historians state that when the Romans left the local population took the shortest route between towns which often was not roman roads and our road network built up from there. Roads have only been heavily maintained in the last couple of hundred years.
Hence we have lots of winding roads... and some very straight.
Very certain of modern roads, sure.

True, but I'm guessing the people were going from town to town mostly because of trade.

I would have wanted an alternative way to make roads too. I also like externals but my "need" to have my cities all hooked together over-trumped that in most of my early games.

 

[Victoria]

True, but I'm guessing the people were going from town to town mostly because of trade.

Marketplaces, more shopping and work than trade caravans. Also celebrations, relatives, everything you can think of, traders... nope.... local marketplaces were where you went to sell your pig and buy some vegetables. Call it trade if you want but it was really called survival.

 

[Elhoim]

Does anyone know the movement boost from railroads?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Marketplaces, more shopping and work than trade caravans. Also celebrations, relatives, everything you can think of, traders... nope.... local marketplaces were where you went to sell your pig and buy some vegetables. Call it trade if you want but it was really called survival.

Well the district already get roads in them, right?

 

[Victoria]

Well the district already get roads in them, right?

Yes, one has to walk between the stalls/buildings, just like on has to walk to the marketplace/campus

 

[playshogi]

Is the resource requirement for railroads a one time cost, or is there an ongoing maintenance cost?