So I tried Railroads.... (Also a cool England spot)

[Archon_Wing]

I usually never manage to make a Military Engineer, so I tried to get one for Railroads. I wanted to make tunnels too but that's so late in the tech tree. With England's Workshop of the World now giving ridiculous amounts of coal and harbor buildings giving really deep stockpiles, I had more of it than I knew what to do with it. (A massive 20 coal per turn... yea I could probably sell it for 200g/turn if I wasn't making this silly post.)

So I draw a nice railroad line to Russia in the South and Indonesia in the east only to find out my railroad network has landed me into deep trouble with the World Congress. I mean sure I've conquered most of Russia and half of Arabia but wanting some trains makes me the real monster.

So is there really no way to make a even medium length line without destroying the planet?

As for the map itself, this is a great map for Victoria since you guessed it... split continent time for Pax! It's also good because it contains absolutely no coast though that terrible lake is still a thing. It's not perfect though, since there are no luxuries in the capital and also some neighbors you have to beat up. I'm sure you'll manage. I would have done better if I didn't build the Audience Chamber by accident.

1910584032
1910584033
Continents
Standard all
Emperor

Also yes I have warmongered and attacked unprovoked but diplomacy is still decent. I still consider it a mostly peaceful game. AMA.

Edit: The Royal navy dockyard in lakes is getting really silly because it's giving you boats in them.

 

[acluewithout]

Railways have been a massive disappointment. I hope they get some love in the next patch.

Also, @Archon_Wing , I don’t know why or how, but you always seem to build very “pleasing” empires.

 

[bbbt]

Railways have been a massive disappointment. I hope they get some live in the next patch.

Tons of micromanaging and not much bonuses from them, it's a great combo. Honestly I mostly just forget they exist.

 

[acluewithout]

I like how Railways work in terms of placing them - it’s a bit micro, but intuitive and gives Military Engineers something more to do. But the pollution aspect is silly (same with pollution from units) and Railways just don’t seem that useful for all the effort.

 

[King of Prussia]

i would agree that they need a little more benefit, and the pollution costs seems a little excessive.

also, ME should be able to build unlimited roads. The timing of the ME, and the quality of the roads at that point in the game will keep it from being that strong. put a minor cost if need be. It would be nice if i could connect my cities in a more direct manner if the trade routes cant, or just build roads where i need them for other purposes.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Also, @Archon_Wing , I don’t know why or how, but you always seem to build very “pleasing” empires.

Well I don't post the unpleasing ones xD Though I did come from playing Sim City and thus I've always preferred city building over hitting the AI pinata for more gold or whatever.

 

[Kaan Boztepe]

speed is , in military terms , essential to victory. Granted that the AI doesnt provide any challenge but i still like to build any improvement that provides a speed bonus .
I also dislike the fact that trains pollute as much as they do. Maybe reduce that number after certain inventions/techs ?
I started to build military engineers after the buff to the production district , to finish aquaducts/dams etc faster.

 

[Tech Osen]

I usually play with lots of water and little land (small continents atm) so the micromanagement is doable. And I like connecting my cities properly.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Railways have been a massive disappointment. I hope they get some live in the next patch.

Also, @Archon_Wing , I don’t know why or how, but you always seem to build very “pleasing” empires.

Particularly when the game rules treated RR as movement divisor rather than adding movement points to anyone standing on it (which means infantry units did not lag several hexes behind cavalry if both are moving via rail, which IRL does NOT grant that extra mobility to cavalry).

 

[Tech Osen]

Well I don't post the unpleasing ones xD Though I did come from playing Sim City and thus I've always preferred city building over hitting the AI pinata for more gold or whatever.

One of the reasons I like playing Japan is that I have a solid reason to make compact cities instead of having to dump my districts all over the place to get soms adjacency bonusses.

 

[UWHabs]

i would agree that they need a little more benefit, and the pollution costs seems a little excessive.

also, ME should be able to build unlimited roads. The timing of the ME, and the quality of the roads at that point in the game will keep it from being that strong. put a minor cost if need be. It would be nice if i could connect my cities in a more direct manner if the trade routes cant, or just build roads where i need them for other purposes.

Yeah, even just a cost of like 1 iron per tile for a road I think would be fair. Most games I tend to pick one of my trade routes to not get as much yields from and just figure out where I need some roads, but it's very inefficient as a process. I do think that railroads need to give a bigger boost, even just something like the old days where a tile with a railroad got +1 production - maybe give them like an area affect, so if a tile is on or next to a railroad that connects it to the city working the tile, it gets +1 production? Or if districts got like a +2 adjacency for being connected to a city by railroad, something like that might work too.

 

[Karmah]

I buy a couple of them with gold when I discover steam power. The speed bonus is enough for me to justify the cost. It's mostly just QOL if only for my workers to move around my empire. The gold bonus to trade is a plus since my economy mostly relies on trade.

 

[Victoria]

Agree that an England start off the coast can be considered a bonus, so sad but true. Split continent ironically would have made a coastal start viable though.
Railroads are only 1 emission once so no biggie right?
It’s the coal plants. What gets me is there are eurekas for coal and oil plants like the game wants me to pollute.
With good science (which you should have by that time) it’s easy enough to bypass coal an oil altogether.
Railways just give movement but they missed a trick because railways gave ‘production’ and also should flatten out hunger. Instead we got more from sawmills and power plants.
Struggled with some of the logic of the changes but it’s a game and the mechanics are OK I guess.

 

[Tech Osen]

With good science (which you should have by that time) it’s easy enough to bypass coal an oil altogether.

Lately I try to by pass coal plants and go straight for oil plants. Issue is of course that the plant and the oil reveal are on opposite sides of the tech tree. Whoever thought that that was logical?
Same with coal and battleships...

 

[Victoria]

Whoever thought that that was logical?

I have seen many mocking posts about having Rocketry but not having discovered niter and the like that I fully understand them encouraging a flat progression up the tech tree.
Seems logical they would discourage massive beelining while still leaving it in place for the game players.

 

[Pietato]

Railroads are only 1 emission once so no biggie right?

Yeah. 1 coal of CO2 worth, one time, for each railrod tile. If you are the first to coal, it will definitely penalise you, but it will not last. Coal plants on the other hand, will destroy your favour.

 

[Tech Osen]

I have seen many mocking posts about having Rocketry but not having discovered niter and the like that I fully understand them encouraging a flat progression up the tech tree.
Seems logical they would discourage massive beelining while still leaving it in place for the game players.

I'd prefer more cross connections.

 

[dbwithlemon]

Agree that an England start off the coast can be considered a bonus, so sad but true. Split continent ironically would have made a coastal start viable though.
Railroads are only 1 emission once so no biggie right?
It’s the coal plants. What gets me is there are eurekas for coal and oil plants like the game wants me to pollute.
With good science (which you should have by that time) it’s easy enough to bypass coal an oil altogether.
Railways just give movement but they missed a trick because railways gave ‘production’ and also should flatten out hunger. Instead we got more from sawmills and power plants.
Struggled with some of the logic of the changes but it’s a game and the mechanics are OK I guess.

Victoria is correct, additionally, you seem to be well ahead of the curve on science, which means you are likely the only person contributing to global warming, and thus the top contributor for the penalty.

 

[Jkchart]

I like how Railways work in terms of placing them - it’s a bit micro, but intuitive and gives Military Engineers something more to do. But the pollution aspect is silly (same with pollution from units) and Railways just don’t seem that useful for all the effort.

Yes, the pollution from Railways is nuts. Sure, coal powered trains aren't clean - but they're cleaner than factories spewing out entire smokestacks worth of burned coal residue. The pollution still needs better balance. I'm less afraid to industrialize early now, but I can only build about one decent size trans-continental railroad, and it sets me back about the same amount of diplo favor.

And like you mention, the units! Dear god, that's even worse. You'd think rifles used oil as a fuel to power them.

I still think Infantry and at least one of the late-game naval units should not require oil so that warmongers lacking it can have SOME sort of ability to project their aggression to acquire it (and if they don't, then they fail in the late game, as they should, since the most powerful units should require those resources). You can't exactly go on the offensive with Anti-Tank and Machine Guns very well, supported only by frigates.

That would also help reduce pollution a bit if there are less units using fuel resources, and gives people more room to breathe with regards to their oil supply.

 

[acluewithout]

A problem with late game resources is they should maybe be less about “build unit x” and more about overall economic and military power.

Put another way: If you lack oil, the problem isn’t that you can’t build infantry and tanks - the problem is everything is less effective. The problem with not having coal isn’t that your Research Labs are underpowered and you can’t build railways, it’s that your people lack electricity and so are miserable and your economy is just less productive.

It’s a game and FXS have to both simplify things and create game mechanics that throw up interesting situations (even if that means ignoring reality). I’m okay with the current mechanics, I guess. But they could definitely use some tweaking and there’s probably a few more dimensions that are needed.