- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,308
I like the idea of traders building roads. It makes sense in the olden times, trade routes are the main reason to have routes between cities, and if there is a lot of trade the route well be better-marked and more prominent. The cowpath gets deeper the more trade there is, so to speak.
The problem is that is the only way of building roads. In reality, roads don't just form where there's a lot of commerce, though that helps, but for convenience or geostrategic reasons. And this has been the case at least since the Roman Republic was building roads to connect all of its cities, for communication and military reasons. The commerce that was enabled was the bonus. Today we build roads just because it's a more direct route between places.
I think the ideal would be to get some base level of roads automatically from trade, but to be able to upgrade them at a significant upfront cost to improved roads that aid both military movement and commerce, over the long term paying for themselves. This would be more true to the models of both ancient Roman roads and to the Interstate Highway System or the Autobahn.
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Infantry requiring oil doesn't make sense. Mechanized infantry requiring oil does, but not plain-old Infantry. The modern person tends to overestimate how motorized armies were in WWII, but the most important means of supplying them was not the truck but the train and the humble horse. Armies often marched on foot.
But the "3 oil per deposit, certain units require an oil" also points to a weakness of Civ, in all generations - logistics aren't really modeled. This is arguably a feature, as logistics can add a lot of complexity that's hard to manage. But "3 oil per deposit, units require oil" is a logistics rule, just a very basic one, and it's arguably worse than not having it at all due to its bluntness. A more realistic model could be "300 oil per deposit, Fighter requires 5, Bomber requires 10, Tank requires 10, Battleship requires 30." This at least distinguishes between the gas guzzlers (ships especially) and the ones that just need a little bit of oil. If you then add in a buffer that can be stored up (up to 10x what you have from deposits?) and a trading system, then you can wind up with something flexible enough to add some strategic depth while still allowing some decision making.
The problem is that is the only way of building roads. In reality, roads don't just form where there's a lot of commerce, though that helps, but for convenience or geostrategic reasons. And this has been the case at least since the Roman Republic was building roads to connect all of its cities, for communication and military reasons. The commerce that was enabled was the bonus. Today we build roads just because it's a more direct route between places.
I think the ideal would be to get some base level of roads automatically from trade, but to be able to upgrade them at a significant upfront cost to improved roads that aid both military movement and commerce, over the long term paying for themselves. This would be more true to the models of both ancient Roman roads and to the Interstate Highway System or the Autobahn.
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Infantry requiring oil doesn't make sense. Mechanized infantry requiring oil does, but not plain-old Infantry. The modern person tends to overestimate how motorized armies were in WWII, but the most important means of supplying them was not the truck but the train and the humble horse. Armies often marched on foot.
But the "3 oil per deposit, certain units require an oil" also points to a weakness of Civ, in all generations - logistics aren't really modeled. This is arguably a feature, as logistics can add a lot of complexity that's hard to manage. But "3 oil per deposit, units require oil" is a logistics rule, just a very basic one, and it's arguably worse than not having it at all due to its bluntness. A more realistic model could be "300 oil per deposit, Fighter requires 5, Bomber requires 10, Tank requires 10, Battleship requires 30." This at least distinguishes between the gas guzzlers (ships especially) and the ones that just need a little bit of oil. If you then add in a buffer that can be stored up (up to 10x what you have from deposits?) and a trading system, then you can wind up with something flexible enough to add some strategic depth while still allowing some decision making.
