Infinite RR Movement == Evil!

[Jon Shafer]

Please, please, PLEASE get rid of infinite RR movement!

It's imbalancing and removes strategic choices from the game. And that's not a good thing for a strategy game.

Some people argue that RRs with infinite movement are necessary to avoid the micromanagement of having to move around hundreds of Workers or to help the AI out. My response: make the AI better or make a better system with less micromangement so it's not necessary to have to rely on such a crutch. It's no more than a bandaid to cover an already weak part of the game. The problem should be solved, not covered up with another.

At the very least, add the ability to mod out the infinite movement and customize it (perhaps adding the ability to create different kinds of terrain movement improvements that you can determine the amount of movement bonus you get from them).

[Robert]

Like I posted in the other thread,
there should be 3 types:
- roads (1/3)
- railroads (1/9)
- highways (infinite, pay maintanance per turn per highway per tile) [pherhaps 1 turn 'get off the road' penalty' so that only long distances pay off)

[Daz]

No infinite movement at all. It would make war more interesting (slow it down perhaps...).

[Skanky Burns]

Make it moddable. A simple txt file with rails increasing movement by n allows everyone to be happy. Set it to 0 and rails give infinite movement, set it to 9 and it lets units move 9 squares per 1 movement point. Tis a good idea.

[Daz]

Well, making everything moddable is nice, but it has to be decided what the default is gonna be. The whole game is going to be built around some default solution.

[Fosse]

And may that default be anything but infinite. I advocate something around 1/5, but anything up to 1/9 would be reasonable.

Also: Kill the RR production bonus!
And tile maintenance would be nice!

[Aramis]

Tile maintenance and 1/9
Killing RR production bonus

[dannubis]

infinite movement has to go

and the production bonus can be implmented in such a way that with the discovery of certain technologies your workers become more effective...

[Aramis]

Originally posted by dannubis
with the discovery of certain technologies your workers become more effective...

Well, this happens with replacement parts, as well as democracy (if implemented). What other kind of tech would you suggest? Just curious.

[Brent]

I happen to love things like IRM and the Civ2 version of Leo's Workshop.

[Roman]

I like infinite movement, but it does need to be more difficult to achieve, so one can afford to link only the truly strategic places with infinite movement infrastructure. Perhaps have something like this:

Roads: 1/3
Railroads: 1/5
Highways: 1/10
Maglev Lines: Infinite Movement

Another idea to restrict it would be to have a rolling stock capacity, which you have to build, which would restrict the usability of railroads and maglevs to a certain multiple of unit*distance per day...

[Daz]

Yea, I agree with no production bonus for RRs

[dannubis]

Originally posted by RMS


Well, this happens with replacement parts, as well as democracy (if implemented). What other kind of tech would you suggest? Just curious.

what i meant, for instance with medicine, or a new tech "fertilizers", the workers of your city would be able to produce +1 extra food per irrigated square.

with another technology, perhaps explosives the workers of your city would be able to produce +1 extra shield per mine

in this way you don't need the production bonus of rr

also certain technologies (or perhaps the passing of an age) should lower distance corruption. Rank corruption i would not touch because an empire with more cities is indeed more expensive to maintain...

[Master Zen]

Definitely no infinite movement

As per the bonus, there should be a way to make the cities benefit once connected to a railroad network, these bonuses should therefore be city or empire-based, not tile-based.

[Fosse]

Per city bonuses are fine, but any per tile bonus would outweigh the maintenance cost, leading to the eventual railroad mess that we see today. Arguing for one without the other might slightly increase the time it takes to go from no rails to every tile, but won't do away with it.