Railroads and Oil?

[Proteus_MST]

As now certain units can be powered by different means (oil or uranium) and other units can be constructed by using either iron orn copper the question arises,
if something which was already mentioned in an previous thread could/should now be realised,
either as part of a mod or even oficially in an expansion or patch.

It is, allowing railroads to be built with
Iron AND (Coal OR Oil)

If Coal is used in Civ IV to power the trains, it would make sense to allow them to be also powered by Oil (Diesel engines or even oil powered steam engines), maybe the tech to power a train via oil could be unlocked by a certain technology.
(But if the coal is used to produce steel for the railway tracks, it would, of course, make sense to allow only coal)

Dunno if the designers of Civ IV thought about integrating this into the game (maybe they have, but, after some playtesting decided, to drop it again)

[baboon]

True, but they didn't do it

[Dr,ape]

Don't forget there are the electric locomotives. As far as they are concerned, railroads can be run on uranium.

And then there is the maglev tubes...

Many different things can fuel a railroad system, besides coal. Someone made a conceptual decision back in the early 90s that coal was to be representative of all.

[Sarxis]

The oil is for the squeaky wheels, not for powering.

[QuantumPion]

what I think is funny is that you don't need coal for coal power plants yet you need coal for railroads, even if you have oil or uranium. Now that is f'ed up.

[Dr,ape]

Yeah, that does seem f'ed up.
I guess they figured Coal Plant to be the "last resort" kind of power plant. You need uranium for nuclear plant and river for hydroelectric. You would have to resort to "coal" if you have none of the above, tolerating its unhealthiness.

[Gramphos]

Well, you don't need coal, nor iron to use railroads, just to build them.

[nbarclay]

There were actually at least some early trains powered by wood, so even in the early days of railroading, the absence of coal was not an insurmountable obstacle.

[ProfessorPhobos]

Hell, there was a time where they had trains powered by surplus Egyptian mummies, so...

[Dis]

Re: Railroads and Oil?

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
As now certain units can be powered by different means (oil or uranium) and other units can be constructed by using either iron orn copper the question arises,
if something which was already mentioned in an previous thread could/should now be realised,
either as part of a mod or even oficially in an expansion or patch.

It is, allowing railroads to be built with
Iron AND (Coal OR Oil)

If Coal is used in Civ IV to power the trains, it would make sense to allow them to be also powered by Oil (Diesel engines or even oil powered steam engines), maybe the tech to power a train via oil could be unlocked by a certain technology.
(But if the coal is used to produce steel for the railway tracks, it would, of course, make sense to allow only coal)

Dunno if the designers of Civ IV thought about integrating this into the game (maybe they have, but, after some playtesting decided, to drop it again)

It should be in the game. Most engines are diesals now days.

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by Dr,ape
Yeah, that does seem f'ed up.
I guess they figured Coal Plant to be the "last resort" kind of power plant. You need uranium for nuclear plant and river for hydroelectric. You would have to resort to "coal" if you have none of the above, tolerating its unhealthiness.

yeah but railroads are far more important then power plants. A power plant just gives you 50% production, and you can always build the three gorges dam (which is what I usually go for). But without railroads, your units are slow to move around and you get less production from tiles.

[TheHateMale]

Isn't coal required to extract iron using a blast furnace?

Oops. Seems that was in the OP. It's a good point though.

[nojnosredna]

Re: Re: Railroads and Oil?

Originally posted by Dis


It should be in the game. Most engines are diesals now days.

Not to nit pick, but while we are on the subject, it is my understanding that modern engines are almost all electric - many use desiel to generate the electricity, but the engines themselves are electric. Which leads to the prospect of a mod where there are 2 types of locomotive - one for the classic chug - chug and one modern which could confer some additional bonus (one would of course need to build new track to keep up with the faster trains).

[Aileron]

The other (non-coal) strategic resources allow you to produce certain units. Is the coal/railroad relationship the only one not like this?? If so, maybe it should be modded out entirely, i.e. when you research Railroad you can build railroads.