Railroads do not boost trade...

[tobyr]

According to the ToT civilopedia, and according to the offical strategy guide for civ II, railroads boost both shield and trade production by 50%.

Actually, it seems that trade production is not boosted at all (I tested a number of terrains for this). The users' guide to ToT correctly says that shield production is boosted, not mentioning trade.

I assume that ToT and Civ II work the same in this respect, and everyone knows better than to trust the wrong civilopedia or documentation. Right?

-toby


------------------
toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[Kull]

As always, it depends!

Shield Production boosted? Yes. But only for terrains with more than one shield.

Trade boosted? Sort of. Roads boost trade in most squares and since technically a railroad REPLACES the road and you still get the trade bonus, than yes, the railroad "caused" it. Now you could argue that the road is still "there" since pillaging a railroad leaves the road behind. However, once a railroad is built the road is not visible and you can't opt to travel at road speeds, so is it "really" there? Bottom line? Semantics!

[Miner]

Are you a lawyer by any chance?

[William Keenan]

Railroads, as I am told, boosted trade and production in one of the early versions of Civ2. It was changed to only boost production because railroads affected game balance too much.

[Comrade Dan]

I dislike the childish train icon on railroads.

[Sarxis]

I don't like the silly looking train either, and find myself forced to disable unit animations to rid my monitor of the offending graphic.
How I wish I knew a way to disable the train!

[KenThur]

Hey! Give the little choo-choo a break.
I think it's cute. Tho it does get in the way for id'ing units & city squares at times.

My wish is for the threatened city name / label toggle to be implemented. Why they never thot about the esthetics of those damn things in your face all the time.
Just think how (sorta) realistic the entire world(s) would look if all U saw were the terrain, cities, & units. Sort of a god's - eye view.

------------------
"Hm-m-m, doubt me you will?"

[tobyr]

KenThur,
I think they DID think about the esthetics of those railroad tracks in your face all the time.

Railroad lines are extremely ugly, usually create the ugliest part of any city.

This is a good bit of realism in civ2.

- toby


------------------
toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[Sten Sture]

While railroads do not directly increase the raw trade of a single square, a railroad connection between two cities has been purported to increase trade via a modifier. Note that this is not the route bonus, but rather the per turn trade credit.

Route = ((CityA+CityB+4)*modifiers)/8

Both cities are yours -50%
Freight instead of caravan +50%
Cities connected by road +50%
Cities connected by rail +50%
Cities on different continents +100%
Airports in both cities +50%
Superhighways in home city +50%

I haven't specifically tested these individually: buyer beware!