Are farms coming back?

[WarpStorm]

Why? Because they weren't needed. The game system makes railroading all of your land a good idea even without the productivity bonuses (this is different than Civ2 where the enemy could use your rails, so you didn't want to rail everywhere. Yes, I know there are wayts to do this even now.). So if everybody is going to RR everywhere anyway, why complicate things by adding another worker action.

A good rule of design is to not add stuff just for the sake of adding stuff. The kitchen sink approach to game design quite frankly blows.

[Tiberius]

Exactly.

[nationalist]

I hope farms aren't added. They'll be another boring piece of late game micromanagement that I don't want to have to deal with. Land tile improvements already slow the game down enough as is.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by nationalist
I hope farms are added. They'll be another boring piece of late game micromanagement that I don't want to have to deal with. Land tile improvements already slow the game down enough as is.

Huh?? You hope that "another boring piece of late game micromanagement" that you "don't want to have to deal with" will be added? I'm afraid I can't follow your logic.

[nationalist]

Sorry, that was a typo. I meant to say "aren't" My mistake. :embarassed: I'll edit it.

[nationalist]

Oops. Don't know why I quoted myself.

[Tiberius]

I see. Sorry, I should have figured that out.

But now why did you quote yourself ???
Your posting style is a very wierd one

[Zero]

how can firaxis make the railroad carpeting in later game more attractive aesthetically? It would be hard to make anything that has railroadtrack everywhere look pretty.

Also if we are talking realism, shouldnt railroadtrack be obsolete for say highway later on in the game? I wouldnt support wat I am saying right now since I would want to avoid even more complexities but for all you realists out there, something to talk amongst yourselves...

[WarpStorm]

I've always considered Civ's railroads to be the total modern transportation system, railroads and paved roads suitable for cars and trucks. Not just literally railroads. I consider the earlier roads to be of a lower quality like stone/brick paved at best and planks and dirt tracks at worst.

[Traelin]

Originally posted by cyclotron7
It makes perfect sense for rails to increase food. At least in the USA, railroads (and later, refrigerator cars) enabled the mass transport of meats and foodstuffs from their sources to the urban areas of the east coast. Without railroads, the East Coast would not have been able to support the dense urban population that it does.

Yeah no kidding! Trucks generally pick up the food from refrigerator cars at plant depots. For instance, you can drive by a McDonald's distribution plant about 30 minutes from where I live and guess what? Train tracks right up to the warehouses. Rails are crucial for the U.S. and are the primary means for shipping HUGE quantities of anything.

[Traelin]

Why doesn't someone just change the irrigation tile to look like farmland? That'll solve the problem. Personally I think roads are SOOO much uglier than rails. Rails just look so much more "orderly" IMHO, the roads wander around in a nasty zig-zag pattern (which is more realistic I know, but still). But it sounds like I'm the only one that likes how rails look over roads, so I'll shut up now.

[cgannon64]

Alot of people (including me) think that rails should improve production, and farms should improve food. This would make cities have a mix of farms and rails, and wouldn't look so ugly.

Just my two cents.

[Cyclotron]

Well, since I never considered railroads ugly, I can't really comment on that... but there is no reason historically speaking that railroads should improve production while not improving food.

Besides, mines already increase production. Irrigation is food, roads are trade, and mines are shields... so railroads should probably benefit all (they do IRL) for balance.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Well, for my part, I still cling to my original "compromise" position! i.e., though I agree that rail (and roads) should increase commerce, food and production (or reduce corruption), I think it should NOT be based on the number of roads/rail you have, but on the number of cities you have connected up to the Capital by your road/rail network. Perhaps +1 per 8 cities for roads, and +1 per 5 cities for rail! This, I believe would have two important effects:

1) It would significantly reduce railway sprawl, as now you would only need to build a single RR connecting your city to the capital (this connection would not have to be direct, but could be via other cities), plus another one as back-up (just in case one gets pillaged )

2) It would add another reason why you should protect your capital!! Not only do you now have to deal with increased corruption, but all your outlying cities lose productivity and food as everyone starts looking out for themselves!

Anyway, that's just my views, feel free to diss them if you like .

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

[WarpStorm]

Originally posted by Traelin
Why doesn't someone just change the irrigation tile to look like farmland? That'll solve the problem.

Sn00py's latest graphics mod does just that. It looks pretty good too.