Expensive Roads

from Elemental Forums

I'm not sure if anyone else would agree with me on this minor subject, but I'd like to see roads be costly, with fairly formidable benefits.  In most games, roads generally don't cost the player very much, and building them is often times one of the "low hanging fruits." 

I'm thinking that perhaps roads should be a much larger strategic and economic consideration than they have been before (aka. much more expensive and more valuable.)  Sure dirt paths would be cheap and probably pop up on their own, but stone or paved highways would be very, very costly with very large benefits.  Not only would you get the usual trade bonuses and movement bonuses, but you would also gain other critical benefits.  For example:

1. Greater loyalty in non-capital cities, due to greater exchange of ideas and cultural commonality.

2. Greater influence of your prestige in foreign trading cities.

3. Increased relations boost if you sponsor a better road into a friendly trading partner's territory.

4. Development of small-scale townsheds along roads which rely on the local essence imbuement from a neighboring city. They provide a small boost to empire income and research.  They would start out as inns along a given road and gradually grow in size, depending on local resources.  They can grow larger with the development of a larger road (food being shipped in from elsewhere).  They can be upgraded into forts at a cost that is less than building a fort from scratch, and they can also eventually be upgraded to formal cities at possibly a decreased essence investment, if you'd like them to be.

With these kinds of benefits, you could actually choose to develop your road infrastructure in specific strategic ways.  For instance, you could decide to create a grand highway from your capital to a distant, newly acquired metropolis in order to assert control over it, while leaving roads that lead to local cities less developed.

Road research could have a whole host of options.

4,780 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Sounds very interesting to me, but the current design direction seems to be very minimalist re roads. Still, it would be nice to have at least two types of travel paths, roads as they currently are and highways that do things along the lines you describe. Could 'keep it simpler' by making the current basic roads more or less automatic/organic and making highways a bit cheaper to build if you start with an existing 'natural' road.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quite nice & Can't hurt.  It should be combined with my road & fort idea too.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, it would be nice. I am thinking about such system.

Road types:

  • Dirt path.
  • Paved road.
  • Enchanted highway.

Dirt path:

  • 'Buildable' from the very beginning.
  • Caravans can't use it as their routes (you have to rely on the automatic bonus for a specific resource, for all cities).
  • You can't trade with allied nation using those.
  • Units aren't affected by the penalties caused by a specific terrain.
  • Building those only take some time & money.
  • They can be constructed in forest and on hills, in addition to plains.

Paved road:

  • Has to be developed (lets say it's attainable after 50 turns).
  • Caravans can use it to transport goods.
  • If the paved road connects to allied city, you can initiate trade with this nation.
  • Units move 50% faster.
  • Apart from time, you have to spend some money and stone in order to build them.
  • Every turn, each of the paved road tiles consumes 1 gold (maintenance).
  • They can only be built on flat terrain.
  • Dirt path can be upgraded to paved road for a lower cost.

Enchanted highway:

  • Late game tech.
  • Caravans can't be attacked while they travel.
  • Enemy units are slowed down on such road (can't use it to their advantage) to 50% of their movement speed.
  • Units move 100% faster.
  • You need time, gold, rock & mana crystals to build those.
  • Every turn, each tile of enchanted highway consumes: 5 gold & 1 mana (it will be taken from the biggest pool of mana).
  • They can only be built on flat terrain.
  • Paved road can be upgraded to enchanted highway for a lower cost.

Road system

Roads are placed using a "Freeway"® system. Basically you choose a city near which you would like to build a road. Every city has a road-range variable that determines how far from this city you build a road. In other words - you can't build roads just anywhere. This is implemented to somewhat put a pressure that in ancient times towns were built where on the crossroads (i.e., near them). Second, it will force the player to think about placing his cities not only to grab as many goods, but also where to spread his road-web. Roads - for obvious reasons - can be placed on tiles occupied by city improvements. Ok, so lets assume you selected a city. Now you just have to select the standard "Build road" button. Then you just place the road on any tile you wish (in the range, of course).

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Good ideas, Red! :)