Build up an empire, laied Rail all over the place, and then... Here come a settler or any other enemy unit, and even though they havent inventet Railroad, the happily rock along, on your rails...

This represents a problem......

They havent got the knowledge to use this improvement.
But still they do..........

Have anyone else experienced this questionable behavior ??

Rails would be correctly used if they were highways.

And there is nothing stopping the AI from using anything you built. It isn't a bug.

It probably will be fixed by making it impossible for enemies to use anything inside your territory usless you are on friendly terms and you let them use it.

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"Freedom, Trade, Christantine!"

700 years ago, people were hanged for beliving the earth was round, and that the earth wasīnt the center of the universe !...

My point...
Lets say You encounter a civilisation who is 200 years behind you.
Tey would have very little chance of introducing any of your techs into their current level of evolution. Simply because of the fact, that they wouldīnt be able to comprehend the actual basis for the new thechs introduced, and they wouldīnt acknowledge the effects/possiblities it might have....

How about this: if you do not have railroad tech, the only way your units can use one is by using the railroads built/captured by an allied civ. Once railroads are researched/bought/stolen you may ride them to your heart's content.

Same thing applies to agricultural and mining improvements, airbases, and anything else that requires specialized knowledge to operate. Fortresses and other easily usable improvements can be used by anyone, even if they don't know how to build them.

Hmm, I just thought of something. Different kinds of fortifications. You could have simple wooden stockades, stone forts, and fortified bunkers. Stockades are somewhat effective against infantry and cavalry but vulnerable to, say, catapaults. Forts are very effective against everything pre-gunpowder. Bunkers are really good and could even provide some protection against nuclear weapons. Obviously not direct strikes, but nearby units in bunkers would only take 50% damge rather than being destroyed.

quote: Originally posted by jdlessl on 12-07-2000 11:09 PM I should point out that not being able to instantly use the Soviet railroad net cost the germans heavily during WW2. Such a simple thing, the different track gauge, but it made their logistics a royal pain in the ass. How about this: if you do not have railroad tech, the only way your units can use one is by using the railroads built/captured by an allied civ. Once railroads are researched/bought/stolen you may ride them to your heart's content. [This message has been edited by jdlessl (edited December 07, 2000).]

I saw this proposal somewhere else, and I really liked it. When you build railroads, you have the option to use the standard or a specialized one. If you use standard, you can connect to anywhere. If you use specialized, then only you can use your railroad. After you conquer some civlization, so that you don't have to build a whole new railroad, you can build a switching station for the trains to change tracks. I suppose switching trains could take up the rest of your move points for the turn for that unit so there is some disadvantage to having two types of railroads in your civilzation.

quote: Originally posted by OreoFuchi on 12-07-2000 11:50 PMWhen you build railroads, you have the option to use the standard or a specialized one. If you use standard, you can connect to anywhere. If you use specialized, then only you can use your railroad. After you conquer some civlization, so that you don't have to build a whole new railroad, you can build a switching station for the trains to change tracks.

Oh my God!
The next step would be to drive on the left side of the road in some countries and on the right side in others and thus losing units in crashes!
Civ is not Railroad Tycoon (which game I like very much) or any other game or real life.

With the way the turn based system works, this could mean that unit 1 with 3 movement moves and captures 3 squares, unit 2 travels those cheaply then captures two more etc until finally the remainder of the units can move their full enhanced movement range along that path of captured tiles. This mimics the troops required to secure the territory, repair any damage and keep partisans at bay. Optionally capturing a city would immediately transfer ownership of the 9 surrounding tiles too.

mines, farms, advanced mines, advanced farms, railroads;

These should all be unusable unless you have the tech. If you don't have the required tech, have railroad only give the benefit of road, and have advanced farms/mines only give the benefit of regular farms/mines. This is a simple solution that provides some realism without turning into a micromanaging nightmare.

The only exceptions should be roads and forts; anyone can use those. Although speaking of forts;

quote: Originally posted by jdlessl on 12-07-2000 11:09 PM Hmm, I just thought of something. Different kinds of fortifications. You could have simple wooden stockades, stone forts, and fortified bunkers. Stockades are somewhat effective against infantry and cavalry but vulnerable to, say, catapaults. Forts are very effective against everything pre-gunpowder. Bunkers are really good and could even provide some protection against nuclear weapons. Obviously not direct strikes, but nearby units in bunkers would only take 50% damge rather than being destroyed. -- Jared Lessl [This message has been edited by jdlessl (edited December 07, 2000).]

Building different levels of forts is a bit much, BUT, if barracks are made obsolete at certain tech levels as they were in Civ 2, it follows that the bunkers/forts should also be made obsolete/disappear. Again. A simple way to make the game a bit more realistic

Not at all. Europe is dotted with literally thousands of old castles and fortresses which would be virtually useless in a pitched battle today. In the game, old fortifications should not just disappear, but could be upgraded to effective modern ones. That annoyed me greatly in Civ2; having to go back and rebuild the barracks when all they needed was an upgrade.

Also, my problem with only a few types of improvements is that they don't capture the effect that modern resource gathering has had. Consider: less than 3% of the population of the US is involved in farming, compared with more than 70% just 2 centuries ago and even higher in the centuries before that. Each farmer now produces more than 50 of his predecessors could. How is that represented in Civ? You have to build a new set of improvements all through the empire and get maybe a 33% bonus in food production. Advanced farms should provide a 3300% bonus.

But I'd much rather not have to constantly upgrade improvements. How about this: there are only a few improvements (the CTP set suit me fine) but there are a number of techs that increase what you get out of the improvement. A farm is great, but simply researching mechanized harvesting vastly reduces the labor you have to put into it.