Re: Olympia - roads?

From: bill@rses.vuw.ac.nz (Bill Viggers)

Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 20:52:00 +0000

In article <3fjd38INN4lk@retriever.cs.umbc.edu>, schott@cs.umbc.edu (Brian Schott) writes:
|>
|> Road building could make for a more interesting game.  Large factions
|> could get on with the job of empire building, trade routes could be
|> established and developed... Olympia might evolve from isolated
|> city-states grubbing for resources to empires.  Think Rome.  There
|> would still be plenty of wilderness for us small factions to explore.
|>

I fully agree.  In fact before the design list got canned
	I suggested the very same (and before I joined the design
	list, someone else had previously suggested it...).

My suggestion was not quite as radical as yours.  Basically
	roads reduced the land travel time between provinces by one
	day (so both riding and walking speeds up).  Also it would
	increase the civilisation of the provinces the road was
	between.

If both provinces have the same level of civilisation then they
	each gain half a level of civilisation.  Otherwise the lower
	civilisation province gains a full level (culture flowing into
	the wilderness).

The cost to build a road should be dependent on the type of
	terrain at either end.  Multiply the basic travel times of
	each end of the road  (so a swamp <-> swamp road would be
	196, where as a road between plains would be 49 and a road
	leading from a forest into the mountains would be 80).  This is
	the amount of stone required.  Multiply by 20 and this is the
	number of worker-days effort required.

Thus a road leading from one swampy province to another would require
	close on the effort required to make TWO towers both in stone and
	workers.  Additionally a minimal number of days based on the terrain
	should also be required.

Road effort between provinces:
-------------------------------
Effort	Swamp	Mounta.	Forest	Plains
Swamp	196	140	112	 98
Mounta.	140	100	 80	 70
Forest	112	 80	 64	 56
Plains	 98	 70	 56	 49

Building roads through swamps becomes much harder than across
	plains.  A side benefit could be that riding movement across
	a road in the swamps would give the normal benefit (half time)
	rather than the penalty it gets at the moment.

Bill.