Question on roads

[Scarlett]

I am thinking of putting this in as a feature request but don't know if it's come up before. A quick search said no.

Why not make it possible for a region lord to invest in roads in the same way that they can invest in their walls? And then make roads pillage-able/loot-able. They already take damage in battles.

It's a small thing but it'd have a huge impact. Maybe let lords name their roads, too.

Is there an impediment to something like this that I should be aware of before formalizing it?

[Tom]

Why not make it possible for a region lord to invest in roads in the same way that they can invest in their walls? And then make roads pillage-able/loot-able. They already take damage in battles.

Complexity.

Both of the game and of the coding. This just would not add enough to the game to justify the effort, because there are a lot of extra things that you would need to consider to do this right.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Complexity.

Both of the game and of the coding. This just would not add enough to the game to justify the effort, because there are a lot of extra things that you would need to consider to do this right.

How about just investing in roads, without the thing about pillaging and such? Roads already improve if there's a period of peace when a region is under the control of a realm, yes? Just tie in something that accelerates that rate of improvement if a lord invests into the roads.

[Anaris]

To be honest, I'd really like to be able to add investing money in repairing various parts of a region—both to make sure they get fixed up well in a timely manner, and to be able to save bits of infrastructure that would otherwise fall apart due to low production.

So if we allowed pouring money into repairing any given economy building, I would think that adding the roads as another option there would just make sense.

[Tom]

Rejected. In the world we simulate, solving problems like this was not a matter of simply throwing money at it. Unless, of course, it is enough money that you can fill the potholes in the road with it.

The various growth factors and limits in the game simulate the fact that you need to have workers and materials available and what else. That is why you can't simply "buy" production or repairs to buildings, etc. Same for roads.

[Scarlett]

An implementation consistent with how things work now would not be 'click X to turn 100 gold into better roads' but something much more akin to building walls. You could invest time and money in it but it would take a long time to pay off, and also easier to damage than walls, and even then you'd still have a ceiling - you can't turn every rural road into a highway. Maybe a 20% swing in either direction from building roads (+) or looting (-) is the best you can do. BM is more about lots of little levers, after all, than one or two big ones.

[Anaris]

Rejected. In the world we simulate, solving problems like this was not a matter of simply throwing money at it. Unless, of course, it is enough money that you can fill the potholes in the road with it.

The various growth factors and limits in the game simulate the fact that you need to have workers and materials available and what else. That is why you can't simply "buy" production or repairs to buildings, etc. Same for roads.

Then why can you pay money to repair walls?

Also, I'm pretty darn sure you approved in principle, some time ago, the idea of repairing economy buildings by spending money on them.

[fodder]

Rejected. In the world we simulate, solving problems like this was not a matter of simply throwing money at it. Unless, of course, it is enough money that you can fill the potholes in the road with it.

but it is. at least what tim refers to (the buildings). what you do to a rotting rc that you want to keep (for example) in a rotting region is that you wait for it to drop to the lowest level and then some... and then stick another lvl on top. then let it rot away again, rinse and repeat.

so essentially, you are chucking money at it. sort of repairing it by other means.

roads is different insofar as there's no building related to it.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Rejected. In the world we simulate, solving problems like this was not a matter of simply throwing money at it. Unless, of course, it is enough money that you can fill the potholes in the road with it.

The various growth factors and limits in the game simulate the fact that you need to have workers and materials available and what else. That is why you can't simply "buy" production or repairs to buildings, etc. Same for roads.

I have to just say one thing. REGION INVESTMENTS. Seriously, you say this, but whenever I see someone invest in a region the production magically goes up. All I'm saying is that it increases the rate of something that is already occurring anyways. Roads already improve at a certain rate when under the control of a realm and no battles occur in it. If we were to "Throw money at it", that money merely represents the cost to organize work teams, buy materials, and all the other minute details that a noble of the standing we play as wouldn't be directly involved in.

[Indirik]

FWIW: there is a looting option to damage roads that already exists.

[Tom]

I'm not rejecting the basic idea in principle. But seriously, with the list of things on our list right now, and the changes that this would require first, this is not going to happen within the next, say, 12 months.

[LilWolf]

Just make it an sub option of civil work. The men of your unit do the work so that solves that problem. Of course, you get a bigger morale penalty since your men are playing carpenters and glorified pack-mules, but thems the breaks. Maybe make it cost a few coins of gold for materials if you really want to.

That way it's not just throwing gold at the problem and a lot of people get one more thing to do if they want to.

[Tom]

I didn't make myself clear there. It isn't as dangerous as everyone thinks it is. I have given this thought before. There's quite a lot to it, once you sit down and think it through in more detail.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Ok then. Since we won't be getting to it anytime soon, how should we make sure it doesn't get forgotten?