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They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

But you can't understand the rules of the game, so there is that.

ORIGINAL: springel

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

But you can't understand the rules of the game, so there is that.

Enlighten me!

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

ORIGINAL: springel

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

But you can't understand the rules of the game, so there is that.

Enlighten me!

I already did in another thread.

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

You seem to assume it is trivial to seal a road. It did take us until the mid 19th Century to come up with it originally.

Furthermore, techs represent both developing an understanding of X and developing the ability to actually do X again. With most of the basic techs, I generally assume our early city-state is not literally figuring out the idea of sealing a road with petrochemicals to stabilise it but rather figuring the process of doing that again: how to we produce the tar or resin, how to do we spread it, how do we build the road we spread it on etc.

This is also quite a weird nitpick. This is a heavily abstracted wargame not a perfect simulation. There are numerous other ways of building roads other than dirt roads or sealed roads. Why can't we build various types of stone roads with varying construction or concrete roads or timber roads, especially in marshy or forested starts etc. Because it's a game and Vic does not have time to implement everything nor would the game be any better for it.

Do a really good job paving 200km of roads in 2 months and we'll talk I look at "dirt" as basically clearing a simple path, while paving that much road will take serious specialized equipment for both leveling and paving in that time.

If you prefer, think of “dirt” roads representing pre-autobahn style roads. Some may, in fact, be tarmac, paved or otherwise quite plausible mid 20th century roads that are still rather susceptible to weather. Having spent some time in the American Midwest and South, I can tell you that even today quite a few roads become travel hazards with portions flooded out, sinkholes suddenly cratering what looks like a good road, and so forth. In which case “Sealed” roads represent the comparatively massive national investment to build truly all weather high traffic roads.

Alternatively, if you prefer, visualize it like a lot of African Foreign Direct Investment. You’ve got a handful of outside high tech pieces (those are your Machines that go into the factories) being run in a place where the infrastructure around them means you can have literal dirt roads leading out of diamond mines and oil drilling sites worth hundreds of millions - sites using machinery the local economy would need a two hundred year forward leap to even think of building.

Yes. There are a few of these sort of things that bug me in this game, but this is not one of them. I love how roads are done!

ORIGINAL: Novaliz

They can build industries but have to discover sealed roads and the text says "By putting concrete on dirt roads they will be much easier to drive on ...". Really? I mean I could understand such a tech or a text when playing civilization and leaving the middle-age?! [&:] [8|]

Those first discoveries have a rather tongue-in-cheek description quite often. Like for Hospital and University etc.

ORIGINAL: diamondspider

Do a really good job paving 200km of roads in 2 months and we'll talk I look at "dirt" as basically clearing a simple path, while paving that much road will take serious specialized equipment for both leveling and paving in that time.

I like this view! [:)]

This is also quite a weird nitpick. This is a heavily abstracted wargame not a perfect simulation. There are numerous other ways of building roads other than dirt roads or sealed roads. Why can't we build various types of stone roads with varying construction or concrete roads or timber roads, especially in marshy or forested starts etc. Because it's a game and Vic does not have time to implement everything nor would the game be any better for it.

I did not want to make a weird nitpick but as I saw it I was really confused and laughed because they can not seal a road but can obviously build concrete buildings. It sounded weird to me but I must say I like diamondspiders point of view about this. That sounds conclusive to me [:)]

ORIGINAL: diamondspider

Yes. There are a few of these sort of things that bug me in this game, but this is not one of them. I love how roads are done!

Yes, the game is great! I was not bothered by the mechanics per se, but by the description and the fact of it [;)]

Well think of Ancient civs. Or even Russia first half of 20th century.

Start worrying about taking 75t tanks over bridges and culverts too. Dirt roads, slow tank trails with gravel using tracks. Paved roads, known load bearing values on HETs.

There is a lot more to paved roads than black-topping a driveway.

That said, I wouldn't have felt cheated if roads didn't require research.