So I saw a bunch of stuff on the forums about how a lot of people dislike the automagic road system. I have an idea that is sort of a compromise between the automatic road system and building them yourself, which is annoying. While this would mean that players would have to build the roads, it should be hopefully less tedious than running a road-building guy around everywhere the whole game like in Civ.
Overall Idea: The overall idea is to tie the production of roads into city production. There would be two types of roads, automatic roads between two existing player structures, and point to point roads, where the player would determine a start and end point. Roads would be constructed by a Road Building Unit which would be automatically generated like a caravan. This unit would need to travel to the place that it would build the roads (which would be done automatically using the existing pathing system). The road unit, like a caravan, would move along the two points (either cities or player selected points) and build the road. They would have hit points and need to be guarded from monsters. Killing the unit would of course, stop the road production where it was.
Caveat: Obviously this is a wishlist item. 
- Roads Types
- Automatic Links: This kind of road would be similar to the existing road system. The player chooses between two player owned structures (city or outpost)
- Point A to Point B: These roads are built simply from point A to point B.
- Production Cost: The cost of the roads would be multiplied by the cost of each tile.
- So the production equation would be (base cost)x n. The individual cost per tile would be calculated where:
- Plains: n=1
- Forests: n=2
- Swamps: n=3
- River: n=4
- Hills (bare): n=3
- Hills (forested): n=5
- Player controlled tile: -25%
- Enemy controlled tile: +25%
- Wildland controlled tile: +50%
- Any existing impassible terrain (chasms, mountains, sea, etc) would obviously not qualify for road building
- UI Element: UI elements would need to be added in order to accomplish the proposed idea, the overall flow would look something like this:
- Player selects Build Roads from a City Production Queue
- UI Element Road Type appears, player selects either Link Structures or Point to Point
- Link Structures
- Player View returns to the Main Map with the Road Building Overlay, where all player owned cities and outposts are now highlighted. This screen tells you to pick the first structure.
- Player selects the starting location
- As the player's mouse cursor hovers above any structure, the screen displays the production cost and number of turns. The screen instructs the player to select the second structure
- Player selects the end location
- The Road Building Overlay asks the Player for confirmation. The production cost and number of turns are still displayed, as well as the route that the Road Building Unit will build the road
- The Road Building Overlaay closes upon Player confirmation
- The view returns to the City Production Queue, and drops the Road Building even into the queue
- The next turn, the Road Building Unit is deployed
- Point to Point
- Player View returns to the Main Map with the Road Building Overlay, non-selectable tiles are now highlighted. This screen instructs the player to pick the starting point
- Player selects the starting location
- As the player's mouse cursor hovers above any tile, the screen displays the production cost and number of turns. The screen instructs the player to select the second structure
- Player selects the end location
- The Road Building Overlay asks the Player for confirmation. The production cost and number of turns are still displayed, as well as the route that the Road Building Unit will build the road
- The Road Building Overlaay closes upon Player confirmation
- The view returns to the City Production Queue, and drops the Road Building even into the queue
- The next turn, the Road Building Unit is deployed
- Road Building Unit Details
- The Road Building Unit would be a like a Pioneer unit and would cost population to deploy. This population would be returned to the originating city upon completion of the task
- The Road Building Unit would be automatic. It would move the same way any unit would based on automatic pathing until it reaches it's starting point.
- The road unit would build the roads tile by tile based on the production of the originating city
- Units added to the Road Building Unit's Army would be considered escorts, and would automatically move with the Road Building Unit (treating it as if it's the Leader of the Army)
- If interrupted by being slain, a popup would appear indicating the Road Building Unit was lost, by what means, and if the player would like to move the view to the location it was killed (like when an outpost or the like is destroyed)
- Since the production costs are subtracted up front, the loss a road building unit would mean that any remaining production costs as well as the population of the unit would be lost
Comments, questions, and criticism?
