Roads at game start

[strattonthebard]

Are there existing road networks at the start of the game? In Western Europe at least old Roman roads were still very much in use in the 1300s and a lot of road development in the period used them as a base (indeed a lot of modern motorways follow the same route as ancient Roman roads). Ideally road development should be easier when building on top of historical infrastructure.

 

[Nitan17]

From Red Hawk's Serbia video:

 

[nyetflix2]

^
Also there are a couple pieces in North india

 

[DiabloDeVille]

From Red Hawk's Serbia video:
View attachment 1338670

France has nothing but england has plenty? Smelling some English bias here

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

From Red Hawk's Serbia video:
View attachment 1338670

Huh, France and Germany are weirdly lacking in roads. The Via Regia and Via Imperii really should be here.

 

[Chieron]

Huh, France and Germany are weirdly lacking in roads. The Via Regia and Via Imperii really should be here.

yeah. There is a road leading from Rome northwards, passing the Alps. Which then just ends?
Similarly, Iberia already has quite a network, which suddenly ends after the Pyrenees?
But also Austria has a bit in the east, leading to the Hungarian border, which itself is completely roadless, while a suspicious road starts right after the Serbian border..

France, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland and Hungary look quite weird on this map. And tbh, the Middle East is also odd.

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

yeah. There is a road leading from Rome northwards, passing the Alps. Which then just ends?
Similarly, Iberia already has quite a network, which suddenly ends after the Pyrenees?
But also Austria has a bit in the east, leading to the Hungarian border, which itself is completely roadless, while a suspicious road starts right after the Serbian border..

France, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland and Hungary look quite weird on this map. And tbh, the Middle East is also odd.

Hopefully it's just unfinished, I can't see any reasoning for why the road network would look like this if it was finished.

 

[strattonthebard]

These should really be part of maps and map feedbacks imo

 

[Linbot#6018]

These should really be part of maps and map feedbacks imo

Yeah, it's a shame that they aren't.

 

[Birchinjaro]

They'll probably make a separate Tinto Talks for the roads since it seems like a pretty easy fix to just add/ remove with the help of feedback

 

[Raftz]

From Red Hawk's Serbia video:
View attachment 1338670

Looks extremely WIP. No roads in Rome, lol. I imagine this is one of those maps we didn't get shown for a reason.

 

[strattonthebard]

Honestly I wonder what the implications of an unfinished road network might have been on the build influencers got to play. Maybe they had to boost base control quite a lot in order to make most countries functional without any roads at game start

 

[Aquila SPQR]

To be honest if "dirt roads" or even "gravel roads" are tier 1 roads, then... most of Europe should have a dense network of them. Old roman roads (where they were preserved in decent condition) should be a tier 2 roads at the beginning of the game.

 

[ArVass]

From Red Hawk's Serbia video:
View attachment 1338670

The blatant English, Spanish, and Swedish bias, lmao

 

[Polesie Admiral]

Swedish bias,

What Swedish bias? Denmark has roads there

 

[ArVass]

What Swedish bias? Denmark has roads there

Yeah but Scandinavia's road network is criminally overrepresented compared to the normal parts of Europe, and I have no knowledge of Scandinavians being road network superpowers.

Overall it's peculiar that primarily only the countries where the team is from have roads in Europe, with a few minor additions

 

[ArVass]

@Pavía some reference maps for an improved roadmap:

 

[Rule Britannia]

To those who complain of an English bias, the roads shown correspond to important Roman roads such as Watling Street from Dover to Chester (though curiously the road on the map stops just short of Chester) and Ermine Street from London to Lincoln (again stopping just short of Lincoln), the latter merging with arguably the most important thoroughfare in England during the 14th century the Great North Road from London to Scotland. This seems like the minimum sensible number of roads for England in the 14th century.

That being said, I am puzzled that there are no roads in France or Germany at all, but these places were less centralised during the 14th century than e.g. England so perhaps the lack of roads is meant as a way to represent this?

 

[Eraneir]

I think the roads in Spain are representing "Cañadas reales", transhumance roads used for a long time and regulated in the XIIIth century. the association of herds-owner, whose name I frustratingly don't remember, was a big political force in the kingdoms of Castille and Leon.

For France, the case is not easy. During the medieval era the roads were not in good shape, in the hands of many nobles and full of tolls. Royalty tried to centralize the system, but were not successfull until the XVIIth century. Maybe you could even forbid the player to build new roads before some laws are revoked.

In the same time, the kingdom is full of big river and they were used a lot for trade, with powerful boatmen guild.
When we visited a castle last summer along the Dordogne river, the guid emphasize that in this corner of France the train came before a national road, as the river was systematically used for travels and trade...

I'd really put only one road in the kingdom, going through Champagne and connecting vaguely the Seine to the Rhine. To represent the fair of Champagne.

 

[Rule Britannia]

Yeah but Scandinavia's road network is criminally overrepresented compared to the normal parts of Europe, and I have no knowledge of Scandinavians being road network superpowers.

Overall it's peculiar that primarily only the countries where the team is from have roads in Europe, with a few minor additions

The road up through Jutland makes sense as there is a fairly well known road predating the start of the game going up through Jutland.