Inca Roads are Over Powered

[Strategikal]

Much as I like it, teleporting through mountain ranges isn't remotely realistic. It's even sillier that you can attack distant units through them. A simple one tile tunnel connecting to a tile on the other side would be realistic, but this is just silly. I'm enjoying it, but it should probably be nerfed.

What next? Giant death robots jumping over mountain ranges? (sarcasm intended).

Take a look at this screenshot.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1658308623

[Suisight]

I see that it these roads are an extreme change to tactical positions, but as you pointed out youself, the enemy can use them too. So I don't see 'overpowered'. Your advantage is that you can decide when and where to build them. And I would agree that in this case, maybe you shouldn't have :).

In general, I appreciate this new feature, as mountains could be a major mobility stopper, even in late game, where it had no more plausibility regarding realism.

However, I would say they should be more costly and take longer to build. Maybe 5 rounds per mountain tile (*speed modificator).

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Depending on the conditions of the map and with the fact only the Aztec can build them... You could in theory have your whole army "teleport" from one side of your kingdom to the other side.

Having such an advantage any other civilization cannot have access to sound to be the pure definition of "over powered" to me. Take into consideration that you could cheat the movement system by a LOT with this...

[Suisight]

Other civs can use the roads too, once established. So, as OP pointed out, while gaining mobility, he made his capital vulnerable. Seems like a trade-off to me, which 'overpowered' things usually don't have.

[Strategikal]

@Eagle - you can't teleport across your entire kingdom, only through mountain tiles that are connected, but that can still be quite a long way as in this case.

I've got nothing against having a better way to get across mountains, but this solution has effectively turned mountain ranges into high speed railroads.

BTW, it's not just the Inca that have them. In the Modern Era all civs can build mountain tunnels, but that's not so bad if you assume that these tunnels actually do have high speed railways running through them. Still over powered so early in the game though.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Depending on the conditions of the map and with the fact only the Aztec can build them... You could in theory have your whole army "teleport" from one side of your kingdom to the other side.

Having such an advantage any other civilization cannot have access to sound to be the pure definition of "over powered" to me. Take into consideration that you could cheat the movement system by a LOT with this...

The Inca (not the Aztec) get an early version of the mountain tunnel. That early access can amount to a big advantage, depending on the situation and how well they are used. That's sort of the point, because the Inca are supposed to dominate in mountainous terrain.

However, the "regular" mountain tunnel eventually becomes available to every civ. So this isn't something only the Inca can do. They can do it much earlier than anyone else, but in time everyone can do it.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Yeah, sorry about the mix up.

But still, it is early game that you get a huge advantage on this. Especially considering the fact that roads suck until you get to the later ages.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

But still, it is early game that you get a huge advantage on this. Especially considering the fact that roads suck until you get to the later ages.

It is a big advantage, but one that can be negated by staying out of their mountains, or turned against them by using their own paths to advance your attack.

[Carog the Fat]

inca is a turtle civ the ability to defend anywhere quickly is ideal. In my current inca game the most OP thing is terrace farms on hills around volcanoes one volcano was giving up 52 food and 22 hammers 2 science for the 7 hexs

[Lemurian1972]

As Inca, there's a clear and obvious trade-off to building the tunnels. You lose the ability to work those mountains. A mountain with 2-3 terrace farms around it is nothing to sneeze at, so you don't really want to cover your empire with tunnels.

[Strategikal]

Really? Most of my mountain tunnel tiles still show yields, but a couple of them don't, very odd.
Check out my yields here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1658241411

[Strategikal]

I've just checked and I've confirmed that mountains with tunnels still have tile yields and I can still work them.

My last comment was wrong, the ones I thought didn't have yields just had the yields blocked by the tunnel icon.

[Lemurian1972]

Strange. I wonder what I got it confused with to think that? Maybe Ski Resorts? Sorry I've been sick this week and my brain is shorting out on stuff like this regularly.

[MxPlosion]

I'm glad the programmers used the system they did for the mountain roads tbh. If they were being true to history, the mountain roads would be invisible/secret to anyone but the Inca given the road to Machu Picchu from Cusco went undiscovered for centuries after their fall. And then they would be totally overpowered.