Changing the railroad destruction repair ratio.

[MrT]

So hello fellow lovely gamers,

I was testing out the caverly rework that was created by runyun and i found somthing that i had not obviously noticed before, the fact that it takes no time at all to destroy railroads but yet takes about 10 days to repair them.
The balance ,to me at least, seems a little incorrect there. When it only takes 5 minutes for a unit to remove railroads why should it take a unit 10 days to repair the same stretch of track?
Obviously any railroads damaged within such a short time scale should of just been torn up not physically destroyed or damaged. Why then does it take a unit 10 days to lay the rail back down were it came from? After all they just have to lay it back into place roughly on the ground till the next train in your land brings a engineer along with it to check they did right, and make any small adjustments.
However since for gameplay purposes instant rail repair and destruction would'nt fix what seems to be the problem with caverly or other railraiders, i would like to suggest that in the future the time needed to destroy railroads raised to match the time needed to repair them(based upon everyone ripping up railroads making Sherman Neckties).
This then leaves the player still the choice to repair or chase while when he choses chase to increase the proberbility to catch the enemy raider, who is static for 10days in the turn (if hes caught the railroads are not considered to be damaged). Also this halts the chances of a enemy raiding all the way to the SC/Georgia boarder from Washington in 2 turns while ripping up rails for example(i think we all agree that raiding that deep and doing that much damage is quite improbable without been caught at least 1 time, after all you would leave a big trail of fire/destruction behind you like a becon marker).

Edit: Grey has stressed this would not be able to implemented in the near future, if accepted, more a next patch issue.

[W.Barksdale]

5 days for each seems fair.

[runyan99]

I suspect that repairing a line generally took longer than ripping one up.

Cavalry did not do wide scale damage to rails as far as I know. They could only attack select points that were quick to destroy, like a bridge or tunnel. In some cases, these were also quickly repairable.

Only infantry with time and manpower could do the wide scale Sherman necktie type destruction of a line. This kind of rip-up would take a large repair effort.

The game does not differentiate between the two types of destruction.

Since it does not, I prefer the middle ground, where destruction takes a bit more time, and repair is left as is.

[caranorn]

Repair definitelly should require more time than destruction. It's generally easier to damage or destroy something than to repair or build it. I'm not certain whether rr repair currently uses war supplies, it certainly should as even the quick sabotage (tearing up som track, pulling down a water tower, burning down a tressle etc.) requires some new material (rr nails, wood etc.)...

If AACW II ever gets developed I'd favour at least two types of rr damage/destruction. Possibly also the ability to build entirely new railroads, though those should require a very slow pace and specialised construction units...

[arsan]

I like your idea Mt T!!
I will vote for 10 days for both damage and repair.

I think game play wise it could be a great way of slowing down the rampaging raiders and actually give the defender more time to coordinate and try a interception.
I know it's probably not historic that it takes so much time to damage a railroad, but its also true that small cav units like the ones used frequently in game to tear tracks region after region weren't able to do heavy damage to the rails except on bridges and the like.

Until we had different rail damage intensities (maybe on ACWII??) this slowing of the raiders could be a good compromise.

Cheers

[Mortar]

I voted for 5 days to tear up and 10 days to repair a line. I believe it would be easier and quicker to tear up the lines as there is no special care involved. Im no expert but a rail line that will not derail passing locomotives may have to be built with some detail and attention, not to mention the time taken in the rendering of the materials needed to repair the rail lines. Just my opinion...

[Gray_Lensman]

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[andatiep]

To compensate for this limitation the destruction/repair ought to be of equal time and additionally in my opinion take a full turn for either accomplishment. This allows for the opposing side to be properly notified of RR destruction taking place while the destroying unit is still in place as would have been the case historically for RR destruction on such a wide scale as being depicted in the game.

Deal ! i think it's good implementation of historical accuracy with the tools we have.
I have two questions :
- If choosed, is it possible to have it that way for the next 1.14 patch ?
- Is it possible for simple user to edit some files so that it could work for an already started PBEM game ? Where should i change 1 day by 15 days ?

[Gray_Lensman]

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