Seriously, roads???

Do what? It's working as intended.

Not to mention you have to get all the way out to economics for road to outposts. That's not really very quick, unless you concentrate on solely that, to in what is my estimation, your detriment.

Not to say I wouldn't prefer manual road building, but eh, *shrug*. Not game breaking for me at all.

Yea, it's fun to do, not that game breaking. 

For 50 Mana it's not totally OP. It's also a late game tech and anyone else can do it with a pioneer. 

I agree, it's not OP...that's cost 2 point for create your faction, it's just a book and arcane monolith, 2 point!!! Whata bout wanderlust that had a questmap with good stuff for one point? what about archer that not cost metal and faster and deadly bow for cost of one point? IF anything I think those book with arcane monolith cost one point, but it's might be make some other not very useful like gave you free tech, anything gave you free tech is useless...

I think 2 points for the books and arcane monolith are fair.

Still, the OPs point about insta-roads being weird is perfectly valid.  Insta-roads across wild-lands and through other civs ZoC is even weirder.

Well, it's not like Pioneers take a long time to make, depending on the time it takes you to make 50 mana points you might be looking at a 3 turn investment there anyway. So all you are missing is the travel time.

I agree 100%, while somewhat justifiable if insta-roads only worked in your ZOC, having it operate outside of your ZOC is weird. It makes the world of elemental feel small. And is quite annoying when your towns get connected to these crazy trans-continent road networks connecting you to other factions, which you have no control over. 

Insta roads in the wild lands is just nonsensical. 

Can do what with a Pioneer?

Plop an outpost.

well, as i grumbled about hen th spell was first made, all you had to do was point your finger at a point on the map and say i want to go there - cast the spell, and run like the devil down your road.

Now hey changed it so that in an enemy domain you can't use roads. So that balances it out quite nicely.

Still you build highway through lands full of monsters, which is quite convenient for farming them rapidly. As someone says, it reduces the feeling of vastness... 

Not a huge issue for me. I remember using it to explore, tossing it up just within my line of sight and then moving my army vast distances. Not gamebreaking, but still an advantage. I'd prefers devs focused on other things however

pariden has few great advantages - they need time and massive amounts of crystal to get going. Let them have this one.

As it has been said, it is not so related to the monolith, as it is to the insta-road system.

The decalon takes 2 points, the monolith 50 mana, the tech is far in the tree. And all can do the same with a pioner, with a bit more of effort. Anyway, you still need an army to use the roads.

Insta-roads, btw, can (and probably will) generate more discussion. I think that currently, insta-roads and city snaking are the trending topics

You got Arcane Monolith, and you're complaining about ROADS??? Try this next time: Drop a monolith next to enemy city, cloud walk in from half way across the world, take over city. Why are instaroads op again?

They let you return to your ZoC/more important areas so quickly. THINK OF THE EFFICIENCY! Waste turns for no Hills! No Swamps! No R- oh hey its like Master Scouts for retreating/long term set ups.

If you're casting monoliths just to return to your ZoC, you should just have casted Cloud Walk.

But that requires more mana and Air Expert (Where AM is available per faction choice.). And it doesn't leave you with a permanent source of vision or an quick way to return to that land. Though both do have their own bonuses, cloud walk can take you from one side of your territory to the other instantly, preserving movement. The Insta roads from AM could allow you to return to the outpost, or send units who don't have access to cloud walk to this zone (Expanding pioneers or defending units if you're trying for area denial).

I'm sorry, but nothing in what you're saying is telling me "instaroads are a problem". All you seem to be saying is how Arcane monolith works, and believe me, I know... are you complaining that Arcane Monoliths are too OP? Because I think that argument has been done to death (see my post earlier about sneak attacks).

Yes they are a problem, unless you tell me to see appears magically a road traversing uncharted areas full of monsters just because you signed a deal with an AI is not a problem. It just blew the interest in the game for me. I like to explore and stress for my bold adventurers. If they can use a x4 road to explore, I say meeeh... the 'no one ever went here, what lies beyond' spirit is totally destroyed.

Another example, last turn in an Altar game 2 AIs apparently secured a deal that created a road that traversed all my little kingdom at once, linking 3 of my cities in a row, and I had yet to discover the tech that create roads between cities (I was focusing on magic). Totally a let down, sorry. 

If that's seriously ruining a game for you, you can fairly easily comment out Economic Treaty in the xml, or move it down the techtree. Personally, it makes sense that when you build an outpost or a trading deal, to build roads in between. I don't see a problem with how it is done now *shrugs*.

I think many players (including myself) would be gratefull if someone modded:

- Roadbuilding for all pioneers.

- A double option for enable/disable insta-roads, so the player may pick what he wishes.

With these two mods, I think the insta-road issues would be solved for everybody, even for the Devs.

Can anyone do it please?