Not super happy with the changes to roads
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When roads would decay with usage it was an interesting design problem because you could write code or design your rooms to avoid roads if they were not needed. Now it just doesn't really matter.
Perhaps the goal was to do something about the random road fragments in once-controlled rooms? I think a better solution would be to destroy existing roads when a room controller resets to level 0.
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^^ Seconded. Also see community post on responses to Changelog. http://support.screeps.com/hc/communities/public/questions/201302162-Thoughts-on-Changelog2015-07-27
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These adjustments were necessary because the disbalance in road usage had become too evident. Because of the lack of decay over time and the fact that roads are free when not used, players could fill a 50x50 room with them and then maintain them virtually for free, as a single trail, provided creeps go by the same route all the time. Not only did this contradict the common sense (any facilities decay because of mere time, not just usage), but also increased load on the server and players CPU, since 2500 road objects per room is too many.
The current system is fair enough: decay happens because of both time and usage. Besides, roads under use decay faster than unused ones, so there is still sense to think about their rational usage.
Certainly, we will watch all the parameters and keep balancing them if needed. This is what the Early Preview is for.
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Would it make sense to make it so unused CARRY parts don't count towards decay? Right now a MMMCCC with no energy will cause a road to decay by 6 when you use the road.