NON settlers from disorder

Gastrifitis · February 25, 2001, 15:17

The other day I was mopping up an AI civ and disbanding some of their more poorly placed cities. Since they had done almost no terrain improvement, I was trying to prepare the nearest captured city, very nearby, for the extra settler support when I had a surprise. The new settler came up as NON! (Actually, it was an Engineer, late in the game, same dif.) I was trying to figure out what happened when I realized that I had just captured a slightly closer city and it was in disorder from the capture. Also, I think there was practically a tie in how close this city was to how close the nearest enemy city was.

Can you create NON settlers on purpose by timing the throwing of a city into civil disorder? Or by carefully planning out the distances of which cities you capture, and their distance from uncaptured AI cities? I don't have enough information from this example to know for sure. Does anyone else know?

Paul · February 25, 2001, 17:33

If you disband a city by building a settler that settler will be supported by the closest city. But if the closest city is an enemy city the settler will be NON. It works the same way with bribed units and units from goody huts.

Gastrifitis · February 26, 2001, 00:38

I've had units from goody huts which were far from my cities, but my cities were still the closest, but they came out NON. (Yes, I'm sure my cities were the closest, I have peeked occasionally.) That's what's throwing me off. But it's good to know that rule. I do wonder if disorder might have made the difference as to which city was closest, though, since they were equally close.

colossus · February 26, 2001, 04:30

quote:

Originally posted by Gastrifitis on 02-25-2001 11:38 PM
I've had units from goody huts which were far from my cities, but my cities were still the closest, but they came out NON. (Yes, I'm sure my cities were the closest, I have peeked occasionally.) That's what's throwing me off. But it's good to know that rule. I do wonder if disorder might have made the difference as to which city was closest, though, since they were equally close.

Any settler unit from hut is a NON unit

Ming · February 26, 2001, 09:27

colossus is indeed correct, any settler (wandering tribe) from a hut will be a non unit.

As far as bribing or getting a unit from a hut (or disbanding a city to create a settler), the nearest city rule does apply. If an enemy city is closer to the unit (based on how civ counts closest) it will be a non unit.

Now Gastrifitis... you may have run into a situation where your city looked closer (when you peaked), but it might not have been closer. If your city was on one side of the 0 axis, and the unit being bribed or gotten from a hut was on the other side of the 0 axis, the game doesn't look across the axis, and another enemy city was probably closer.
Or, it might have been one of those civ bugs

Gastrifitis · February 26, 2001, 15:19

What??? Civ has bugs???

Well, this has been very educational. I wish I could always think of the right search words, because I bet most of this is in the archives somewhere. But I'll figure it out eventually. Maybe after Civ III has been out a few years.

LeeT · February 27, 2001, 16:32

A good trick I picked up from reading through the "archives" here: If you've a Republic/Democracy and are short on Food or Shields, build a settler, sail to an island beside the AI. Drop the Settler, build a city and the rush buy a settler. If you wait just one turn (which is the reason for the island; I find AI ships are rarely in port waiting to defend) you should be able to rush buy the Settler for under 100 gold. A small price to pay for a NON Settler, or much better an Engineer, if you're trying to play with very few cities, and need a good supply of workers.

EdwardTKing · February 27, 2001, 17:41

I have found that if I try to re-home a unit in multi-play and my time runs out or I am interrupted etc; I often end up with a none.

Ming · February 27, 2001, 18:09

quote:

Originally posted by EdwardTKing on 02-27-2001 04:41 PM
I have found that if I try to re-home a unit in multi-play and my time runs out or I am interrupted etc; I often end up with a none.

Hmmm... hadn't heard that one before. It has been documented that if you attempt to re-home a unit as it is "JUST" switching to your turn, that works almost everytime. Fortunately, most people consider that cheating and don't do it in MP now.