What do you turn extra citizens into?

Jonny · March 16, 2002, 14:26

When your cities grow over size 20, and you have all those extra people there, what do you do with the majority of them?

Do you turn them into entertainers and try to get tons of happy citizens?

Do you turn them into scientists for a late-game science boost?

Do you turn them into tax collectors for a tax boost?

Or, do you try to create a balance of two (or all) of those?

What I do is turn them into tax collectors. Why?
1. You get extra gold for SS parts and other needs.
2. You can give more commerce to Science. (more important than first one)

So, what do you do?

TinCow · March 16, 2002, 14:40

I go for entertainers to keep all my cities in WLTKD to reduce corruption. If I have extras, I then turn them into tax collectors for the reasons stated above.

notyoueither · March 16, 2002, 14:43

I have them hunt bananas. For 1 gpt the tax collectors may as well be.

Salve

asleepathewheel · March 16, 2002, 14:51

cannon fodder via draft or whip

Kuciwalker · March 16, 2002, 14:55

I mine as many tiles as possible so that no extra citizens appear. If they do appear, I draft them or turn them into workers, move them onto a part of my territory used specifically for this purpose, and nuke them. I actually do this. It's fun to watch great big mushroom clouds.

player1 · March 16, 2002, 15:14

I turn them to MINERS.

How?

Turn several Irrigations to Mines so cities never have extra food to gain more then one or two specialists.

That way you gain extra raw 2 shileds (counting as 4 if having Fatory and Powr Plants), instead of one stupid gold or science point.

But, if I have to chosse taxmen is a real person.

Using only one scientist in early game so I could set tax to 100%.

Only drawback is lower popluation, which means lower overal score.
But, I always play to win, not to have "higher score".

watorrey · March 16, 2002, 19:28

I finally have to ask....

What is it with Apolyton and bananas?

This must be a running joke, but damn... i love bananas.

notyoueither · March 16, 2002, 19:34

Didn't you know? Hunting bananas is what tax collectors are actually doing. Cash crops aren't what they used to be, hence only 1 gpt.

In reality, it is related to an old poll. I didn't see the original, but I often find the banana option to be the best one to vote for. Tune into the Community forum. Look for the Faces of Apolyton interviews. In one coming soon, all will be revealed. Or so I've heard.

Salve

asleepathewheel · March 16, 2002, 19:49

soylent green

Immortal Wombat · March 16, 2002, 20:19

frogs

Thrawn05 · March 16, 2002, 21:05

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
soylent green

First, I like to pop rush mine:

Then beat them with a stick:

Then make them taxmen!

Aeson · March 17, 2002, 02:52

If the governors (even when they aren't on) didn't reset my specialists so often, I might actually try to set them manually. I prefer entertainers for happy faces.

Worthingtons · March 17, 2002, 09:10

My Extra Citizens just sit 'round eating bananas... I have to employ some guys juggling Bananas to keep em happy too....

Hurricane · March 17, 2002, 09:46

I usually let the governor take care of that (didn´t see that option in the poll, though, so I didn´t vote). The few times I set them manually, I turn them into scientists.

Zachriel · March 17, 2002, 10:28

Quote:

Originally posted by player1
I turn them to MINERS.

That's what I do also. I engineer cities so that the population is stable at 20, with just enough food. Everything else is made to have as high a shield production as possible.

I don't play for "points," either.

SpencerH · March 17, 2002, 12:27

Chickens. But only when the voodoo is workin!

Jonny · March 17, 2002, 13:17

So far, bananas is leading the poll with almost half of the vote. Seems that not many care about the issue.

asleepathewheel · March 17, 2002, 14:03

It's not that people don't care about the issue, but the specialists producing +1 in whatever is not much to get excited about. I think there maybe mods out there that change that, hopefully firaxis will add another level when the xp comes out that woudl make that level of micromanagement more attractive, I just don't feel compelled to check every city to squeeze out that extra 1 lightbulb or whatever, you know?

Worthingtons · March 17, 2002, 14:34

people are just nuts about Bananas , thats all.

Ethelred · March 17, 2002, 18:36

I try to have no specialists by balancing out the mines and irrigation.

However I have a found a real use for Scientists under special conditions. If you are in anarchy your Scientists STILL produce flasks. I have discovered new tech this way several times even while still in anarchy. In fact I now turn one pop into a scientist every time I go into anarchy.

Provost Harrison · March 17, 2002, 19:04

Scientists for me!

Jethro83 · March 17, 2002, 23:57

I won't use scientists, as their 1 beaker of science output is very dismal. Once I reach the modern age, there's no need once computers is researched, as research labs and the SETI program seem to give your civ a huge science boost anyway.

Generally, I'll have enough entertainers to keep the city in 'We Love the King' mode indefinitely with the rest being tax collectors.

Capt Dizle · March 18, 2002, 01:53

All of the extra citizens in my civilization are working on patch version 1.18..we are looking to close some loopholes and exploits that the player uses versus the AI...tentative readme:

*razing cities now transfers all unhappiness to conquerors HQ, this lasts for 40 turns
*leaders now can only be used to create armies
*optimized code to speed up turn times on huge maps for 16 civs for games started on Thursdays

ZigZac · March 18, 2002, 03:25

I don't really worry about what to do with my extra citizens, but they usually end up turning into tax collectors.

notyoueither · March 18, 2002, 05:48

Is it possible that the relatively small contributions of specialists reflects an overall desire by the designers for balance. You know, there should be no one single *killer* way to play. Instead, each aspect of the game adds to the sum of the whole. There are many factors contributing to the wealth of nations. Ditto research.

Along those lines, examine corruption. What does it do? It prevents a power from producing 100 Tanks per turn by ensuring that no one will ever have that many productive cities. In a word, balance.

1 gpt, or 1 bpt both limit the usefulness of specialists. You can still get a large bang for the specialist buck when you look across an entire empire, but specialists by themselves are not going to be a deciding factor in the game, unlike some of Civ3's predecessors.

Makes sense to me. Especially since hunting bananas is never an entirely profitable venture. They're tricky, those bananas. Many a tax collector has been lost in their pursuit.

Salve