Workers driving me nuts!

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 14:00

Ok, so I built a city surrounded entirely by hills. My city is on a hill. I manualy irrigated all the surrounding tiles, so that I can have a population big enough to be worth somthing. My population is now at 11, with a hospital and an aquaduct...

This is the part that annoys me: Every turn my workers will pile up and mine on top of my irrigation! If I don't cheque _every_ turn, my workers will mine to the point that my population begins to starve. What can I do about this?

Moonsinger · April 30, 2002, 14:07

Try to use "shift+A". Moreover, never use "A".

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 14:20

Quote:

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Try to use "shift+A". Moreover, never use "A".

What does "Shift+A" do that "A" doesn't, and will that prevent me from having to stop workers from mineing over my irrigation?

dunk · April 30, 2002, 14:28

Shift-A automates them with the stipulation that they will not alter any improvement already done. So, yes it will stop them from mining over irrigation.

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 14:58

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk999
Shift-A automates them with the stipulation that they will not alter any improvement already done. So, yes it will stop them from mining over irrigation.

Thanks! A lot! This one was driving me up the wall!

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 14:59

Shift A is so much better than just A alone, I wonder who actually knowingly uses A over shift A. Its not as good as manually doing everything, but once i have the intial road system and cows mined, I sacrifice perfection for efficiency and quick turn times.

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 15:11

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
Shift A is so much better than just A alone, I wonder who actually knowingly uses A over shift A. Its not as good as manually doing everything, but once i have the intial road system and cows mined, I sacrifice perfection for efficiency and quick turn times.

Well, now that I know...
Was this somthing in the manual? How _should_ I have learned this?

Moonsinger · April 30, 2002, 15:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Cory
Well, now that I know...
Was this somthing in the manual? How _should_ I have learned this?

No, if I remember correctly, it's not in the game manual. The "Shift A" came with the patch.

Feyd · April 30, 2002, 19:14

Sometimes...AND I STRESS SOMETIMES...I use A over Shift+A. I was in the late game and I had finally reduced my worker force to 50 from 120. The only thing they were doing was basically cleaning pollution. Anyway, I woke a few of them up from their sleep and set them on basic automation in order to get a few extra food out of my core cities that I had all mined... I had thirteen cities over 100 production (with my uber-city that was lucky enough to have the Iron Works producing 180) and so the five shields or so weren't missed much in lieu of the ten I got from the mined/railroaded mountain that I could use afterwards.

I've never had the problem of the workers not giving me enough food, however, when I set them on automation. Of course, you're a much braver person than I by taking a capital starting location that maxxes out at 11!

Just clarifying the use of "A"...sorry if I wasn't very helpful otherwise.

Feyd

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 19:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Cory

Well, now that I know...
Was this somthing in the manual? How _should_ I have learned this?

I wasn't meaning to be sarcastic, my point was really that if you know about it, why use just A. I dont know where this was told, perhaps in the readme or something.

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 22:07

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

I wasn't meaning to be sarcastic, my point was really that if you know about it, why use just A. I dont know where this was told, perhaps in the readme or something.

Actauly, I didn't read it that way, though I see how my comments could have been mistaken to reflect poorly on your own, no such thing was intended...

As far as being told... I was wondering if I should have RTFM...

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 22:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Cory

Actauly, I didn't read it that way, though I see how my comments could have been mistaken to reflect poorly on your own, no such thing was intended...

haha, not a problem, no big deal.

Quote:

Originally posted by Andrew Cory

As far as being told... I was wondering if I should have RTFM...

well....perhaps. though i think it was probably in the readme's. Anyway, so much has changed even with the unit order's that I have no idea what was added when.

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 22:40

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

haha, not a problem, no big deal.

You'll have to excuse me, I come from the sluggy freelance boards, one where you couldn't start a flamewar if you _tried_. I know because one was attempted and it failed miserably...

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
well....perhaps. though i think it was probably in the readme's. Anyway, so much has changed even with the unit order's that I have no idea what was added when.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind if they made a compleatly new manual available to us in exchange for our old ones, say in about a year or so, just to keep everything correct...

Jethro83 · April 30, 2002, 22:48

When you use "Shift-A", workers go off and railroad squares that will never even get used. But I'll definitely use it to quickly get through pollution problems. The useless railroads is just a tolerable side-effect.

Andrew Cory · April 30, 2002, 22:54

Quote:

Originally posted by LordAzreal
When you use "Shift-A", workers go off and railroad squares that will never even get used. But I'll definitely use it to quickly get through pollution problems. The useless railroads is just a tolerable side-effect.

Hell, I _count_ on those extra railroads. If someone invades, it gives me a lot of avenues of attack. Also, if said invader starts tearing up my infrustructure, it isn't as bad as it might be otherwise...

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 22:56

Quote:

Originally posted by LordAzreal
When you use "Shift-A", workers go off and railroad squares that will never even get used. But I'll definitely use it to quickly get through pollution problems. The useless railroads is just a tolerable side-effect.

I think the railroads give +1food. though I could be wrong

dawidge · April 30, 2002, 23:01

Here's another quirk with automated workers and partially railroaded territory that I've noticed.

When the worker decides that he wants to go from one side of the empire to the other, he'll go to some halfway point, then move on to his destination. I wouldn't consider this to be a problem, except when they choose a waypoint that isn't RR'd (even though the rest of their path is. The good side is that I haven't seem them pick a waypoint that wasn't roaded, but it really slows down the "automated moves" portion of the turn.

Zip, slide slowly onto road, slide slowly off of road, zip to destination. Of course, if their destination is only roaded, not only is there another "slide slowly onto road", but they cannot contribute to improving it this turn. They must wait until next turn since they've used up their full movement point.

Tuberski · April 30, 2002, 23:03

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

I think the railroads give +1food. though I could be wrong

Also give +1 shield in hills and mountains.

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 23:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuberski

Also give +1 shield in hills and mountains.

ah yes, I forgot about that. good.

Grrr · May 1, 2002, 00:32

Is there a way to switch the shortcuts for Shift-A and A. I always use the don't change automate.

Jethro83 · May 1, 2002, 04:02

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
I think the railroads give +1food. though I could be wrong

Only on an irrigated square. Just like it gives +1 shield on mined squares.

Anyway, that's not what I meant. I meant that workers build railroads on squares outside of any city radius that will probably never be used when you "Shift-A" them to work.

Solver · May 1, 2002, 07:45

If I use automation at all (and I will, when I get lots of Workers), I use the Shift one. A complaint is that it's not easy to know which is which.

BTW, Hill cities are mostly suited for production, so I'd prefer a size 6 or 7 city but with a couple of Mines nearby.

danimal · May 1, 2002, 12:34

I press the "shift a" and before you know it the workers are in a circle jerk doing nothing. Pollution hits...and the don't move...why? Are the workers too busy with a "Playboy" to clean up the obvious pollution. I spend too much time ordering workers around.

ALPHA WOLF 64 · May 1, 2002, 13:09

what i hate about automating workers is the frequency that they will improve tiles that no city can use while useable tiles sit unimproved. Altho i hate the micromanagement of workers, i control them until the last era. they also tend to work too close to enemy troops and get captured alot.

Cyclotron · May 1, 2002, 13:57

Quote:

Originally posted by danimal
I press the "shift a" and before you know it the workers are in a circle jerk doing nothing. Pollution hits...and the don't move...why? Are the workers too busy with a "Playboy" to clean up the obvious pollution. I spend too much time ordering workers around.

Well, he's back...

Try keeping a few workers around on shift-p, while the rest are on shift-A. When you are done with pollution cleaning, just skip their turn.

Fitz · May 2, 2002, 12:19

Quote:

Originally posted by ALPHA WOLF 64
what i hate about automating workers is the frequency that they will improve tiles that no city can use while useable tiles sit unimproved. Altho i hate the micromanagement of workers, i control them until the last era. they also tend to work too close to enemy troops and get captured alot.

Since workers on shift-a stay inside your territory (unless you have a RoP with an ally that allows them to jump between disconnected territories), I can't see any reason why they should be getting captured. You have surrounded your entire border with troops so no other civ can move in, right?

Akka · May 2, 2002, 12:56

Quote:

I think the railroads give +1food. though I could be wrong

Only on an irrigated square. Just like it gives +1 shield on mined squares.

If I remember well, what railroad do is that it double the effect of actual improvements, would it be irrigation or mine.