Late game Micromanagement/Settlers/Governor

Artifex · July 15, 2002, 18:51

I have read thru a number of other posts lamenting the tedium and boring aspect of late game management of large empires. Anyone here have a good system to spice this up and make it less tedius?

It seems settlers don't do that good a job while automated? Someone said the last patch reduced the govs and settlers effectivness, I didn't play too much pre patch. Anyone use auto settlers late game? How many cities do you usually keep max? Isn't population and land area controled a direct factor in your score? A deterent to keeping a small empire.

Do governors and settlers do a decent job automated late game or is that a no no to use them? The late game is gettign so tedius I might switch over everything to automation and go off and have fun fighting wars....that might make it all more fun.

Bambul · July 16, 2002, 07:02

I think you mean workers, not settlers. Towards the end of the game, as my empire gets really big I usually automate my workers, but I leave some to be controlled by me so I can make some changes/micro-manage my terrain improvements. As for governors, I always use them for citizen moods, but never for production. If there are a lot of cities then I'll set up a build que.

For a new city this is typically Temple-Granary-Library, then Uni-Cathedral-Colloseum if I want culture or Marketplace-Courthouse-Police Station if I want happyness.

Alex · July 16, 2002, 10:57

It seems that automated workers are now acting in more sensible ways than before, thanks to the latest patch. I'm not sure, though, because I'm yet to finish a game after this latest patch.

Iskandar Reza · July 16, 2002, 11:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Bambul
Towards the end of the game, as my empire gets really big I usually automate my workers, but I leave some to be controlled by me so I can make some changes/micro-manage my terrain improvements.

This would be great if the automated workers don't bulldoze your micromanaged terrain improvement and make omething else it thinks is better.... even if you tell them not to change existing improvements they still mess up some things....

dunk · July 16, 2002, 11:24

Quote:

Originally posted by Iskandar Reza

This would be great if the automated workers don't bulldoze your micromanaged terrain improvement and make omething else it thinks is better.... even if you tell them not to change existing improvements they still mess up some things....

I beleive the command is Crtl-Shift-A. "Automate, but don't tounch anything already done."

Iskandar Reza · July 16, 2002, 11:32

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk

I beleive the command is Crtl-Shift-A. "Automate, but don't tounch anything already done."

When I do that, all they seem to do is stay in the base.

cracker · July 16, 2002, 11:35

You cannot expect to do well in any game above regent difficulty if you automate workers.

Even the small defined functions like "clear jungle only" will not function without wasting up to 50% of your worker's available time.

This is one area I wish FIRAXIS allowed us to submit macros to control worker task assignment.

Clear jungle is my pet example because you can replicate this example for yourself and see how poor the task management process really is.

The base jungle clearing task includes clearing the jungle and building roads in some order. Sometimes you spread out the workers to build roads in the jungle so more workers can arrive on the spot and start clearing jungle right away. In other cases, you clear jungle and then build roads to move on efficiently. When you have a mass of jungle to clear, I can almost never see an example where you clear a square of jungle and then move on to another square of jungle that is 3 or 4 moves away without first building roads in teh cleared squares.

The advanced jungle clearing task clears the jungle, builds a road, plants a forest, clears the forest for 10 shields, irrigates or mines the square, and then throws down a railroad if needed.

If you stack 20 workers next to a city in the middle of mondo big aarse jungle and set them to automate clear jungle, the AI will spray them all over the place, when the quickest path to success is to start hacking away in worker multiples that fit an integer number of turns for clearing the forest. The AI might grab one or two of the workers and send them off like Marco Polos to clear a jungle tile at the far end of the continent if you use the auto function.

Look also at the standard X shaped pattern of mines and irrigation even in depsotism and you can make your own assessment as to if the automated workers do their best job for you.

Do use the governors to manage citizen moods if you have not had lots of experience at that task. But even this function will come with a penalty in terms of lower overall score in the game and much higher waste in terms of lost shields and wasted food production.

GI Josh · July 16, 2002, 12:38

From turn one I use the governors to manage happiness - they do a decent job and I find the tedium of micromanaging cities/units to be the biggest drawback to the game. The only time I micro-manage a city is if I'm building a GW.

I move my workers manually until after RR. Past that time, I have a lot of workers and the incremental efficiency in managing them myself is not worth the hassle. I keep a platoon of about 10 workers un-automated in case something comes up.

Overall, my philosophy is that the governors and worker automation simply narrows the gap between me and the AI, making the game more challenging, and it takes out 1/2 of the tedium, making the game much more fun.

My only gripe/suggestion is that worker automation should be tied into the workers actions. If you tell the governor to maximize only food, the workers should irrigate more; if you tell the governor to maximize production, then the workers should emphasize more mining. Right now the workers irrigate/mine in the same proportions regardless of your guidance to the governor.

phunny_pharmer · July 16, 2002, 12:54

Quote:

You cannot expect to do well in any game above regent difficulty if you automate workers.

Nor can the AI

Alex · July 16, 2002, 13:07

that is why we need multiplayer.

dunk · July 16, 2002, 13:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Iskandar Reza

When I do that, all they seem to do is stay in the base.

Do you have improvements on all the tiles surrounding the city?

I never use this, I always order my workers about manually.

Iskandar Reza · July 16, 2002, 14:55

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk

Do you have improvements on all the tiles surrounding the city?

I never use this, I always order my workers about manually.

i'd say 70% of the tiles around the city. confused with smac.

Artifex · July 16, 2002, 21:33

"I think you mean workers, not settlers"

Oops. I am dating myself. I think I am still used to civ 1 where settlers improved tiles.

Yes. Workers.

Odin · July 17, 2002, 17:38

I think the automated workers are good when there's plenty of fresh water; if not, they're to dumb to go to the next river and start irrigatting from there, they mine too much.

I SAID FARM, NOT MINE, DIMWIT!!! YOU'RE FIRED!

HazieDaVampire · July 17, 2002, 18:13

one tip:
Phase one, turn off the auto turn jumping thing
Phase two, Fortifie every unit your not using in a city or where ever! This way all the units that need attention are automaticly selected! If theirs a unit it selects that you don't want to move just yet, and you want to move a few other before it, just press W, if you don't want to move it this turn at all, press W, then when its the only unit left, press spacebar (This is because you might decide you don't want to use it!