Option for workers to leave forests alone

[Killazer]

this needs to be put in. I dont want automated workers touching forests I want to put lumbermills on later. This is a real pain and a bug if you ask me since you cannot replace forests. Needs to be fixed.

[Enigma_Nova]

Agreed.
In the meantime, you can micromanage workers.

[Blake]

Automated workers are a lost cause for advanced play. The problem is they don't see the big picture, they don't understand which cities are for cranking out wonders and thus need hammers not cottages, they don't understand when it's nessecary to make a irrigation-line to bring food to a starved city, instead they'll build cottages despite the lack of food to work them.

And they usually either build way too many, or not nearly enough cottages.

[Freddz]

100% support to original post.

[Zoid]

In the Civilization4.ini file there´s this:

; Enable Tree Region Cutting
CutTrees = 1

I wonder if tree cutting will stop if this is set to 0?

[Diadem]

Yeah, but I guess that might just disable it everywhere. Instead of just stopping automated workers from doing it.

I agree automated workers could use a bit more intelligence. But that's probably pretty hard to program into the game.

So here's my proposal: Give me an option to select which improvements I want on a tile. A bare map where I can just select "farms here, here, here, here, cottages there and there, mines on those hills, etc, etc". And then when I let my workers loose they should improve what I want improved, build roads everywhere and connect any resource they find.

That would be a very easy and effective system.

[Cabbagemeister]

Originally posted by Diadem
Yeah, but I guess that might just disable it everywhere. Instead of just stopping automated workers from doing it.

I agree automated workers could use a bit more intelligence. But that's probably pretty hard to program into the game.

So here's my proposal: Give me an option to select which improvements I want on a tile. A bare map where I can just select "farms here, here, here, here, cottages there and there, mines on those hills, etc, etc". And then when I let my workers loose they should improve what I want improved, build roads everywhere and connect any resource they find.

That would be a very easy and effective system.

Good idea, but then you have to make your worker AI figure out priorities. "Why is my worker building those mines I told him to? The city doesn't have enough food to grow big enough to use them. He should be building the farms I told him to!"

Or, alternately, "Why is my worker building those farms I told him to, instead of mines? I have avoid growth on in the city because of my happiness limits. I don't want more food!"

Or even, "Why is my worker improving this city? I really need him to go build mines in the adjacent city, which is building a wonder!"

I don't believe we'll ever see worker automation smart enough to deal with all of these issues.

[rjwoer]

Yeah, but I guess that might just disable it everywhere. Instead of just stopping automated workers from doing it.

Yes.

And I agree with both sentiments: That automation for workers is not a good idea in general, and that an option for not cutting down forests automatically is needed. Let's look into this latter consideration and see what we can come up with (I'm thinking we could code something in the XML for this).

[AoA]

I'd be happy with a automated worker setting to automatically put lumbermills in all forests. Maybe even railroad all mines and lumbermills.
Don't worry about the AI figuring out the priority of which cities to work first. I'll place the worker where I want him to start to just let him run loose near the starting point. If he wanders to a City B next and I want him at C first, I'll move him and re-automate him. It shouldn't be too hard to have him look for nearby tiles to improve...should it?

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Diadem
Yeah, but I guess that might just disable it everywhere. Instead of just stopping automated workers from doing it.

True, it´s a bit heavy-handed as a solution come to think of it.

[star mouse]

Perhaps an idea is for some advanced configuration options, where the player can select the tasks that automated workers can perform. Those tasks that are not selected for automation must be done manually.

The expansions for CIV3 had improved worker automation. However, I would prefer not to wait for an expansion for such improvements to workers.

[Enigma_Nova]

But since it's going to be a popular option, it'll be a selling point for the expansion.

[Zoid]

It´s not a bug it´s a feature to be

[CreepyD]

Defo agree with 1st post, need to stop em chopping down trees.

Also, why cant we plant a forest?
I mean, it can be done in real life, although it may take a while for the trees to grow.
Maybe 20 turns per tile would be ok.

[Cardozo]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
But since it's going to be a popular option, it'll be a selling point for the expansion.

This would be really aggravating if I have to pay more money just to get the damn AI to stop messing up my Empire. The game should work "as is" before they sell expansions.

SMAC had a great AI control feature set; why couldn't they just have taken that?