Annoying Feature

[Dactyl]

There is one feature of Civ 4 that I find extremely annoying. Let's assume that, early in the game, I have a city with population three. Upon checking, I see that it can support a population of four. After that, I would get an unhappy citizen which I definitely don't want. What I would like to be able to do is to tell the city to grow until pop 4 and then stop. Since the pop is currently 3, I can't click that little button on the lower right of the city screen to stop growth because it will stop growth at 3. Maybe I'm missing something here, but it should be possible to tell a city to grow as large as possible without generating unhappy workers. As it stands now, I keep finding that irritating red face popping up below cities because I forgot to check them recently enough. To avoid this seems to require the most tedious sort of micromanagement which Civ 4 has thankfully eliminated in so many other respects.

[Grenouille]

Well, if such a feature would be implemented, it shouldn`t be possible before the invention of the anti-baby-pill, eh?

And only be able in a police state or despotic regime, not with emanzipation..

[Son of David]

Have you tried the governor command 'Avoid growth' in the city screen?

[Blake]

THe unhappy faces are unsightly but not actually particulary harmful, unless the city only has a 1 food surplus (so starves back down).

While training a worker/settler unhappy population eats no food, so really, it does no harm.

[Dauphin]

I agreee with Blake, the unhappy and unhealthy problems are not that bad if you take the view they just reduce your excess food production by 1 or 2.

Where it would become more important is if you take the opposite view and say that the unhappiness is causing one less tile being worked. However, if you are deliberately stifling growth rather than addressing the unhappiness problem with temples etc... then its pretty much a moot point as either way you are preventing the use of an extra tile.

[Bkeela]

Just pop-rush a temple. It isn't that much of a micromanagement nightmare because in the early game you only have three or four cities to watch over. Later in the game all the bonuses are online and it isn't an issue.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Son of David
Have you tried the governor command 'Avoid growth' in the city screen?

Yes, this feature was specifically designed for this purpose, it should do the trick.

[Bkeela]

If the avoid growth feature is used, the city won't reach its optimal population...

Did you guys even read the original post or are you just worried about your post count?

[Locutus]

Did YOU read the opening post? Dactyl asked for a way to stop growth before people go unhappy, the 'Avoid Growth' option of the governor does just that. That this might not be the best way to play the game is a different issue, one that is debatable for that matter (but I lack the time to debate it here and now).

[Tattila the Hun]

Ooo, I thought it simply places the workers, so that no, or very little, excess food is produced... Live and learn.

[vovan]

Originally posted by Locutus
Dactyl asked for a way to stop growth before people go unhappy, the 'Avoid Growth' option of the governor does just that.

Uhh, no. You are misunderstanding Dactyl's post. He said suppose the city is at size 3, can grow to 4, at 5 goes unhappy. He wants to tell the city when it's at size 3 to grow one more, but not further, instead of checking back in when it's at 4, which is tedious.

Vovan

[Dactyl]

Just to clear things up, I would like a way to stop growth WHEN it reaches the optimal population.

[allybhoy]

Originally posted by Bkeela
If the avoid growth feature is used, the city won't reach its optimal population...

Did you guys even read the original post or are you just worried about your post count?

Let the city get to size four and then stop growth?

[Dactyl]

Of course, letting a city grow to the optimal size and then clicking on the "avoid growth" button will work. However, sometimes you're preoccupied by a tough war or something like that and you forget to check your cities before one or more of them generates unhappy citizens.