UGH This has bothered me

[Wiglaf]

One thing that has always bothered me about Civ 4 is that I don't understand how to assign citizens to work tiles. I always have the "automate citizens" button checked and I never think twice about it. I can deal with workers and technology and all that, but I've never understood how to properly use citizens.

The only thing that holds me back from really loving civ4 is that I don't know if being good means that you must micromanage your citizens every turn...that is tedious, not strategic.

I was wondering a) if i'm missing much by automating workers and b) if so, how should I be using citizens?

thanks

[yin26]

I'm with you: I don't like micromanagement of that sort. I don't even micro my workers if I can help it at all. For me, though, it's worth the effort to assign specialists so that you can tap into the key bonuses they confer throughout the game. To do this while having the city grow does take some micro, though. But that's about as far as I take it.

Other times I will use the emphasis buttons, gold for example when I'm running lean in the early going. Or production when I'm heading to war. That seems to work fairly well...you can ctrl+click on the city name banner to select all cities at once then assign them. Yes, I'm that lazy.

[yin26]

Oh, I forgot to mention: I win most games, at least on Prince, without going micro crazy. Sure, I could do better if I invested more time, but for me there has to be a balance between gaming time and work-pretending-to-be-gaming time.

[Xorbon]

I agree with Yin. I mostly just use the emphasis buttons. They work just fine for me (with some few exceptions). But then again, I'm not a micromanager. Micromanaging makes a good game tedious. In general, the only thing I do manage are what kind and quantity of specialist to use.

[ColdPhoenix]

I micromanage (both citizens and workers) quite a bit at the very start. It's not too much work and is quite fun when you have only a few cities and counts for a lot more then.

By mid-game I'll go into a city if I have a specific reason or there appears to be a problem and occassionally when I finish building something. All my workers except one will now be automated.

By the end game all my workers are automated and I rarely go into the city screens. I agree with the above posters that too much micromanagement takes away from the game.

[Willem]

Re: UGH This has bothered me

Originally posted by Wiglaf
One thing that has always bothered me about Civ 4 is that I don't understand how to assign citizens to work tiles. I always have the "automate citizens" button checked and I never think twice about it. I can deal with workers and technology and all that, but I've never understood how to properly use citizens.

The only thing that holds me back from really loving civ4 is that I don't know if being good means that you must micromanage your citizens every turn...that is tedious, not strategic.

I was wondering a) if i'm missing much by automating workers and b) if so, how should I be using citizens?

thanks

Assigning is really easy. First, just click on someone who's working on a tile at the moment. This will take him/her off the land and turn them into a citizen specialist temporarily. Then click on the other tile where you want them to be working instead. Sometimes it helps to do things yourself. The governor isn't always the most efficient, especially in the early game when you're trying to get the most out of a small population.

I'm generally a micromanager myself and I can usually squeeze a bit more out of my cities by managing things on my own. But by no means does that involve going in every turn to manage things. I usually just move people around when I'm in the city screen selecting a construction project. I don't have to make it a point to check up on my people on a regular basis. If I'm already in there I'll have a look at what's going on and if I see something I don't agree with I'll shift people around. It doesn't have to be a chore being a micromanager, it just involves keeping an eye on things when you happen to be "in the neighbourhood".

As for automating your regular Workers, by all means do it yourself. You're going to do a much better job of it than the AI ever will. I only use the Build Trade Network automation with a few Workers, all the rest I manage myself. At least until the late game. When most of the work has been done, then it doesn't really matter all that much.

[UnOrthOdOx]

I'll manage the citizens in a PBEM, since I'm only playing the one turn, may as well take my time and look it over. But, for playing anything else, it's just too much a hassle. I might manually switch something up to speed research or production here or there occasionally, but nothing near every turn, and the emphasize buttons work pretty competantly.

I have found the emphasize X tends to get a little mixed up and not always optimal when you're building a settler or worker, due to the whole food=production thing, but otherwise seems to work well.

I can win at Monarch and minimal/no manual input on the citizens.

[Wiglaf]

Re: Re: UGH This has bothered me

Originally posted by Willem


Assigning is really easy. First, just click on someone who's working on a tile at the moment. This will take him/her off the land and turn them into a citizen specialist temporarily. Then click on the other tile where you want them to be working instead. Sometimes it helps to do things yourself. The governor isn't always the most efficient, especially in the early game when you're trying to get the most out of a small population.

I'm generally a micromanager myself and I can usually squeeze a bit more out of my cities by managing things on my own. But by no means does that involve going in every turn to manage things. I usually just move people around when I'm in the city screen selecting a construction project. I don't have to make it a point to check up on my people on a regular basis. If I'm already in there I'll have a look at what's going on and if I see something I don't agree with I'll shift people around. It doesn't have to be a chore being a micromanager, it just involves keeping an eye on things when you happen to be "in the neighbourhood".

As for automating your regular Workers, by all means do it yourself. You're going to do a much better job of it than the AI ever will. I only use the Build Trade Network automation with a few Workers, all the rest I manage myself. At least until the late game. When most of the work has been done, then it doesn't really matter all that much.

I appreciate the help. I'm just confused about what exactly assigning specialists actually does..but your info is encouraging

[Kuciwalker]

Hover over the specialist, that'll tell you what it gives you.

[Wiglaf]

ah ,thanks

[Xorbon]

Oh, is that what you wanted to know? Don't forget about the great person points that the specialists give.

[Xorbon]

I forgot to mention, the bonuses provided by the specialists are affected by your buildings. So a library will increase the science produced by your scientists for example.

[Qwertqwert]

How can you play well without micromanaging? Micromanaging is what seperates you from the AI.

[ColdPhoenix]

There are other things that separate you from the AI. City placement and build orders, what you do with your units, what you research, what civs you befriend or attack and when.

You can do pretty well without too much micro (a bit at the start helps a lot). If you want to win on the highest levels then it's a necessity, I'd rather drop a difficulty level and enjoy the game more. Some people probably enjoy a lot of micro but I don't.

[eluciv]

I tend to use the automated icons most often, since I rarely find myself wanting a "good balance" in a city. I prefer to focus on one of the 3 tile properties in each city. Although, in my hammer-heavy cities, I often micromanage population growth, since maxing hammers usually stalls growth. Whenever I find myself with 10-12 turns to "burn" production-wise, I'll get the production cities to grow 1 and then get back on the hammer max-ing.

Also, if I want to rush/whip something, I tend to max hammers and get it down to an "excusable" citizen cost and whip the rest of the production. Then in order to get my pop back, I'll max food until the pop returns to pre-whip levels and resume "normal" focus - be it food, hammers, coin, GPPs...etc.

I've found that letting the computer manage my citizens without placing emphesis myself leads largely to a bunch of mediocre cities. The key is that you know what you're doing and why you're doing it - otherwise, you're likely doing worse than the computer would! It all comes down to setting goals and figuring how each city and the surrounding terrain can contribute to said goal(s) - short and long term.

If you have trouble getting the hang of it, you need to rationalize every action you make - one at a time, and make the best use of the land! That can't be emphesized enough....