Micromanagement.

[player1]

Originally posted by Blake
The CTP2 national manager worked really well for me.
A great many build orders could be given with just a few clicks, and it was very precise too.
(Inserting a factory into the build queue of every city with production over 100 is trivial)

But that was about the only part of CTP2 which was good , the general tile improvment and city workers style sucked, but I wouldn't be too quick to blame the suckiness on the PW's part.

You should see a NATONAL MANAGER of CTP1, it is merged with build manager, and practicly is only screen I used when playing the game.
In CTP2 it is ruied, and you need too many CLICKS to make right decision.

Also I like placing WORKERS, in CTP2 that concept is BROKEN,
You build a FARM and insted of getting 10 FOOD you get 10*2/6=3.3
FOOD, because yours city is size 3!

[player1]

Still, PW system is EXCILLENT!

One of main reasons of criticism was taht you can't build improvments outside your cities (CTP1) or BORDERS (CTP2).

That is FIXED in CTP2 where you can build FORTS outside yours borers,
if it is in sight of some of yours military units. Sine FORT generate
BORDERS, you can if you want to build AIRPORT to go to the place whit
a militay unit, build a FORT, and SEVERAL turns later it is inside your borders, and you can build a AIRPORT.

[Wexu]

Re: Micromanagement.

Originally posted by Moral Hazard
So what besides Mayors has Firaxis done to eliminate Micromanagement?

I think the farmlands have gone, that'll reduce some micromanagement.

[Sarxis]

Re: Re: Micromanagement.

Originally posted by Wexu


I think the farmlands have gone, that'll reduce some micromanagement.

How so? I am not quite sure how getting rid of farms reduces MM? You mean we don't have to plant the farms in the traditional manner?

[Wexu]

Yup.

It was annoying to first build irrigation, then farmlands. But now it seems there aren't farmlands. (Screenshots)

Maybe now you have to just build some city improvement to get the same effect what farmlands did?

[Sarxis]

Sounds interesting. Can't wait to see how this is now handled

[Tjoepie]

I like the micromanagement idea of Settlers and workers, it seems more realistic, since with PW you could build a new city and build everything it needs around it in a few turns with saved up PW ??? at least here it will take a lot of work and risk to loose your worker , I think that ads for better realism.
So called tile-improvements arround real cities took generations to build in the real world!

But I could agree with poeple who don't like it that there is an option to decide how you would like to play.

[Bleyn]

On the subject of MM, one thing about all of Sid's TBS games-- Civ, Civ2, and SMAC, is that to maximize a citys utilization of a resource other than food, you always have to do it manually, and any time a city grows in pop. you typically have to go and adjust what city squares its utilizing again because it always selects for maximum food.

Is there any chance that the city governer controls will include an option to select the resource priorities between shields, commerce, and food? I'd be happy to see anything that allows you to tell the AI which resource is the priority in a city instead of having to constantly adjust cities to avoid unwanted pop. growth and improve shield production or commerce.

[HalfLotus]

Not really about gameplay, but the interface will require far fewer clicks than Civ2 (which makes a big difference with a large empire). For example you don't have to pull up city window to see what each city is building. This alone will make a huge difference. Also, there are a lot fewer popup messages. Should make MM less troublesome anyhow.

[SerapisIV]

Well some micromanagement has been added for realism value.

The ability to upgrade units, it can only be done in cities now, which means you have to individually direct units back to cities for upgrades.

With every improvement, some new feature will add more stuff to do. I don't expect any dramatic reduction in micromanagement over SMAC, though every little bit helps

[Xmudder]

PW?

What is PW?

[SerapisIV]

Public Works was the Call to Power method of tile improvements. There weren't any worker units. You just had a quota of work points and used them to place terrain improvements.

[Akron]

Originally posted by Moral Hazard
Akron:

How is PW more micromanagement than workers? There are valid critisms of PW, but MM isn't one of them, IMNSHO.

Added: actually PW is macromanagement

As I think someone else already said, when you have a settler/worker, there were certain possible improvements you could build, but it was limited to the surrounding terrain. So it was pretty easy to choose what to develop. But with CTP, there was way too much planning involved in using PW. It was a headache to decide how to distribute PW points to different cities, and there was always one city that I'd forget to improve. Or I may forget to use PW for a few turns. Or I may start putting down farms but later realize that I need a fortress on one of my borders, but I won't have enough PW left. This was frustrating. With civ2, I had a settler/engineer for every city that would improve the terrain surrounding that city until either everything was improve or there was no need to further improve for a while (due to limitations such as sewer system requirements). If workers can be queued, then that will make the system much better.

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Akron
If workers can be queued, then that will make the system much better.

No worker queue. Firaxis said so on the boards in the summer. Really sucks though, I wish they had implemented one, though I'm sure it'd be a pain in the a$s to code

[Lorizael]

No more farms?

I'm not entirely sure this is true!! We haven't seen any modern screenshots really.

Besides, I like the idea of building of up cities as I go, even if it can be tedious at times. It's fun to watch them grow from simpe villages of 10,000 to mega metropolises with 10 million! Building the farms was part of that to me... But hey I'm sure that if they're gone something better will replace them (I hope).