City governors still don't work

[DrFell]

It's not a problem becuase you don't have to click on every city every turn. A lot of people managed it in Civ2, although I suppose you do have to click a bit more in Civ3 (worse interface and all)

[Pius Popprasch]

There could be an option to have a no-pollution game. But then it would be a different game. And who wants that?

[volcanohead]

Apart from pollution the governor still does not get the production priority right. For example, a size 6 city not on a river and with no aqueduct was set to emphasise production, but it was still producing 6 excess food which were just going to waste. Manually reallocating doubled the shield production.

I don't understand why it's so very hard to get this right; a couple of loops and checks and you have a nice simple algorithm to maximise shields when the city can grow no more. Very annoying.

V

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by volcanohead
Apart from pollution the governor still does not get the production priority right. For example, a size 6 city not on a river and with no aqueduct was set to emphasise production, but it was still producing 6 excess food which were just going to waste.

Actually, it shouldn't even take a setting in the governor screen, when it is obvious food is going to waste. When I hit 6 or 12, I either rush the appropriate improvement, or turn off the governor.

[Selkirk]

It unfortunate that the city governors don't work correctly. I think this is the biggest flaw left in the game after the patch. Are they governors permanently set to emphasize food?

When I see a city hit a limit at 6 or 12, I will manually re-allocate production. The AI should get this advantage, too.

The user interface for the governors is also really pathetic. It seems obvious from the interface that this feature is an afterthought.

Having three separate True False controls is silly and confusing. There are only six combinations, they should be in one control:

Emphasize

Food, Production then Commerce
Food, Commerce then Production
Production, Food then Commerce
Production, Commerce then Food
Commerce, Food then Production
Commerce, Production then Food

Or, an alternative would be to use two controls:

First Priority: (Food, Production, or Commerce)
Second Priority: (Food, Production, or Commerce)

The problem with this, though, is that you have to prevent The First & Second from being set to the same thing. It is, of course, unnecessary to specify third priority.

It would be nice to see the governors working correctly, with a better user interface to control them.

[ChrisShaffer]

From the Feb 15 chat:

<ChrisShaffer> Question: Why do the city governors disobey instructions to "emphasize food|commerce|production" ? I choose "emphasize commerce and emphasize production" and the governor places my citizens on a 3/0/0 grassland wheat square instead of a 1/2/2 forest fur square. Why?

<Soren_Johnson_Firaxis> Chris: the governors do not ignore the instructions... however, the governor put a high weight on food, so sometimes that overrides the prefs. If it was a 2/0/0 square, I bet the governor would have picked the forest.

<ChrisShaffer> so then the question is: Why does the governor override the prefs?

<Soren_Johnson_Firaxis> chris: well, it is not overriding anything. it is making a decision, and the prefs are one of the factors it considers. it's highest priority, however, is feeding it's citizens, which is why it puts a high priority on 3+ food tiles

So, apparently, by design food is most important, and it really doesn't matter what you tell the governor to do -- he's going to go for food.

[Selkirk]

Where can I find a transcript of that chat?

[Raion]

I thought that I read in the manual whereas you have to make a few decisions first as to what you want the city to do, then the governors learn from your decisions.

I do not see the problem.

Think of your civ at first as being dumb, that you have to tell them what to do, that they will learn after awhile what you think next.

After that, then change what you were thinking, and do the opposite.

Just change it yourself!

(The computer can not determine what you are doing!)

[Raion]

In Civ II, you would change the screen, but the computer would change it back repeatedly. At least in Civ III, once you change for production instead of food, it stays there!

[ChrisShaffer]

Originally posted by Raion
I thought that I read in the manual whereas you have to make a few decisions first as to what you want the city to do, then the governors learn from your decisions.

I do not see the problem.

Think of your civ at first as being dumb, that you have to tell them what to do, that they will learn after awhile what you think next.

The governor learns from your selections for the build queue, not your placement of population on the map.

Just change it yourself!

Sorry, not interested in doing that much work. Didn't you read the messages above?

In Civ II, you would change the screen, but the computer would change it back repeatedly. At least in Civ III, once you change for production instead of food, it stays there!

Nope, unfortunately, this isn't true. The governor takes over when the city grows, when the cultural influence expands, when enemy military prevent use of squares, and when pollution prevents use of squares.

Using the governor is also the only efficient way to avoid riots.

[ChrisShaffer]

Originally posted by Selkirk
Where can I find a transcript of that chat?

Several people have posted uncut transcripts in other threads.