Should I automate?

[Mariakles]

I have only been platying Civ 3 for a little while and I have this question :

When you place a mine on a tile, it increases shields right?

If you place irrigation it increases food and roads increase commerce?

This question is this: should I alternate a place irrigation, shield, road or do say 3 irrigation, 3 roads, 3 shields. Or even do all shields then remove and do irrigation and so on...

For that matter should I automate 'cause all an automated worker seems to do is roads, never mines and rarely irrigation?

I am finding the learning curve for this game hard

[Velociryx]

Right you are....mines for shields, irrigation for food. Roads can be plopped down "on top of" the other two though, so you can put them anywhere, regardless of other terraforming.

As to exactly how to go about it....two things to consider:

1) How fast do you want a given city to grow and, can you control the population WHEN it grows? (The faster you want a given city to grow, simply ratchet up the number of irrigated tiles). Likewise with production:

2) How much production do I (realistically) NEED at a given city? (ie- let's say you're playing the Aztec, and you've got a city that's dedicated to building Jaguars (you've just finished a Barracks there)....well, Jags cost all of ten shields, and shields don't "carry over" (ie - if you have a city producing 12 shields, you simply lose 2 shields when your jag finishes). Thus, plan your shield outputs around what sorts of things you plan on doing with the city in question.

-=Vel=-
PS: And never automate anything! Automated anythings do a half-baked job for you....more tedious, but better by far to control them yourself!

-V.

[Mariakles]

Thanks for your help Vel. I will follow your advice.

I know from scanning the forum that your one of the experts at Civ but most of the strategies I am reading about are way over my present understanding of the game (for now anyway).

[Willem]

Originally posted by Velociryx


-=Vel=-
PS: And never automate anything! Automated anythings do a half-baked job for you....more tedious, but better by far to control them yourself!

-V.

A couple of exceptions I've found are CTRL-N (build trade roads) and Shift-J (Clear Jungle) They're about the only automated commands where they don't end up doing something stupid. Like cutting down a forest that I just finished planting for the extra shields. If only I could throttle those guys once in awhile, I'd feel much better.

[Shaka II]

Well, I use automation quite a bit, but not in the early game. I certainly wouldn't argue with Vel that automated workers can't match a good players worker assignment, but it's a concession I make to speed game play. They are infinitely better than in civ2. I generally have a handful under my control to perform critical functions.

Some other tips:

Before improving tiles, check the city screen to see the potential of various tiles and which tiles to start on first, realizing that a city can only utilize as many tiles as the current population (don't over cultivate). Keep a balance of production and growth. You generally want at least +2 food/turn to promote fast growth. If you grow too fast and are getting unhappy, well you can pop a settler or worker out and knock the population down, or reduce the excess food by selecting a tile that is high in production, but has little or no food.

To maximize the efficiency of worker movements, build roads (+1 gold) on improved tiles before you move on (saving a turn later). Start building roads leading to your new cities even before they are built to give your settler a head start.

Every map has different challenges. I have been on small continents more than once with no rivers (no Hoover Dam) or lake sources to irrigate with, so irrigation is sometimes not an option (until electricity).

[Paddy]

Howdy,

I have found that it is good to keep your workers under your control for the first few thousand years. When you have a very good city sructure created, go ahead a set a few free. I have seen them do some stupid things, but mainly they free me up for more complex situations. Like where the next pub will be built....

Good luck, hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Willem
If only I could throttle those guys once in awhile, I'd feel much better.

Ideas to bring up with Jeff...

Subject: Furtherance of Civer satisfaction...

New Military Unit Ability: Whip Workers.

Note to art dept: Can we get animated shots of this?

Salve

[Paddy]

what colour do you want the slaver shirts to be?

slime green appropriate

[notyoueither]

No. Imperial purple would be good.

Salve

[Harovan]

I automate workers mostly in the medieval and early industrial ages and keep only a small group "for my purposes only". I won't argue, that it may be not so efficient like hand-tuned workers and I won't win a game on deity this way.

The first point is: I already got a job and after a day of hard labor I don't want another hard work. I want fun, it's just a game for me, and both levels beyond Monarch are a tough job, if you want to win. So I play at Monarch or Regent and my games are the more fun, the less I have to care about the tedious part of Civ3.

The second point is, I love to play at large or huge maps. That means a lot of land, at least 30 cities, 30 native workers and minimum 30-50 captured workers. If I would manage all cities and all workers myself, I would need about an hour per turn to make it right, and my games would last a month or more.

So for the sake of fun I leave most of the workers automated for at least a certain period of time. And if I notice one to make nonsense like cutting a forest I just planted, well, I override the automation, send him anywhere else and automate him again and the forest is safe. For a while .

Vel: About shield planning (the Jag example)... If you can make something else useful with the citizen, lige adding more gold or food, I agree. But simply put him from shielded (or mined) to simple grassland, just not to waste 1 shield, is nonsense.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I automate workers mostly in the medieval and early industrial ages and keep only a small group "for my purposes only". I won't argue, that it may be not so efficient like hand-tuned workers and I won't win a game on deity this way.

The first point is: I already got a job and after a day of hard labor I don't want another hard work. I want fun, it's just a game for me, and both levels beyond Monarch are a tough job, if you want to win. So I play at Monarch or Regent and my games are the more fun, the less I have to care about the tedious part of Civ3.

The second point is, I love to play at large or huge maps. That means a lot of land, at least 30 cities, 30 native workers and minimum 30-50 captured workers. If I would manage all cities and all workers myself, I would need about an hour per turn to make it right, and my games would last a month or more.

So for the sake of fun I leave most of the workers automated for at least a certain period of time. And if I notice one to make nonsense like cutting a forest I just planted, well, I override the automation, send him anywhere else and automate him again and the forest is safe. For a while .

Vel: About shield planning (the Jag example)... If you can make something else useful with the citizen, lige adding more gold or food, I agree. But simply put him from shielded (or mined) to simple grassland, just not to waste 1 shield, is nonsense.

One thing I've been meaning to try is creating another Worker unit, and setting it's automated tasks in the Editor to only those I really want him to do. You could even have specialists if you create a few of them. Have one that only irrigates, another that only mines, etc. Just use the default Worker for special tasks. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, to busy creating new improvements and Small Wonders.

[kmill25]

I agree with Sir Ralph. I automate most of my workers except for a small band of special project workers. That way most of the work I need to get done get's done and for the pressing issues;conecting cities, resources, ect. I do myself.

[Darth Sidious]

automate sucks ass

automate is good for playing on a non competetive diff level where you don't have to bother about what they do to much.
I tried it once, and the AI starts clearing a damn jungle while there were plenty good squares to use that needed irrigation or mines.


To start, i always try to build my cities so that each (or as many as possible) has either a weed or a cattle resource so that it will have 4 surplus. when i irrigate it (or more if it is on a flood plane)

In early game it is useless to irrigate grasslands since despotism makes the 3 food 2 anyway. so for the first 3-4 citisens, i will either mine a grassland or irrigate a plains.

For the cities that have a food bonus as mentioned, i simply keep doing this forever so that all the squares basically give 2 food and that one square gives it enough surpluss.

For the ones that don't have the bonus, i will irrigate 2-3 grasslands as soon as i have a governemt that makes it usefull.

Also do i later irrigate grasslands to even up the food shortage when working hills/mountains.

I just try to keep my surpluss at 4-5.

[Harovan]

Darth Sidious:

I agree with you, in the ancient ages automation isn't useful, except for a Ctrl-N (trade network) for a couple of workers, not to bother myself. And an irrigated grassland+cattle tile plus a mined grassland+shield make a kickass settler farm (a settler every 10 turns without caring about shields or food, assumed there's no corruption loss). But when you switch to the medieval ages, the territory rush is over and, heck, I don't need a 4+ food surplus anymore. The cities grow fast enough to the 12 limit with 2 surplus. So I let my workers do an automated "basic improvement" of the land and fine tune it later by hand. Maximal fun with minimal work. I don't seek the perfect game, but just a few hours of entertainment... so what?

EDITed PS: By the way, in the medieval age even automated workers usually make more than your beloved 4-5 surplus, because they irrigate half of the grassland (if possible) and you are probably not a despot anymore, are you?

[lawren8]

I might be silly but,
One of the reasons I prefer to play industrius civs is that
by mideval, you don't have to micromanage your workers
(with 2x efficiency you can afford waste) and the game
is more fun