Can viceroys be turned on and off?

[gregorn]

Just read the review on Games Domain which stated that viceroys cannot be turned off. I seem to remember reading earlier that they could be turned off. Does anyone have the correct answer?

Thanks

[Gargantua]

I dont have the game yet, but this is from the manual:

"GAMER TIP: You can monitor what your viceroys are building and make changes as needed
to fine-tune their actions. And you can always give them specific "zoning" instructions for each region of
a given planet by using the Planetary Infrastructure panel."

[gregorn]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

[Grumbold]

I think one problem that people run into is that there isn't just one AI that you turn on or off. There are several AI advisors that link together to run your empire if turned on. For example:

Planet Econ AI
This check-box allows you to either delegate day-to-day operation of the planet to your planetary viceroy,or to take a more active role in managing every aspect of the planet ’s operations each turn.If checked,the viceroy will obey your Regional Zoning and development plan requests (as specified on the Empire screen)and your DEA zoning requests (as specified on the Economics panel of the Planet screen) but otherwise will operate wthout your assistance, building items, assigning DEAs,and so on.

If the box is unchecked,the vceroy will let you decide which DEAs are to be built,and which Planetary or Military items go into the Build Queue. Additionally,your viceroy will not make any adjustments to the budget sliders on the Economcs panel of the Planet screen.

Note: Even when you’ve checked the Planet Econ AI box, you can still make changes to the build queues, DEA zoning,tax rates,spending sliders,and planet classifications,and your planetary viceroy will attempt to take your requests into account. If you have adjusted the sliders,the AI will initially leave them alone, but will gradually take over control over a span of 10 to 20 turns.

If you don’t assign any specific Development Plans to a given Planet Classification, the viceroy will decide what seems to be best in each situation, taking into account the biodiversity, mineral richness and preferences of your species. This might be just what you want. If it’s not, create one or more Development Plans to fine-tune what gets built there.

REGIONAL ZONING
The Zoning Policy advises every planetary viceroy in your empire how to prioritize the structures that are
built on each planet.The “Natural ” setting will cause structures to be built based on current needs and what the planet seems best suited to support. The “Specialized” setting will divert additional resources toward specific type of DEA,such as Research,which will be efficient but may cause shortages of some materials that will then need to be imported from elsewhere. The “Balanced ”setting will cause the planet to do a little of everything and not be especially good at anything. The planet will strive to build equal numbers of
each DEA.

GAMER TIP:Policies tell the planetary viceroys what you ideally want,but that doesn’t mean you’ll always get exactly that. or example,even if you have a "Specialized" world that’s ideal for mining, other DEAs
will get built there at various times to make sure the population is fed, housed and protected militarily. These policies affect every planet in your empire. To adjust the priorities for a single planet,see the Development Plans panel of the Empire screen.

[Kc7mxo]

From the reviews/preview I've read, it also seems like the Viceroys misbehave, and build things that don't belong. Leading to planets starving even though they're supposed to be AgriWorlds. Such things are hopefully quite patchable however.

I don't think I'll want to turn off the viceroys. As much as I prefered to have full control over my empire in civ2 and civ3, I doubt I'll want to have to fully manage more than 70 or so planets in moo3. Having 2/3 of a moo2 large galaxy was just about my limit in moo2.

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by Kc7mxo
From the reviews/preview I've read, it also seems like the Viceroys misbehave, and build things that don't belong. Leading to planets starving even though they're supposed to be AgriWorlds. Such things are hopefully quite patchable however.

I don't think I'll want to turn off the viceroys. As much as I prefered to have full control over my empire in civ2 and civ3, I doubt I'll want to have to fully manage more than 70 or so planets in moo3. Having 2/3 of a moo2 large galaxy was just about my limit in moo2.

well, from what I've read too, it seems that the negative reviewers consider the AI mediocre ( "viceroys misbehave" ) because they didn't have the time ( this game has an incredible learning curve remember ) to master the dev plans; and the ship design, and making obsolete versus state of the art for the AI to build accordingly your orders. I don't think these compounds can be mastered within the short amount of time ( 2-3 weeks max?) a reviewer has for a game. There are many other games, shorter action games to review also. Either it's a bad game or a good one, MoO3 still has a complexity it seems and a richness of gameplay styles that no reviewer can claim to discover all of the intricacies before many months ahead.

I remember how some despised MoO2, how they hated it because none of the simplicity nor the elegance of the first was preserved. And as far as the strat video games are going, they become exceedingly complexified. I accept the challenge; those who can't - well there's always the best board game of all time: CHESS. Nothing can be both SIMPLE and DEEPLY BRAINSTORMING like chess. Tetris is what comes close to that for a vid game, but not that close. So we shouldn't in the first place hope for a 4x space game only to be a MOO 1.5 10 years later. I won't pay 80 bucks for a graphical remake. I'd prefer play the original for free instead.

[Kc7mxo]

I remember how some despised MoO2, how they hated it because none of the simplicity nor the elegance of the first was preserved. And as far as the strat video games are going, they become exceedingly complexified. I accept the challenge; those who can't - well there's always the best board game of all time: CHESS. Nothing can be both SIMPLE and DEEPLY BRAINSTORMING like chess. Tetris is what comes close to that for a vid game, but not that close. So we shouldn't in the first place hope for a 4x space game only to be a MOO 1.5 10 years later. I won't pay 80 bucks for a graphical remake. I'd prefer play the original for free instead.

There are a number of other games which offer the simplicity and complexity of chess. GO is certainly one of them.

[patrickjb53]

Yes the Viceroys can be turn off and sometimes they do misbehave. It's our job to keep an eye on them. From what I've read they do a pretty good job overall.

[Vince278]

They wouldn't be so bad if they would just continue to do what they are told. I hate having to adjust sliders only to have them come right behind me and re-adjust the settings. I wish I could fire (or shoot) them. I believe in Pax Imperia 2 you can hire/fire your viceroys, they obey your orders, and they can gain experience.

[vmxa1]

Yes your can replace your govenors in Pax2 and they do gain experience. In fact that is the main criteria for determination of who gets promoted to that level.
They can be bribe or assasinated as well.
Pax2 still plays fine in my XP PRO system.

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Vince278
They wouldn't be so bad if they would just continue to do what they are told. I hate having to adjust sliders only to have them come right behind me and re-adjust the settings. I wish I could fire (or shoot) them. I believe in Pax Imperia 2 you can hire/fire your viceroys, they obey your orders, and they can gain experience.

Are you sure your micro level adjustments aren't contradicting your macro level settings? For example setting military spending to 50% in contradiction to your empire military footing which is saying spending should be 10-20% to avoid unrest? Once the item in the queue is built or unrest levels rocket the AI will intervene in order to reimpose your macro level policy setting...

If you tell your worlds to build "naturally" but create development plans that contradict that, should your advisors be obeying your instructions to build mines, industry, planetary defence or farms on a world that is tagged as mineral rich and frontier but also happens to be fertile? There are many things that influence what gets built and in what order.

[Jamski]

I'm turning on the Viceroys after I've zoned the whole planet. Then I just let them maintain that. They never unbuild something I've zoned. I just do this the first time I make the colony, and do it right the first time.

-Jam