How much can automated Settlers/Engineers do?

[Jim W]

If I turn an automated engineer loose around my city, will he go so far as modifying plains into grassland on his own, or is it strictly irrigation and roads?

I've read the manual on this, and this is one of the places where the book is distressingly vague.

Thanks,

Jim W

[SandMonkey]

Well, i don't think i have ever sen one transform terrain. It might only go so far as (if you ever played on the easy levels) when the dialogue box pops up and says "You should Iriigate this land" And the same type of box pops up for mining and roads. Since you never see a box for transforming, the automated settlers probly won't do this. Purely speculation though.

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[poppawoppa]

Just passing along what I read sometime ago in these forums.... Have not tried it myself.
If you have a settler, early in the game, and you put him on a piece of your city squares which has no access to water, the settler is able?? to irrigate it under the automate settler arrangement. I read that the automated settler will road and irrigate that square and then move on. You could then click on him to stop his automated efforts, and go ahead with what you actually want done on other squares, like mining etc. I don't know if this also applies to engineers as well, but it would also be worth a try some day. Good civin'

[Jim W]

Well I just automated one of my settlers, and he went to work irrigating a patch that was outside the city's territory.

I know there must be some good uses for automation, but if it's going to waste efforts like this, I think micromanaging is far better.

Jim W

[poppawoppa]

Jim - sorry to hear of your experience... but as I finished my posting, I also opened up a new game to try out the automate feature. Just after establishing my initial city, I put my other settler (the second one you get on diety level) where there was no access to water. Selected the automate, and he went to work. I think you do not see the letter on the shield to indicate what is happening, and a few turns later the settler had built a road on the square it was on. Then it moved to a square next to the city, but still not adjacent to any water...and in a few turns it had irrigated and roaded that square also.
My suspicion is that it needs to start irrigating near water, like you and I have to do when we are managing the job selection, or, may be able to irrigate from next to the city center, since that square "automatically" has roads, and other improvements without having to have a settler or engineer be tasked to those improvements.
When I get to the point in the game that I have engineers, I will attempt to try again using automate near a new city or maybe a newly captured city to see what the engineer can do without any water nearby... But that might be a few days, as I am having a lot of fun playing the game I loaded at random. I just have 50 shields to complete Leo's workshop, and then when I discover explosives, I'll have some engineers to give them a try. Until later.

[tobyr]

It would be REALLY interesting if an automated settler can do things we can't do manually. (I bet that if this works at all, it works mostly at deity level of play.)

The main reason I gave up on automated settlers is that they can decide to leave the current city and go to another one several squares away. This is likely to be a total waste of time. I do not think a settler should leave town without permission!

- toby

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toby robison
criticalpaths@mindspring.com

[poppawoppa]

Well, without having a chance to do the test with the engineers, yet, I agree with tobyr (prior posting - did I remember the handle correctly?) that I dont use the automate function either. I have found the few times I did, that the placement and the priority of the automated menu of jobs is not usually in sync with what I have in mind. It will mine any old hill, for example, when I would rather have the coal hills mined. So, I too have forgone the pleasure of automated settlers. Good civin'

[The Mad Monk]

In the TOT Lalande game, one way to get between the four maps is to build 'teleporters': SSTO Pad, Gravitational Grid, and a third which I currently forget; each allows transport between the main map and one other map. You get these by researching the required tecdhnology, after which your settler-types are able to build them. The problem is, to date I can build only the first one (using the 'j' key), even though I have the required techs. The AI, on the other hand, are able to build as advertised.

Does anybody know if automating my sttler-types will allow them to accomplish this 'impossible' task?

[vik]

whenever i try to automate my settlers, this funky looking chick in a body suit pops up. she calls herself "seven of nine" and then she says something about "resistence is futile" and (POOF!) my settlers are gone.

wierd.

[Jim W]

Yeah! Isn't she the one wears a microchip circuit under her eye?

We may have been having the same experience.

Persistence is futile?

Jim W

[George Garrett]

Automated Settlers?...am I missing something?
My Civ 2 settlers can only be operated by me.
wish I COULD automate 'em...bit of a bind going round each of forty-some of them,per turn,to make them do their irrigating, fortifying, or road-building thing.

[SandMonkey]

George -
hit the "k" key, that will automate your settler.

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[George Garrett]

Thank you SandMonkey and Inca911...I'll try that, tho I cant recall seeing a "k" listed in my orders menu...I have the plain/vanilla edition of Civ2 - does this make any difference?

[inca911]

Irrigation Without Water!?!--yes it is true.

Another little known civ fact:
If you are in an area with no access to water you can automate your Settler under the "Orders" menu (k). He will first build a road on the square, and then he will build irrigation--even if there is no water around! I have noted that the settler seems to graviate towards special terrain squares if you have them, so you may have mixed success with this trick if you are in an area with a lot of specials until they have been improved. Anyone want to place a wager on whether or not the AI does this during play??

Except for this nice bit of trickery, the automate settler function is horrible at deciding a good course of action and should be avoided!

[DaveV]

George Garrett - it depends on how old your "vanilla" Civ is. The automated settler feature was added in one of the patches (I'm not sure which, but it's definitely available in version 2.42).

[George Garrett]

No DaveV, don't think mine is 2.42 version...no mention of that designation anywhere in the manual. I tried pressing "k", and my settler proceeded to build a road from the enemies capital into my camp!..with the eventual result that my civ was wiped out ere it got properly started
[This message has been edited by George Garrett (edited April 11, 2000).]

[Steve Clark]

Just goes to show what happens when you let the AI do things for you.

[George Garrett]

As a matter of fact,Steve,I think it might be interesting to play an entire game at the behest of the A.I.
I'd click on the tutorial build/irrigate/mine
wherever it advised (there go the roads!), then within each city turn the auto on - balanced 'twixt military and domestic - and see how long I last in the cruel hard civ world.
I think I'd have to be "President Lincoln", with the A.I. representing the Congress, and Senate, opposing my natural bent at every -er- turn.

[crowatbitemedotcom]

inca - not quite sure what you mean by does the AI do it, but I have on occasion noticed a lone plains square surrounded by desert with no access to water have both irrigation and a road...with a hut still in the square!

[poppawoppa]

Update on Automated Engineers:

Have now had the upgrade to engineers from settlers, and quickly established a city, inland from the sea, and with no water in the city square. Put another engineer on a city suqare inside the radius, and said 'automate'
and immediately, the engineer headed off to I think, its home city.... STOP. So I re-routed him to the new city and made that city its home. Then I moved him inland, away from the ocean, and actually outside the city squares, and again put him on AUTOMATE. This time, he did a road on the square he was on, outside the city limits (no good for anything) and then he next moved over to a square near the ocean, where he again built a road and finally irrigation. But of course, not a square with no water resource, it WAS right next to the ocean. In a few more moves, he built road, irrigation and then did a railroad square from the city toward another city. At that point, I had other uses for him, so I terminated the Automate function and just directed his efforts myself.
So, maybe not conclusive, but in this case, the engineer, later in the game did NOT put in irrigation withOUT the access to river or ocean squares. Thought I'd pass it along. '

Maybe someday in the future, I'll load up the all grassland world I made, to test to see the pattern of goody huts, and Create an engineer and automate him to see if in the vast grassland area, the engineer can "dig a well" to find water so he can irrigate with out any rivers, or oceans nearby.

By the way, I seem to remember trying to irrigate a square next to an oasis, and was informed I could not since it had no "access to water" but later after irrigating the oasis square itself, the nearby squares were able to be irrigated as well.

Hope this information is useful. Good Civin'

[Jim W]

Some moderate checking has proven that the automated Settler/Engineer has only moderate usefulness. For one thing, they don't seem to understand city borders, and will blissfully go out and buiod roads and irrigate squares beyond the city territory. But if you keep an eye on what they're doing, and steer them a bit sometimes,. they can do a lot of work without you having to go to them every time.

Jim W

[Scouse Gits]

George - you are aware that v2.42 is available as a free upgrade from this site, the Microprose site and many other places? It is strongly recommended as earlier versions had many bugs that degraded the playability. Hope this helps.

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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[George Garrett]

So THAT'S why I'm doing so poorly lately - it's all them bugs!

Thank you, Scouse, lah - I'll look into it.