What's YOUR favorite AutoBuild sequence?

[godot]

I'd be interested to know what types of AutoBuild sequences you good players (myself not being one yet) use.

Let me know what sequence you use and what strategy/scenario it applies to ICS, OCC, UPS, ... well, you get the idea.

[drake]

Autobuild

[godot]

When you set up a list of city improvements in the city prefs file which determines the order in which improvements get built when you click the "Auto" button on the window where you select which object you want a city to build.

[drake]

Never used...never would....why would you want to use such a thing??

I wasnt even aware you could do such things

[East Street Trader]

Well, I suppose the feature is there to cut down on the time which needs to be devoted to deciding what to build when and where, keeping the pace of the game up.

But what explains Drake's answer, Godot, is that the autobuild has two assumption necessarily built in that you would not find many of the very experienced players subscribing to. They are that each city is likely to want to be devoting its shields primarily to buildings and that each city, wherever sited and whatever the state of the game, falls to be treated in much the same way.

Neither of these propositions holds.

So an experienced player decides individually what to build in every one of their cities every time. And does so with 200 cities as with 2.

In fact, the vast bulk of the decisions are taken in the blink of an eye because the player will be deeply familiar with the strategy they have adopted and of the needs both oif the city itself and the civ.

The fact that for long periods settlers and caravans dominate also aids speed.

You may be shocked to learn that for the addict the process of ensuring close management of the civ goes a good bit further. Many players visit every city every turn to check that resources are being applied in the most efficient manner. Time gets spent finding ways not to waste a single shield or wheatsheaf and attempting to squeeze out the last possible arrow. A single turn may last an hour or more.

Pretty well everybody enjoys the early part of the game over the middle or end period and it is partly the ever growing length of each turn that explains this.

For me, however, whenever the game is going well I enjoy this process of micromanaging every decision and seeking the leanest path upon which to advance.

That having been said there are situations which come up often when a standard approach to building improvements is of interest.

I'll not take the early period but rather the stage which sometimes comes late on (if, like me you go on expanding throughout). You are typically in democracy with a full treasury at this point with luxuries set to allow many cities to be celebrating. You will rush a building in each city every other turn.

To bring on the cities you are still founding, start with a granary (unless you have the pyramids of course). That helps get each city to size three quickly (when they can start growing with WLT*Ds). Next comes a courthouse. That provides one happy citizen in democracy so again helps to ensure the city will celebrate as soon as it reaches size 3 even though it then has few arrows. Next, in any coastal city, comes a harbour. That helps to sustain celebrating with food and arrows to convert to luxuries.

Meanwhile a number of your core cities will be turning out freights either one a turn or one every other turn. These freights come and establish high yield routes with the newer cities. So next comes a MarketPlace to maximise the luxuries (and tax) from the trade arrows generated by the ocean squares and the trade routes. Then it's a Bank and at this point it starts being close between Stock Exchange, Factory or Platform.

Anyway, you get the idea. If it goes good and you both establish and sustain the celebration you can catch these late build cities right up to the heartland cities amazingly quickly.

[godot]

EST,

That was a very clear and cogent answer; something that is sometimes lacking in public forums. I've always appreciated your posts. You show yourself to have a great deal of experience with, and knowledge of, CivII. But enough brown-nosing.

I, myself, am (pretty much) a rank newbie with CivII. My post belies the fact that I get impatient with the micromanagement implicit in CivII, which is probably is due to my (fairly) extensive experience with RTS games in the past. Whereas RTS games often overwhelm with too much happening before you can respond, CivII requires a great deal of input before ANYTHING happens.

I like CivII, but I think my focus has been wrong. I've been wanting to focus on the "big picture" and not the nitty gritty. I need to chill out and just accept that the games take a long time. Also, I'm more inclined to try world conquest over AC (my RTS past again) and I'm just an impatient bloodluster.

One thing I try and avoid (aside from micromanagement, which is impossible in CivII) is the use of certain "shortcuts" to success (eg. rush-building, feeding a city its own food, protecting ground units by parking an air unit on top, etc.) I believe micromanagement is one thing, but some of that kind of stuff seems anathema to the spirit of the game.

Anyway, thanks for your response. I hope in the future I can "Get my mind right." (Thank you Strother Martin).

[East Street Trader]

Some of the very best players don't bother to micromanage much.

As experience grows you get to anticipate the various hurdles a civ has to overcome better and your setting of medium and short term goals improves.

People say that MP is the way to gain experience quickly, I really must get around to trying soon - if the arrival of Civ3 doesn't beat me to it.

[Blaupanzer]

Many of those who say they don't "auto-build" mean they don't use the game feature called that. I would be in that group. However many of us do have a pattern of building in new cities that goes unit-unit-settler-temple-unit-library or some such for most new cities. That sequence has been discussed before but might be of some use to the newcomers. For non-ICS, non-OCC SP games, a thread on who builds what in roughly what order might be interesting.

[Ecthy]

in the long term, 30g - 50s - 20l is just fine... in the early game, it can also be 2.2.6

[drake]

in the long term, 30g - 50s - 20l is just fine... in the early game, it can also be 2.2.6

I'm guessing you posted to the wrong thread?

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
in the long term, 30g - 50s - 20l is just fine... in the early game, it can also be 2.2.6

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[Ecthy]

hmmmm... wrong forum even I suppose...

[Ecthy]

well, I used to play with an autobuild list, but since the building order always depends on the location / function of the city, I stopped using it... the only common thing: I tend to build a temple as a first. but afterwards, it really depends... a border city would always get barracks and city walls, whereas a city that is placed inside of my empire and has amny rivers will always get a library as a next step... after producing enough settlers, of course...

hey, I'm sure there was a thread where someone asked for players' favourites in 'distributing wealth'... must have chosen the wrong thread to post in... but hey, what did I post in that other thread then?