Do you automate most of your workers?

Special_Olympic · November 27, 2001, 23:48

Well, I'm too lazy to look after them, so I just build tons of them and let them go. What do you do?

Badtz Maru · November 28, 2001, 00:44

Except in the early game, I automate almost all of them. I use the Shift-A automate, however, so they don't undo improvements I have made myself. The workers are usually pretty smart, but it is annoying as hell when you have a city at maximum population and the workers start changing the mines around it to irrigation.

Monoriu · November 28, 2001, 00:55

I have never, ever automated a single worker, under any circumstances.

Venger · November 28, 2001, 00:57

Agreed, I never automate workers. And I now have over 130 of them in my game. Never let the AI do what you can do better...

Venger

Howling Chip · November 28, 2001, 01:06

Only for pollution, every thing else I micromanage.

VoodooChild · November 28, 2001, 01:22

This is just how I play the game, please do the same on your computer...

I never automate anything in Civ, its all about generating turn advantage through excessive micromangement. The higher the level the more critical this becomes.

Is it more important to build a road, or irrigate those plains the turn after your first worker? Do these priorities change as the game goes on? Is it more important to develop that fourth terrian as your still expanding, or start prepping the next site?

Every turn creates countless questions like these, and this is just for one aspect of the game. I'm not about to turn all of these decisions to an AI who doesn't know my vision.

Cheers,

Evil_Eric_4 · November 28, 2001, 01:39

never

The AI cant be trusted.
did you ever notice how the governer pops up and says "we finished a cavalry unit should we start on a swordsman?"
NO you IDIOT build anther cavalry you stupid Piece of steaming dog feces.
BTW its obvious that the AI not only doesnt upgrade but they continue to build less advanced units when they have better available.

marcuspeddle · November 28, 2001, 01:42

I use automated workers to connect all my cities and resources but never for irrigation or mining. It's a little bit tedious because I'm now in the Industrial Age and I have an awful lot of them hanging around.

War4ever · November 28, 2001, 01:45

i have noticed this as well....means you can take out the ai even easier b/c the idiots don't build anything decent....

as for automate...if you have 130 workers....i would say the game is going well and automation isn't your problem

i do automate some of them..... i can't work em all myself

Robert Plomp · November 28, 2001, 04:58

in the late game when I have done all important stuff done and I only need railroads all over my empire, I automate all of them.

Why press shift-R a billion times if the AI can do it as good as you can ?

Deathwalker · November 28, 2001, 05:34

I sometimes automate them during war but keppp one or two under my command in case I need roads to resources

xane · November 28, 2001, 05:47

Do the automated workers respond to pollution ?

Special_Olympic · November 28, 2001, 06:07

Quote:

Originally posted by xane
Do the automated workers respond to pollution ?

Yes, they do.

Seneca · November 28, 2001, 07:11

I tend to build my own roads early on to make sure I can mobilise quickly if attacked, and when I get railroad I build a complete network between all my cities as quickly as possible. Other than that, I'm just not anal enough.

Rasbelin · November 28, 2001, 07:44

I don't use automated units at all, because I'm so used to it from Civ II, where the AI simply doesn't move automated units properly (like why to use the mountainous way, when there's a road available). I don't have any experience of auto-workers in Civ III, but I assume they're at least better than in Civ II. Even though I'll stay to manual controling of Workers in Civ III. But these are just my opinions.

Grumbold · November 28, 2001, 09:43

Small numbers of auto workers seem to d oa pretty good job. In trying to get a good score on MarkG's competition scenario I ended up with about 200 auto-workers running round my huge empire. Not only did they do some pretty stupid things once the top 10 tasks had a worker assigned, they also took far too long to process themselves. The whole game bogged down in a world of tedium.

quinalla · November 28, 2001, 11:41

I don't automate any workers for about the first half of the game or so, once I get a bunch of them or I want to build a whole lot of railroads, I usually shift-A automate about half and keep the rest to do what I want to have them do. I never use the regular "A" automate, though, because the workers seem to love changing all the mines and irrigation randomly back and forth.

-quinalla

phix · November 28, 2001, 11:56

Automating units in Civ2 was just horrible...

Automating units in Civ3 is a lot better...

However, I never use the A or Shift A for automating workers. I always use Shift-I to only do improvements for a specific city.

I found that putting workers on Automate while building new cities always left my older cities undeveloped, while the workers pretty much just gave up what they were doing and moved to the new cities...

Now, I just have a bunch of Workers work one city to full development and then move them on to the next city... (While building more and more bands of workers)

Once I have railroads all over a continent, I just have groups of workers sitting around waiting for pollution, or planting forrests, and cutting them down. No more automation

I wish when you put workers on pollution cleanup, you could just keep them idling on pollution cleanup instead of asking for orders when it's all done... oh well...

Blaupanzer · November 28, 2001, 13:06

Don't automate the workers, especially using the 'A' key. They behave like they are on acid, wandering about irrigating and mining almost at random. They even irrigate mined squares, then mine the square again. They build roads thru mountains and hills with available bypasses on level ground ignored, and THEN go back and build roads along the bypasses. A few of them will even wander off, although they are pretty good about borders in the later game. On their own, they don't IFE or join cities, two good uses for workers at various times.

waasabi · November 28, 2001, 13:28

One point everyone a agrees on: never just "A"utomate your workers. It sucks. Nobody does it - at least, nobody does it a 2nd time.

Shift-A is great. I *rarely* automate any workers before industrialization or thereabouts. Just works out that way. I start automating workers when they become a PITA. I'm happily playing my game and I start hating figuring out which city squares still need roads and/or railroads. Screw that - it's not fun for me. Shift-A, goodbye.

However, I *always* keep a solid number under my direct control to handle any immediate needs that might come up.

It's playstyle. Like micromanagement? Does absolutely needing to have 1 extra food in city 22 2 turns earlier then automating your workers would have gotten it for you float your boat? Good, don't automate. Are you sick of zooming in on all 25 cities looking for possible land-upgrade improvements and changes every damned turn make you sick? Good, automate.

Sabre2th · November 28, 2001, 13:54

I control them until late in the game, then I automate for pollution and specific cities only.

Boney · November 28, 2001, 14:14

I never automate. It takes longer to manage but then they are doing what I want them to do.

spiky82 · November 28, 2001, 14:42

i personally never automate cuz the AI is excellent except: they mine all my strategic resources, making them disappear faster....

so i only automate the far-flung cities on other continents than my main one...if i ever automate, it's clearing pollution and jungles.....

Wulfram · November 28, 2001, 14:52

I automate when everything is mostly done as they some times find unirrigated squares which I've missed

bahoo · November 28, 2001, 15:10

With a hundred plus captured workers, I can't imagine individually ordering them.

I automate them all, except the occasional couple I will give the "railroad to" command to when I get a new city.

Of course they're not very bright.... I have a section of mountains in my cultural influence, that aren't within any towns radius, that are crisscrossed with railroads and mines, but...if that's what makes them happy, so be it, a happy worker is a good worker.

Boracks · November 28, 2001, 15:34

In ancient times, I don't automate workers. After that, I will automate 10-20% of them and usually have jobs for the rest.

Sevorak · November 28, 2001, 17:52

As yet there is no evidence that mining a strategic resource makes it go away faster.

I never automate - I happen to not mind lots of micro and it's better than having workers misprioritizing - like going off and planting a forest in the single tundra square instead of dealing with the grasslands and hills first.

-Sev

star mouse · November 28, 2001, 18:21

I automate the majority of my workers, using SHIFT-A. It got pretty funny last night when over a dozen workers suddenly decided that those squares within my empire but not within a city radius needed roads, so they all moved to occupy these squares, one worker each.

At least they go back home when they've got no more trouble to make....

Deathray · November 28, 2001, 18:35

I find automating quite useful if you use the pollution clean up, build road network and in this city's radius commands. Also, because I raize most of the cities that I capture, which generally leaves me with several hundred workers by the end of the game. This is all fine and great (although it does take up to 20 seconds to move them all), except that when they run out of stuff to do they all run back home and I either have to get rid of them or press space several hundred times (actually, holding it down works well, but be careful not to skip other units' turns) every turn until I have something for them to do. I would like it so that they went to sleep when they had nothing to do until I manually went and woke them up.

A side question: do captured workers get the double speed bonus if you are an industrious civilization? If not then its probably not worth my while considering my workforce usually consists soley of captured workers. Its just I have this bad habbit of cleansing whatever continent I'm on of all the other civs, and if their city doesn't fit into my grid, well, I can't have that, so I have to raize it...

Pythagoras · November 28, 2001, 18:41

Automation would be cool if it was more predictable and under your control.

For instance you could develop some 'script' or some file that prioritized which terrain types should get improved first. Or similarly prioritize which jobs should get done first. Then for each terrain type you could specify what improvements to place if at all posible. Like say for plains put road and irrigation. When you automated a worker you could decide which of these scripts to run. So perhaps you had a script that prioritized building roads to strategic resources, you could execute that script as opposed to another.