What's the best way to use city governor?

planetfall · April 25, 2002, 12:36

Before 1.21 I did not use city governor except to handle city moods where cities were always going into disorder.

Now it looks like the governor is more robust and may have the potential for speeding up the game and still allowing some control. If this premise is true, how do you use governor?

Sample questions in using governor:
if both moods and production are checked, are options split 50-50?

if moods, production, food check, all three get 33%?

what happens if yes to "manage production"

if 3 or 4 are yes, then is output evenly divided between your choices, or are they weighted?

if city A governor is set and then in city B governor is set for all cities, does that change city A or only unpreferrenced city governors?

Finally, does city governor coordinate with automated workers. If set governor for production or commerce are more mines/forests built that if governor is set only for food and happiness?

happy governing

SpencerH · April 25, 2002, 13:31

I never use it, but then I dont go for the mega-empires either.

ACooper · April 25, 2002, 13:49

I always thought as coffee table would be interesting.

Perhaps as a scarecrow in the garden.

But, seriously: I use the govenors to manage citizen mood only.

dunk · April 25, 2002, 14:53

I never use the governors. I am somewhat picky about my cities. I never let them choose what improvements or military units to build especially. I usually select which citizen to make an entertainer.

Inverse Icarus · April 25, 2002, 15:07

What's the best way to use city governor?

shoot him in the head and blame firaxis for another shotty job.

next comes the domestic nag...

ixnay · April 25, 2002, 15:15

I don't use them unless managing hapiness gets out of hand; then I'll use them for that.

uh Clem · April 25, 2002, 15:27

Where I found governors most useful is in replacing the Laborer on a tile after being kicked off because of pollution. (Is there another way to automate that?) You can clean up the spill, but that doesn't reset the city's Laborers, so the tile reamins unused.

Beyond that, I think that about 60% of what governors do actually helps, about 20% is a wash, and the remaining 20% actually adds to your workload. For instance, if you tell governors never to build Workers, they'll go ahead and build them anyway if they have nothing else to do. I've set cities to build Wealth, and a couple of turns later, they've switched back to Workers.

Quote:

if city A governor is set and then in city B governor is set for all cities, does that change city A or only unpreferrenced city governors?

I think it affects only new cities (or activating a governor that hasn't been in use). That's been my experience, at least.

planetfall · April 25, 2002, 16:14

Ok, this back up one step. What does the city governor do? I thought it does 3 things:

1- manage amount to happiness
2- assign citizens to work tiles based on preferences,
3- set a build order for new units, or units not in unit build order tree.

What don't know?
A-- Do preferences for governor effect automated worker build choices,
B-- how preferences are resolved as to which tiles to work. If this does not work then no sense in using governor other than for happiness control. My assumption is if we understood how to use the governor game play may be easier.

Does this make the question any easier to answer?

chiefpaco · April 25, 2002, 16:24

I use the governor for managing city moods. It makes it so new city citizens won't put it into disorder. They also handle going & leaving of Military police, changes in entertainment %, and reassignment to cleaned polluted tiles. There are some cases where I could use a taxman instead of entertainer. However, I'm willing to sacrifice that bit of gold for the sake of easing micomanagement. Also, when the city can not grow any more (size 6 or 12), I might take it off to maximize the production.

I have no idea what the "emphasize" options really do. I have noticed no difference in selecting different options there.

I am not willing to let the governor choose what to build. I want absolute control over that.

I can't really help you further, planetfall.

Oerdin · April 25, 2002, 18:15

What is the best way to use a city governor? Not at all.

Cyclotron · April 25, 2002, 18:25

Oerdin takes the words right out of my mouth. The best governer is the one not used.

Now, the governer AI is pretty decent, which is good since that's also what my AI opponents use... but when it comes down to it, my priorities are my own. It won't be a good governor for me until it's psychic.

The only times I actually use the AI to handle things for me is in the late game when I put hordes of captured workers on pollution cleaning, railroading, and junglecutting duty.

dawidge · April 25, 2002, 18:33

I actually use the governors and automated workers as a balancing/handicapping measure. If the AIs are restricted to the programmed responses, I fell it only fair to use them, myself. They're not bad. Usually the only modifications I make to the governor's actions is to change the unit it is building (I have enough tanks, now make some infantry that I can use to garrison all the cities I've taken). I'm sure the AI is better at balancing what it wants to build by reviewing the city's settings when it builds something. I just let it go until I need something. Then again, I play mostly builder hibrid.

Coracle · April 25, 2002, 22:13

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
What's the best way to use city governor?

shoot him in the head and blame firaxis for another shotty job.

next comes the domestic nag...

I once spotted a governor building a battleship in a fourteen tile lake. And we thought that stopped after Civ2? Nope.

I only (sometimes) use them for moods.

Jethro83 · April 27, 2002, 23:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Coracle
I once spotted a governor building a battleship in a fourteen tile lake. And we thought that stopped after Civ2? Nope.

I only (sometimes) use them for moods.

Oh it got worse than that in Civ2. When invading my enemies then, I saw a huge fleet of AEGIS cruisers in a ONE-square lake.

Anyway, I don't use governor until populations become so large that happiness becomes too tedious to manage on my own. I always like to build up my cities in a certain order of improvements.

Apart from the happiness issues, I am a control freak when playing Civ III.

Jethro83 · April 28, 2002, 07:44

I tried the governor for managing citizen moods for the first time in a while, and damn! They didn't do a thing in the turns I allowed them power. One of my cities still had 4 unhappy citizens, and one of the citizens not working the land was a TAX COLLECTOR!!! In letting the governor control moods, I was under the impression that it would try and turn some of the extra citizens into entertainers.

So, despite my prior comment, I DON'T use the governor for any purpose. As far as Civ games go, I am a dictator, though I may have turned my government model over to republic or democracy I am still the dictator. Since the computer doesn't truly make an effort to understand my playing style and run according to that when I turn automation on, it occasionally contradicts me.