Worker Management Discovery

[T-hawk]

The "Build Road To" worker command (Ctrl-R) works a bit differently than other worker commands. It processes the worker labor during the unit's regular rotation, rather than at the end of the turn.

If you have one worker in a tile and tell it "Build Road To" (Ctrl-R) to a neighboring tile, it will finish the road DURING the third turn instead of at the END. Keep hitting Wait for all the units until that worker gets triggered. Then, you can move troops through using the road or make use of that resource on that same turn.

Furthermore, suppose you have two workers in a tile that lacks a road. A road takes three turns to build, so if you command both workers to build the road, you waste a turn of worker labor. BUT, suppose you give Worker #1 a Ctrl-R order to build a road to a neighboring tile that already has a road. Worker #1 will apply its labor DURING the second turn instead of at the end. Then, Worker #2 will wake up and can use the road to exit that tile on the same turn. No wasted labor!

(Note that a worker under a Ctrl-R command will automatically move to the destination tile of the Ctrl-R when it can, so make sure it's somewhere you want the worker to go, or manually activate the worker before it moves on the next turn.)

Ctrl-Shift-R to build railroads has the same properties, although is less useful. The most common use is probably if you have a stack of workers on a mountain which will take two turns to build a railroad, and you will want to be able to use the railroad on the second turn to move troops.

Was this known? I hadn't ever heard of it.

[badams52]

Very interesing. I hadn't really noticed it before.

Somehow, I don't think it will be a big consideration in my games though. The early years aren't very important for me in terms of movement. That one extra 1/3 movement I get in 1 turn with my unit isn't terribly important.

Good work though :b

[Dominae]

Very interesting, thanks T-hawk. This adds a whole new level of complexity to micro-management...yay!


Dominae

[Nor Me]

Interesting? I'd call this useful.

I don't know if everyone who has read this and not replied has started using this in every game but I have.

Oviously the advantages are balanced by the difficulty of using the Ctrl key or finding the button out of all those other unnecessary PTW ones so I won't use this all the time it's a good idea.

We need customisable keyboard shortcuts .

[epics]

I would use it, i think, if I could understand what is he saying

Edit: Oh, now I understand what is he saying

[Ephesos]

That is really helpful (particularly in the Ancient Age). Thanks .

[Jon Shafer]

Sounds like an exploit to me.

[badams52]

I wonder how the AI's workers do their job? Maybe the AI uses ctrl-R when building roads which means this wouldn't be an exploit.

[Charis]

What is this, "Exploit Police" month??

Let's try one of those math quizes like on the SAT's...

If Bob and Jim can build can build one road in one turn,
how fast can Bob build a road by himself?

Ans. 3 turns. Unless you use T-Hawk's suggestion of ctrl-R. (First turn he starts, won't finish until the mid-turn after turn 2, road not usable until turn 3)

Want another one? Let's try this one: 5 five foreign workers are next to a square they want to build a road on. In how many turns is that road useful, and how many of those workers get to start an irrigation on that same tile?

Conventional (broken?) means? 4th turn it's roaded, 0 irrigators on the third turn.
Ctrl-R -- it's a working road in the MIDDLE of the 3rd turn, and all five can immediately start to irrigate.

It's unfortunate that if they can complete an action on the first turn it's done immediately, but works-in-progress always go to the END of the round. I imagine this is intentional only so that you can have a chance to interrupt workers during your turn.

Hmmm, I wonder, having insufficient workers to clean up pollution likewise costs an extra turn, for three times the pain. If you have them automate cleanup, will they finish in the mid-turn, and let you reclaim that tile to work on?

Charis

[Mizaq]

Does this efficiency also apply to Automatic Roads and Automatic Railroads?

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Charis
What is this, "Exploit Police" month??

Yes.

Anything that allows you to manipulate the game to gain an unfair or unexpected advantage is an exploit. I'm still not convinced that this doesn't fall into that category.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Trip

Yes.

Anything that allows you to manipulate the game to gain an unfair or unexpected advantage is an exploit. I'm still not convinced that this doesn't fall into that category.

Is it an exploit, or does it fix a flaw in the game's design, or maybe a little of both? Something's always seen a bit off to me about how if you build a road with one industrious worker, you don't get to use it for three turns, but if you use two, you can use the road in one turn. The thing I find most annoying about this behavior is that it provides an advantage only to people willing to engage in a level of micromanagement that ought to be completely unnecessary.

[Jon Shafer]

And it in itself is an invitation for micromanagement hell. Want to make sure every Worker is accomplishing things top-notch? Then make sure you always "Road-To" instead of pressing "R".

Basically, trading one micromanagement "exploit" for another.

[Quasar1011]

Does it matter if the foreign workers are industrious or not? Would that change the results?