Hey friends,

I've been getting frustrated the past couple days with my city micromanagement. It seems like whenever I set my specialists in a particular city, a few turns later I go back to that city and my computer has changed them up. For instance, I'll have a couple Scientists working in my city. Three turns later there's one Scientist and one Priest. :(

In the city screen, the "Automate Citizens" button is toggled off.

I am running 1.61.

Am I missing something here? Thanks for any help.

Well, I haven't really experienced this. You could try the following: turn ON automate citizens, and also turn on emphasize research and emphasize great person. The mayor will run as many scientists as possible. If you also turn on emphasize food, he'll grow the city a bit too.

I find that I only occasionally need to micromanage my city tiles. The mayor does a fine job of it.

I tend to not automate anything. I enjoy choosing which tiles are worked, and which Specialists are being used.

The reason why this frustrates me so much is because I'm trying to influence which types of Great People are born. When I have founded no religion, it's annoying when my first 5 GP are Prophets.

When I play again I'll double-check all the automation buttons to make sure they're off. But other than that I'm at a loss.

ya this happpened to me to poweredbysoy.

i have no solution as of yet... and its starting to make me mad

It seems like whenever I set my specialists in a particular city, a few turns later I go back to that city and my computer has changed them up.

Annoying, isn't it?

One situation where I know this happens is when the city grows. The new citizen needs to go somewhere, and rather than keep all your choices and simply add one new guy in an unused slot, the AI seems to think it should completely redo everything for you.

I'm suspicious that it happens other times, like after you finish building something, but I've never been able to confirm that beyond a doubt.

I'm sure it also happens when something significantly changes the city's happiness or health (ex. you trade a resource, build a happy building, end a war, etc.). Those are really just variations on the city growth situation. The computer has a citizen that it needs to put somewhere, so it reassigns everyone according to its whims.

You aren't crazy, and it's not about automation. It happens even when you turn off all the automation choices.

With automate citizens ON,you can click on the Great Person
of your choice until a yellow border appears around the icon.
Those GPs won't get changed by the computer.

http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/9523/pic210re4km.jpg

I'm suspicious that it happens other times, like after you finish building something, but I've never been able to confirm that beyond a doubt.

I'm sure it also happens when something significantly changes the city's happiness or health....

Yeah, since it seems to happen randomly, I've thought the same things. When something significant changes in a city, the computer 'rethinks' it's management. I'm fairly certain it's not (just) population growth though. I've had Specialists change when the population remained the same.



With automate citizens ON,you can click on the Great Person
of your choice until a yellow border appears around the icon.

Thank you, Tartran. I will try that when I play next.

Actually when you are on automated citizen OFF there is not really OFF. The next citizen will go to work a tile if food is emphased(and if there is no tile available, will become priest (by default), to priest if production or income are emphased and so on. What you need to do if you want scientist is to emphase RESEARCH, EVEN if automated is OFF. If you dont emphase anything they will become priest, by default.

Even if you are off automated, they have to go somewhere, so the program will follow the path you gave before.

Usually clicking all of the emphasize food, production and commerce stops the computer assigning unwanted specialists. But yes, it's very annoying.

Yes, yellow-ringed specialists are denoted as "forced" and won't get shuffled. But it isn't easy, even for a micromanager like myself, to keep track of every step of growth in every city, and the program does have a very strong bias towards making priests, probably with the idea that they are the only specialist type that can generate hammers, culture, gold, research and GP points. This has the effect of biasing the GP generation towards Great Prophets, who become very weak in the late game.

I have the same problems sometimes, see my topic :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=168951

But it isn't easy, even for a micromanager like myself, to keep track of every step of growth in every city

Take a look at the mod in my signature, or the version of it built into the Hall of Fame mod, to get alerts about city growth.

With automate citizens ON,you can click on the Great Person
of your choice until a yellow border appears around the icon.
Those GPs won't get changed by the computer.


Okay, when I try this, I do not see a yellow border. I turn ON Automate citizens. I click the Specialist. I do hear a *bonk* sound, and the Specialists graphic does seem to move a bit.... but there is no yellow border.

Graphical bug? Or am I not doing something right?

Thanks for helping me trouble-shoot.

Well,I wasn't correct about clicking on the icon,but if you
click on + to add and - to remove a GP there shouldn't be
any problems.
The yellow borders only appear if automate citizens is on.
The 'bonk' sound could be a free specialist or you aren't
allowed to add more specialist.

this seems to happen to me right after i produce agp, it rearranges all my specialists to priests + scientists

this seems to happen to me right after i produce agp, it rearranges all my specialists to priests + scientists

Well, it definitely has a thing for Priests. That's for sure.

I'm wondering if some of my civics have anything to do with it. Philisophical is one of my favorite traits. As such, I'm almost always running Mercantilism in the early-mid game. Perhaps it's all this attention to Specialists which is 'confusing' the computer - making it think it needs to do something.

:undecide:

But because I'm focusing on Specialists so much, it makes this rearranging problem that much more annoying.

Had this myself - it seems to affect coastal cities more than inland cities

I was on Caste - Mercantile - Pacifist - maybe its the free specialist causing the problem

Either way, with the best will in the world, this to me seems like a bug

And I too have only noticed the problem since 1.61

It also seems to be affected by buildings. If I've just done a round of building forges engineers start turning up by default.

In my game, it seems to favor scientists. When a city grows, it adds a scientist instead of working a coastal tile, so I lose the 2 food until I cycle through the cities. Is there any way to force the computer to select an unimproved tile before making a specialist?

Yes - tell it what you want using the emphasize buttons. In this particular case, you want it to prioritize food more heavily than it normally does, so select the emphasize food option.

The only time I saw the computer re-arranged my specialists
was during anarchy + starvation.
A lot of revolutions means a lot of MM the GPs,especially when
you run Caste System.You lose the GPs created by this civic
if you are in an anarchy.

I always try to get what i want by using the automation feature
so you will only have to swap a tile or two when the mayor is totally dumb ;)
in most of my cities it works well
but neither I play 1.61 nor do I use many specialists (mainly because I had no city with the required food surplus in most games)

I'm ressurecting this thread because I'm wondering if there has been a new patch, or if the expansion pack has resolved this issue of wandering specialists.

I know it may seem like a trivial bug (or play mechanic if that's how you see it), but honestly it got so annoying for me that I've stopped playing Civ IV for months now. I'd love to get back into the game, especially with the expansion, but if I can't control my cities' production, I'll probably just give up again.

Thanks for any input.

I'm ressurecting this thread because I'm wondering if there has been a new patch, or if the expansion pack has resolved this issue of wandering specialists.

I know it may seem like a trivial bug (or play mechanic if that's how you see it), but honestly it got so annoying for me that I've stopped playing Civ IV for months now. I'd love to get back into the game, especially with the expansion, but if I can't control my cities' production, I'll probably just give up again.

Thanks for any input.

well, i'm pretty sure that desabling the governor stops the specialist thing
ANd to be true, the governor does a good job most of the time, but if you're sensible about how the population is affected, you're better off without the governor

Well, it definitely has a thing for Priests. That's for sure.

I'm wondering if some of my civics have anything to do with it. Philisophical is one of my favorite traits. As such, I'm almost always running Mercantilism in the early-mid game. Perhaps it's all this attention to Specialists which is 'confusing' the computer - making it think it needs to do something.

:undecide:

But because I'm focusing on Specialists so much, it makes this rearranging problem that much more annoying.

How hard is it for the AI to just leave my city the alone. It can manage its own great people perfectly, but it readjusts mine? The AI should touch anything i've mandated. Thats retarded!

P.S. The computer straight up cheats. It always has and apparently it always will. When I drop a spy into an egyptian city in the mid game I see like 90 great people allocated properly for EXACTLY what they need.

If my cities have 2 archers I never get a barbarian invation, if I don't build any defense AI literally spawns an AI city right next to my capital.

Fact of the matter is the computer is aware of everything I am not aware of in their civ, and at no cost, and this is BULL$hit.

If you are playing too far above where the computer thinks you should be it will strike you pointedly to achieve it's ends and if it can not strike you fairly it will strike you very unfairly.

It happens when you use binary science. The moment you put the slider to 0%, everything get messed around with, and again when you put it back to 100%. Its a huge huge pain in the arse.

i have this problem too , it seems to put a specialts for no reason , i take it off and put it working tiles , then at a random point (or i cant see the logic behind it) in the near future i look and i have a specialist i dont want again .

This is a bit extreme, but it will work. I have also been frustrated by the
governor shifting my specialists around. For example if you want scientists, build
a library but none of the other specialist buildings. Don't build a forge, market,
theatre, or temple that way the governor can't assign specialits where you do
not want them. It is extreme, but I have done this before.

Im a great fan of governor... im aware that micromanagement leads to better efficiency, but when you have 10, 20 cities, micromanaging whenever each one grows is vitually impossible (or very boring). And leaving automation OFF and forget to re-arrange things almost every turn is MUCH worse than relying on governor. (he may not be genius, but at least he wont mess that big)

With micromanagement, you dont have to check cities only when they grow: you need to check when health changes, happiness changes, war weariness increases, new buildings are built, cultural borders are expanded (or tiles flipped)... so, basically, you need to check them on evey single turn.

That said, the only thing i REALLY miss is more buttons for emphasis on what specialists you want. Ok, theres a button for scieence, but what about GOLD???? Something like "hey, keep working the cottages, but please stop assigning engs and priests! i need MONEY, ok?" :)

Also, late game, when academies and shrines are built, i often find Great Merchants to be the best GP. Gold is always welcome to keep science slider high, and +1 food is great, because 1 food = 1/2 specialist = 1.5 GPP. So hes a GP that generate more GP! :)

I think the problem with rearranging specialists comes about when something about the city changes. When the city grows, the computer must choose how to assign the new citizen, and sometimes it thinks a specialist is best. Or if a tile can no longer be worked because another city is using it, or an enemy is there, the citizen must be reassigned. I don't think it's screwing with you for no reason.

Turn the governor on and then force the specialists you want (so they have a little yellow box around them). I've never had any problems when I do it this way. Or if you absolutely hate the governor, leave it off, but turn on emphasize production, growth, and commerce. This should make it so that when the computer must make a choice, it will never choose a specialist.

Yeah, this stinks. The closest thing I came up with to a solution (as a micromanager, myself) was to always "zoom to city" after builds and make a quick check. Gotta remember to check in on big project cities, though.

Side note of consolation: Personally, I don't mind plunking the great prophet here or there: the science cities basically get an extra fully developed cottage plus a SORELY needed production boost to help make the buildings that maximize it. Production cities get a slight boost plus a commerce bonus. But if this isn't acceptible, consider holding on to a couple and having an extra golden age or three...

It's more the great artist for warmongering civs that I just can't find a use for.

It's more the great artist for warmongering civs that I just can't find a use for.

The GA is the warmonger's best friend. Use him to immediately end resistance in an important city you've captured, pop the borders, and start fighting off the culture of whomever you're at war with.

well, as eggman said, the GA is good thing.
The bad thing is the commerce, food and hammers lost by running artists specialists for years.
I must say the governor is quite "intelligent" in the choices he makes. But he cannot know your plans : you want to build units fast, so you build a forge= he assigns an engineer specialist instead of working that mine. It's a good think by numbers (engineer GPP are cool), but you need the troops more thna the GE.

FYI, in warlords, you can check and change specialists in the city advisor <f1>

It happens when you use binary science. The moment you put the slider to 0%, everything get messed around with, and again when you put it back to 100%. Its a huge huge pain in the arse.


Grrrr to binary science!

I'm suffering from this big time. Did anyone figure out how to make the governor leave things alone? I don't want the stupid idiot to make ANY choices at all. The fool is assigning every specialist that he can, even to the point of going into starvation mode because there are no citizens left to attend to farms or any food producing tiles.

Is there a fix for this?

The one I get is the Spy specialist, when, I want a Great Engineer or Great Scientist.
I don't know of a way to deEmphasize it either, and I cannot Not build a courthouse.
I think it happens, when, I reallocate my spy points to compensate for an AI city suddenly not being seen anymore for a certain empire.
Or when I switch to Caste System.
The game thinks, I suddenly want every available specialist for every city, instead of the option to have more of certain ones available to caste system.
I agree it is annoying.
Especially, if I don't catch it in time and I check a city and it has a 38% chance of producing a Great Prophet, when, I have already had 2 and they build their religious buildings.

After some more playing time, I had this bug too.

There is no good way out.
The only way out is to use the governor :crazyeye: (like some better players already told before).

If you don't want specialists, use the emphasize food button. It works a bit even with governor off.
If you want a specific specialist, select one with the governor ON. You will have an automatic switch from all the auto specialists to this kind.

I'm a bit of a newbie here but I had to post to agree with how annoying this issue is.

I love Golden Ages and I plan for 3 a game and sometimes 4, so it is important to keep track of Great People points. For example I have a Great Spy and a Scientist, so for my next Great Person I need anyone but one of those. You can't just emphasise the Merchant, as artists and priests are also okay. Takes constant micro, at least in you 2-3 cities that produce Great people