I hate the unemployed.

Or, perhaps more accurately... I hate that they're called the unemployed. Can't we find at least a slightly less derogatory name for them? "Labor Force" or somesuch? A resource that could be improved upon in its own right?

They are a bunch of takers rah rah leaching from my economy.

I'm not serious, but I also kind of dislike the name they have in this game since they seem to be throwing hammers at my stuff.

I guess it kiiiinda makes sense, because citizens that are otherwise unemployed would probably be called in for big labor projects within cities, and more or less everything you produce basically represents those. Plus it gets across the point without seeming too confusing. Seeing a bunch of "unemployed citizens" in your cities makes it clear that, oh, they're not the usual laborers out in the field, and it would probably be better if they were put to bigger work. Calling them a "labor force" might get across the impression that you're supposed to have them there, or that they're some kind of other type of citizen, or something, but seeing that they're titled the unemployed gets across the point simply - they're citizens that are not working tiles or specialist buildings.

One must always keep in mind accessibility and marketing. It's not just the experts at Civ that play these games, it is also the people who are just kinda into it and think the game is cool but aren't super knowledgable at the numbers and whatnot. You don't want to confuse people that aren't very well-versed in the nature of the economy and historical labor forces. Sure that might be treating people like they're dumb a little bit, but it's best to keep things clear and simple in layman's terms whenever possible.

Slavery. Civ IV style.

Being unemployed myself, I take comfort in the strange fact that I still contribute two hammers to my city... Somehow.

Each unemployed citizen should give +1 GPP towards a random person, cause... you never know right? Van Gogh was an unemployable basement dwelling psychotic after all, and who knows how many others. Also it just makes more sense then 1 hammer, people might actually use the 1GPP, but that hammer? I don't understand why they would implement something with no viable usage what-so-ever.

Slavery!
Dont judge me, but i wish there was slavery in civ.
Maybe it since my Rome Total War experience, where slavery was handled very nicly.
Probably at some point it should be removed by World Congress giving some overall hapiness.

How would slavery work though? When you capture a city, the citizens are going to produce +1 hammer when in state of slavery?

This could be another option next to Puppet, Annex or Raze

I'd like the Citizen back from Civ IV. I think it was a pretty good name, considering they're free workers not contracted by the government.

Gyra Solune said:

One must always keep in mind accessibility and marketing. It's not just the experts at Civ that play these games, it is also the people who are just kinda into it and think the game is cool but aren't super knowledgable at the numbers and whatnot. You don't want to confuse people that aren't very well-versed in the nature of the economy and historical labor forces. Sure that might be treating people like they're dumb a little bit, but it's best to keep things clear and simple in layman's terms whenever possible.

Click to expand...

I think that the red colour already indicates that.

Click the Manual thingy box under Specialist Buildings and your unemployed will go away, unless you have more citizens than workable tiles. In that case you merely put them in specialist buildings. I find that although the auto management is fine for most cases the game will sometimes make error s in it's calculations, especially when you put the focus to production.

Unemployed in CivV should cost 2 gpt, -2 happiness and consume an extra 3 food/turn. Then have a new building that reduces the GPT and unhappiness effects of unemployment by 50%... Wal-Mart. Upgraded to a WalMart Super center, and you reduce the food penalty by 1 food/turn. Add in trailer parks, to further reduce unhappiness by 1/turn. Then give America a new unique building: Target. Stacks with Wal Mart.

It should be one culture instead, for blogging and writing fanfic from the basement.

On second thought, -1 culture.

The fact that people suddenly become unemployed when you prioritize Production in a city is actually pretty silly.

If I were running things, you'd probably be unable to have citizens off of tiles/specialist slots; if you had more citizens than room for them to work, they'd migrate to your other cities that do have room. Maybe if your empire had more people than slots in all of your cities, they'd be "unemployed" and automatically provide hammers each turn but only toward production of a new Settler.

evilcat said:

Slavery!
Dont judge me, but i wish there was slavery in civ.
Maybe it since my Rome Total War experience, where slavery was handled very nicly.
Probably at some point it should be removed by World Congress giving some overall hapiness.

Click to expand...

Pre-BNW, I actually assumed the Pyramids were exactly this without saying so. The wonder most commonly associated with slave labor (even though it probably didn't use as much slave labor as we think, and even if others used a lot more), which gives you extra Workers and the ability of those workers to get things done twice as fast...certainly implied it. Though unlocking them with Freedom somewhat undercuts that now.

I think the point is that there's more people around to work than there is work to be done (no hexes or slots left to work). If that's not "unemployed" then I don't know what is.

Besides, simply being unemployed isn't derogatory.

Just call them unskilled laborers. Makes perfect sense that when you want to make a big project. You need engineers as well as some unskilled laborers drafted from farmers (and merchants/scientists lol) to work on the project.

evilcat said:

Slavery!
Dont judge me, but i wish there was slavery in civ.
Maybe it since my Rome Total War experience, where slavery was handled very nicly.
Probably at some point it should be removed by World Congress giving some overall hapiness.

Click to expand...

it was in civ IV and pretty useful. You could sacrifice some pop and BAM you have a wonder.

Just had to worry about those pesky slave rebellions which became more and more common over time.

At first I thought this was going to be a politically incorrect rant... thank you for proving me wrong.

HeraldtheGreat said:

At first I thought this was going to be a politically incorrect rant... thank you for proving me wrong.

Click to expand...

I was expecting a somewhat amiss Dr. Horrible reference, quite frankly.

joelzhl said:

Just call them unskilled laborers. Makes perfect sense that when you want to make a big project. You need engineers as well as some unskilled laborers drafted from farmers (and merchants/scientists lol) to work on the project.

Click to expand...

I like this idea, and it makes the yields make sense.

They should be +1GPT. Unemployed still consume but don't contribute enough to justify a production point.

Or they are like someone else mentioned before -- a flood of non-qualified workers called in for a special project. Think new deal-style public works projects.