I don't see how it makes automation unusable. I've played MANY games, with colonies of up to 15 cities, and never had a problem with overflow. Oh, and yes I do use wagon automation and don't use excessive micro-management. You're not using warehouse expansions to avoid tax increases are you? You realise they hurt you more because of the double grab before you get your profit (warehouse cost and King's tax taken out)? I don't rely on that form of trade, and you shouldn't either.
The thing is Dale, and this is no complaint, because really appreciate all your efforts to make people enjoy this game more, but sometimes it feels like you're taking it personally when people bash the game. You have to understand that it doesn't matter if YOU have problems or not; If other people have problems, then a mistake has been done in the development.
I produce Ship-Of-The-Line in one city and produce tools and muskets for it in another city. It consumes 300 tools and 300 muskets (a full warehouse expansion) the very turn that it gets completed. Please tell me how I'm supposed to use the automated transports to synchronize this without suffering from overflow. I'm sure you can't, because it's impossible without micromanagement. Even if you somehow manage to get the perfect balance, what happens when you start producing cannons in that city instead?
This is one of these things that shouldn't even need to be discussed. There should be a simple way to frequently provide a Ship-Of-The-Line producing city with tools and muskets, without having to worry about overflow. If there isn't, then the developers have done a huge mistake. To quote Murphys Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.
What some doesn't seem to understand, is that Firaxis job is:
1: Identify the customers
2: Determine the customers requirements
3: Determine how the customers requirements will be met
4. Make the game
For example, if the majority of the customers want the FoY, then Firaxis should include it.
Since many of the regular customers are unhappy with a lot of features in the game, the project is clearly a failure so far. Claiming that they just have to adapt and learn how to play the game is just a waste of time. What we need to do is to define the problems and make Firaxis understand that they have to do better if they want to keep their customers.
The problem with this game is not that people don't like the new features. The problem with this game is that the AI, game balance, features and replayability are far worse than the original. Compare this with Civ II for example. How many people would prefer Civ I? Not many I'd say, because Civ II was clearly an improvement. This is not the case with Col 2.