Idling cities

Hello. I have searched thru a number of CivRev forums and FAQs but can't seem to find a definative answer to the following. How do you idle cities on the PS3 version?
Once all buildings are completed, you get prompted each turn at each city with "what would you like to build?". If you set it to a unit it of course produces them endlessly, but that not what I am looking for either. Is there an option to just produce nothing and not get prompted each turn. I find it very time consuming lategame to have to "manage" each city like this. About 90% of my turn time is being consumed with producing useless units or "clicking away" the city.

On that note how do you "shutoff" unit production in a city where you have built all buildings?

Welcome to the forums, Bulldog!

You present an unusual problem. If you really do not want anything else produced, you have two options which I can think of. One is to put every single worker onto spaces which produce no hammers, thus getting the "production delayed" message which will not require you to do anything once established (until your city grows, anyway). The other is to set your cities to producing any available Wonders. You can have as many cities as you want working on the same Wonder until it is built. You can minimize your production by setting all of your workers onto non-hammer producing squares.

What is really interesting about your question though, is why is this even an issue? Why do you have multiple cities with everything built in them? If you review the strategy forums you will definitely see that building every building in your each/any of your cities is not an optimal strategy. I cannot see how you got every building built in multiple cities without first completing one of the victory conditions. In order to have all the buildings, you would need all of the technologies and if you have that, just build a spaceship and have done with it. If you want a domination victory, just build units and bury the AI with your armies. If you want an economic victory, build caravans and keep shipping them to the AI until you have enough gold to build the World Bank. If you have Cathedrals+Temples in a bunch of cities, it can be only so long before you get 20 great people (plus wonders plus city flips) at which point you can build the UN.

Terrapin said:

I cannot see how you got every building built in multiple cities without first completing one of the victory conditions. In order to have all the buildings, you would need all of the technologies and if you have that, just build a spaceship and have done with it.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure he means 'all of the buildings able to be built with the techs currently researched'.

I have had it happen on a couple of occasions, when I was going for a specific non-Domination victory, e.g., Culture. My top producing cities had built everything they could. My military was second-to-none (Dom victory would have taken only a couple turns, if I wanted it), so I didn't really need to be building more units, especially at two Tanks per turn in the best cities.

IIRC, I could've built the World Bank, but I only needed one more GP, and dammit! I wanted that Culture Victory!

Sometimes, if I get into that position, I try to time things, and fulfill as many victory conditions as possible at the end - Build the Spaceship, the World Bank, the UN, and take the last Capital, all on the same turn!

But sometimes, I just want one specific VC, so I just cycle through the cities complaining about no production each turn. There is no good way to "idle" them.

Cheers for the answers people. It appears there is no effective way to truly idle a city other than reducing hammer production to a standstill by juggling workers.

In answer to your question Terrapin it is as Padma indicated. I was looking for a specific victory. Like many other Civ games at some point you "tip the balance" and a win just becomes a matter of time. After having gone thru some of the easier victories this way (Cultural and Economic) I was looking to try a Domination victory. I found myself getting totally worn out on a few occasions I did try it by the constant endgame city "maintenance". Basically all my "original" cities were topped off, all buildings built and all wonders built (expect for the UN and World Bank of course). Most of my end game Civ 2-4 strategies revolved around this concept of idling cities or setting them to automated gold production and I was hoping to use it here as well.

I think that given the fact paced nature of CivRev that Sid never really put to much thought into the "long term" maintenance of cities. Anyways, thanks again for the answers. I'll just have to adjust my strategies accordingly.

If you select Gold or Science production your cities will produce little or no hammers.

Build settlers, then have them join the city when they're done.

Well, I stand corrected. But I still say it sounds like you guys are playing with your food! Eat up! there is always more AI and early ones are funner!

The answer is simple and I´m surprised you haven´t got it yet. You put your city on gold or science specialization and the city will not produce any hammers once you have reached the modern era, it will only focus on what you ask it to focus on.

I did not know that. I know you get a mixture when you ask for science or gold in earlier eras. I guess I have not done enough worker micro-management in the late game.

New here, and to this Civ Rev game.

I think you're talking about what I'm trying to find out, which is how to stop every city menu from automatically showing and preventing getting out to move something around on the map.

Maybe what's been said already will help me some.

I just don't understand why there's no skip for a number of turns way to get around that city menu. I get a dozen cities going and it becomes a button-pushing nightmare to get thru all of them until it finally lets me do something else... then back to the same ritual of city planning with more button pushing to jump thru again-- and again!

Maybe I can get better at this game before losing interest. Been fun to play so far.

Unlike some other Sid Meier titles, CivRev has no automation of units or cities. This was by design. The pop-ups can be a little annoying, especially online when you have a lot to do at the start of your turn and would really rather be spending that time attending to the war you're in the middle of.

Like Hertsh pointed out, you can set your cities to all science or all gold in the modern era (they will continue to do some food at least, but no production). Other than that, you do have to tend to every city. As you gain experience with the game, this process becomes pretty quick, almost automatic and I have a mental decision tree for build orders. Something like this:

Is the city empty? If so, build a defensive unit.

Is there a good city spot nearby or a road or boat to take settlers to their new home? If so, build a settler.

If none of that, build a library/market/barracks or just do all trade.

Am I at war? Build offensive units.

Nothing better to do? Build a temple.

Etc.