I have the "leave existing improvements" and "leave forests" options checked, but when I set my workers to build a trade network they insist on building forts over resources that I have a surplus of, even though I want extra for corporations. Is there a way to stop them from doing that?
automated workers
- Thread starter spybot
- Start date
If they are outside your fat cross (or you haven't popped your fat cross yet) the fort does the same as whatever "gathering structure" they usually use except you get a bonus while defending it.
Workers see forts as an improved structure much like RR vs. road.
Workers see forts as an improved structure much like RR vs. road.
Uncle E
Long time Prince player
The best way is to not automate workers 
Its a good habit to start managing your own workers as you'll learn more and do a better job than the computer.
Its a good habit to start managing your own workers as you'll learn more and do a better job than the computer.
See this thread for workers&forts. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=233264&highlight=automated+workers+forts
BTS:Updated forts
In a nutshell workers building a trade network outside your fat cross within your culture borders will build forts instead of the the exact improvement on a resource. This WILL connect the resource and make it available to you but will not allow the food/hammer/gold bonus that resource provides, if at some future date that tile ends up in a fat cross of a city you will need to rebuild the proper improvement destroying the fort to get that bonus. An upside is that you can put units in the fort and get bonuses to guard that resource. A downside is that it takes longer to build forts.
A lot of folks will automate some workers to build a trade network after improving their fat crosses. This catches any resources they may have missed and also makes road/rail building less tedious.
BTS:Updated forts
In a nutshell workers building a trade network outside your fat cross within your culture borders will build forts instead of the the exact improvement on a resource. This WILL connect the resource and make it available to you but will not allow the food/hammer/gold bonus that resource provides, if at some future date that tile ends up in a fat cross of a city you will need to rebuild the proper improvement destroying the fort to get that bonus. An upside is that you can put units in the fort and get bonuses to guard that resource. A downside is that it takes longer to build forts.
A lot of folks will automate some workers to build a trade network after improving their fat crosses. This catches any resources they may have missed and also makes road/rail building less tedious.
Note the "build trade network" setting is bugged. When workers finish building roads they start building improvements without paying attention to the "leave previous improvements" or " leave forests" settings.
They will replace a mill on a forested riverside hill with a windmill or a fully developed riverside town with a workshop. They don't just return to a city like pre-BtS... So unless you like seeing your previously established tile improvements paved under you won't want to automate workers even for trade any more...
They will replace a mill on a forested riverside hill with a windmill or a fully developed riverside town with a workshop. They don't just return to a city like pre-BtS... So unless you like seeing your previously established tile improvements paved under you won't want to automate workers even for trade any more...
Oh Lord, thanks for that heads-up. I haven't reached the point with BTS that I don't have anything left for those morons to build but it's coming soon.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Once you get to modern era the workers should work twice as slow as before until you hook up the tea resource. Then when you tell them to do an improvement a popup needs to appear saying "*intake of breath* It's a big job... won't be cheap, are those biscuits?". Maybe just for the English worker though.
I saw Uncle E's post yesterday, and thought that it would neatly put this thread 'to bed'.
Just because a "lot of folks" do it, doesn't make it right.
You really should be checking yourself for missed resources.
When it comes to Railroading - 'nine times out of ten' you should start with Mines, Quarries*, and Lumbermills in cities' fat-Xs before connecting other tiles with Railroads for the production bonus - I've not seen the AI prioritise this (in other people's games!), instead opting for the quickest connection, which is typically not over Mined Hills or through Milled Forests.
LedHead - thanks for that extra advice ... yet another reason why automating Workers - even with the Trade Network option and all the right ticked options - is a poor approach if you want to play better. My decision to stop automating my Workers way back not long after Civ4 was first released almost single-handedly lifted me from Noble to Prince level.
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* Quarries with a Railroad get +1
in some versions of Civ4.
Just because a "lot of folks" do it, doesn't make it right.
You really should be checking yourself for missed resources.
When it comes to Railroading - 'nine times out of ten' you should start with Mines, Quarries*, and Lumbermills in cities' fat-Xs before connecting other tiles with Railroads for the production bonus - I've not seen the AI prioritise this (in other people's games!), instead opting for the quickest connection, which is typically not over Mined Hills or through Milled Forests.
LedHead - thanks for that extra advice ... yet another reason why automating Workers - even with the Trade Network option and all the right ticked options - is a poor approach if you want to play better. My decision to stop automating my Workers way back not long after Civ4 was first released almost single-handedly lifted me from Noble to Prince level.
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* Quarries with a Railroad get +1
in some versions of Civ4.Your core cities usually provide a large part of your income, so there's no real reason not to automate your workers (or at least a part) after setting them up. They can't do too much wrong afterwards anyways. Telling people to do everything by hand is simply crap, that's ok to squeeze out the last 10%, but not for the 1st 10%.
Maestro_Innit
Warlord
Never happened to me. I've played less than half a dozen BTS games yet and I ALWAYS set workers to build trade network when there's nothing obvious to do.... and I ALWAYS nd up with stakcs of workers in my cities. I have leave structures and forests ticked and they always obay
I am curious if anyone who automates their workers actually has any success winning games at Warlord-Noble or higher levels? I'm really amazed people would automate their workers at all (except for build trade network when nothing left to do - that I can partially understand - although not fully because if at war you lose track where they are and they can be captured).
So do you guys win the game if you automate workers for things like building improvements around the cities? The AI really is just horrible at this and I don't know how I would ever win a game.
So do you guys win the game if you automate workers for things like building improvements around the cities? The AI really is just horrible at this and I don't know how I would ever win a game.
I regularly win on Prince with automated workers and cities, before i paused for over a year, i always beat monarch (and never bothered too much with emperor). Back in C3C-days, emperor was np (but you could reverse the diff with gpt-deals, so that doesn't really count).
I could play 5-10% stronger if i did everything by hand, but i just don't bother. I want to improve the much more important macromanagement first.
As already said, i do the core cities by hand to balance food/production. Ofc i don't allow the autoworkers to touch my enhancements or any forests.
I could play 5-10% stronger if i did everything by hand, but i just don't bother. I want to improve the much more important macromanagement first.
As already said, i do the core cities by hand to balance food/production. Ofc i don't allow the autoworkers to touch my enhancements or any forests.
Never happened to me. I've played less than half a dozen BTS games yet and I ALWAYS set workers to build trade network when there's nothing obvious to do.... and I ALWAYS nd up with stakcs of workers in my cities. I have leave structures and forests ticked and they always obay
Are you running with the patch and do you run any mods? I'm patched with no mods running.
For me (and at least some others) it seems soon as the workers run out of "trade" things to do (be it roads or build forts/improvements of resources) they start automated actions. They don't follow the automated limits though and will just start changing things at will. see my post and game save in bug section.
I was in the habit of setting a couple workers to trade and manually improving with others. With BtS I noticed my cottages were changed to workshops and lumbermills became windmills. Caught the culprits, thinking i might have hit the automate option instead of trade I hit trade again they went right back to screwing things up.
Because the name of the game is fun with learning and has been since Civilization 1 was made by Microprose in Hunt Valley MD, the days when you called tech support for bugs they sent you a patch floppy by mail. You had to look up key words in the manual and type them in for copy protection. Yeah I still have the original floppies and box for Civilization 1 including over 300 pages of book size manual and strategy guide that came in the box. What were they thinking in those days? Microprose was noted for their hefty manuals.
I wore out several computers playing Civ2, lol, Civ3 wasn't so hot and I played Vanilla Civ4 since it hit the shelves. I didn't play Warlords and BTS till last week so I'm a little behind there, and I can't forget the months I spent playing Alpha Centauri too.
So I have been playing Civs a long, long time. Not that that means anything except that I love these games and wouldn't give advice I don't use myself, sure errors creep in and that's what the forums are for but blanket statements don't help much in gaining understanding and they are not much fun.
Anyway no one is suggesting automating workers all the time, in fact that's a good way to NOT know what's going on. To clean up the messes automation a godsend. Automating them to fill in trade networks or single cities behind the front in a war zone to get things moving while you are banging heads elsewhere is wonderful.
The key is knowing when you can use worker automation safely.
GeneralMatt
Emperor
I don't play a lot, but after I get most things in place I just automate them (Regular) and if I need something specific (Like a Oil Well Pronto) I can always find a few somewhere. But I may try more after this, but for some reason I am a guy who doesn't (To my chagrin) like to take his time..
Edit: Btw On Warlords I had just started Prince, and I have only played 1 full game on BtS (On Warlord, it was fun though.
)Yeah, I play (and win) Monarch regularly. Of course, I don't automate my workers at the start - I micromanage my first six cities, and wait until I research Machinery, and then I turn the little guys loose. By that point, you have already laid the foundation for a winning game, and the cottage/farm decision in hybrid city #7 will not appreciably impact the outcome. I'll occasionally grab one to fix something I don't like, or build an oil well right away, or mine the uranium that pops underneath a town, but they are largely automated for the remainder of the game.
Optimal? Maybe not. But it certainly doesn't prevent me from winning on Monarch. I could probably spend more time micro-managing improvements to win a couple turns earlier and get a slightly higher score, but that's not how I enjoy playing.
Confirmed, automated workers on build trade network tried to build a fort on my pig pasture in the fat cross. There were still rails to build too so it's even worse. BTS+Gold (Vanilla+Warlords) all patches, no mods, "leave previous improvements" and "leave forests" settings on.
Whats weird is I took them off and put them back on and they never went back to building that fort instead started on rails again. I'm watching every turn.
Now I really don't know what's happening, since the above my workers finished up the rails and then went home like good little boys, no rebuilding of previous improvements.
Uncle E
Long time Prince player
I'm a micromanager from the start so I enjoy tweaking and opitmizing ... i can see where others don't want to spend the time, but i do believe it makes a difference ... especially every advantage you can get at higher lvls does count.
