How to make production STOP at a city?

[4Eyed Duncan]

Just like the title says... how can I make a city stop producing buildings/units without major side-effects?

Once I exhaust the building possibilities at a given city (and have improved all surrounding terrain, etc.--and it is not in a strategic location) I just want to be able to move on. I hate having to come back "nanny" the city later.

For example, if I complete a building queue and don't change it, then the option "blinks" and starts to accumulate shields. If I just leave this alone, will it have any negative ramifications for that city like unhappy citizens or food depletion??

Thanks in advance for any advice/insight.

 

[Theov]

I don't think you can, so you're left with building something use it and sell it and use it again etc.
Why do you want production to stop?

 

[4Eyed Duncan]

I dunno... I guess if there are no major repercussions to letting shields accumulate then it's all good. I just like to "perfect" a city, then watch it grow... It's a serious pain to micromanage when I have dozens of cities.

 

[Whelkman]

Imagine the pain of micromanaging 127 cities! Besides letting the shields stack (which is fine), and selling off buildings (which I guess is out of the question but SDI Defense takes long enough to build to warrant consideration), there's also Caravan building, which is technically the best choice. However that ushers in a new era of micromanagement.

 

[Bloodwing]

I've never noticed anything harmful with letting the shields pile up in some weird city in a less than strategic position before, and sometimes, it will have enough shields that I can immediately get a new WOW. The shields in the city can run over an allotted limit (I'm not sure what that limit is, exactly), but the production will only restart from 0 shields and go through the cycle again.

 

[Valen]

Stopping a city from building too much - not a problem I've ever had.
Have you built your space ship yet?

 

[axx]

it's an annoyance you encounter if you have too many cities and units, in civ2 this is no problem with capitalization.

 

[Tristan_C]

The only negative ramification of piling up shields is that it's an utter waste. Why even bother building the city if you're not going to do anything with its end-stage production.

Spam caravans or military. If you want it to build money, then sell and rebuild improvements, but caravans are nearly always preferable to this.

I've never noticed anything harmful with letting the shields pile up in some weird city in a less than strategic position before, and sometimes, it will have enough shields that I can immediately get a new WOW. The shields in the city can run over an allotted limit (I'm not sure what that limit is, exactly), but the production will only restart from 0 shields and go through the cycle again.

I am pretty sure it is 800 (ten rows of 80 shields) but could be 999. Either way, after 600 there is no point.

 

[Mize]

Also, don't forget the "Pirates plunder city" event. Losing a caravan in progress is much less painful than getting those 5-600 shields stolen when you're waiting for a wonder to appear on your build list.

 

[torstenschaefer]

Perhaps let the city produce nuclear missiles and delete them right away, when they first appear in the city as an active unit.

 

[kelevra_slevin]

Buil Caravan or Diplomat. Under Democracy nuclear units give +1 unhappy face.

 

[jordissim]

Don't have to. Just choose very carefullly the last building you're going to produce in that city: the least uesful one works for me. Once built, let the shields accumulate. Should you need to build an army: ready in one turn! Then proceed to build a palace, and continue letting the shields pile up. Always worked for me...

 

[Deadjuice]

I've run into this problem in civ games too. I hate it, I have specific uses for every city I build.

If I build everything I need in a city, then I have to keep building and wind up inflating my city cost, so my gold depletes and I have to sell the stupid building I didn't even want to make.
Or micromanage a caravan (which actually can be super useful at times).
I've thought of just not touching a queue after it finnishes, but then I always get a annoying pop-up message every turn. I guess that isn't as annoying as having to micromanage an already "done" city though. I understand why the game is designed like that, I just wish they could have hidden a little "stop production" button somewhere.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

I remember this problem from when I played Civ on Amiga.
My "solution" was to build Recycling Center and sell it for 200 gold each time it was completed. If the city needed a Recycling Center in order to not pollute, I would build and sell Mfg. Plants.

Also, don't forget the "Pirates plunder city" event. Losing a caravan in progress is much less painful than getting those 5-600 shields stolen when you're waiting for a wonder to appear on your build list.

I think I recall some plundering of shields? How did it work, and was there a way to prevent it?

 

[trada]

I remember this problem from when I played Civ on Amiga.
My "solution" was to build Recycling Center and sell it for 200 gold each time it was completed. If the city needed a Recycling Center in order to not pollute, I would build and sell Mfg. Plants.



I think I recall some plundering of shields? How did it work, and was there a way to prevent it?

Barracks.

You cannot stop production so just build a building and sell it for sweet, sweet money. And repeat. I usually use Barracks because I rarely *need* them as permanent fixtures. Plus they build quick for a better cash flow.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

Barracks it was. Haha I miss the various disasters in Civ1.

I chose as expensive buildings as possible for building and selling because I hated to do the work with selling and making the cities build it again. I had many cities.

 

[Tristan_C]

Between each turn, research is piled onto the total by each city in the order (I believe) in which they were founded. The cities also make all their calculations (production, food, unrest, etc.) one-by-one during this sequence. Problem is, if a city finishes production of a building during its miniature turn, it will contribute research but will not discover an advance. The next city will have to discover the advance. But if that city completes a building instead, well you get the idea. These things can get shoved way back if the civ is poorly-microed. This also goes for caravans because unlike other units caravans generate an actual message like "Bumbleflump produces Caravan."

I haven't tested this, but I have a hunch from some experience somewhere or another that if a city fails to discover a tech by completing a building or van, that city pushes the number of bulbs required for the tech up by the difficulty modifier; i.e., chieftain +6 ... emperor +14. Which of course would increment all subsequent techs upwards by this amount as well.

In conclusion, don't go nuts making huge cities complete tiny buildings like barracks, or they will have the potential to actually harm your entire civilization's research speed whether my hunch is true or not. And like I said earlier, what is the point of building a huge city if you will not use its end stage production. Point farming maybe.

 

[Whelkman]

Between each turn, research is piled onto the total by each city in the order (I believe) in which they were founded.

Kinda sorta. It's done in the order of the internal data structure, which is revealed by the city status (F1) or other views. The structure mostly follows order of founding but not quite.

 

[Valen]

Problem is, if a city finishes production of a building during its miniature turn, it will contribute research but will not discover an advance. The next city will have to discover the advance.

If the city is building its barracks on "automatic", it can complete the barracks and make a discovery in the same turn.
In addition, the city's research gets a 50% bonus (my best empirical estimate) in the turn the building was completed. This bit of exploitation increases your research speed.

 

[Tristan_C]

Well, that's good to know. These auto builds have all kinds of hidden benefits it seems.