Am I handling this right?

[Nut]

Well, let me say that I'm hooked. I was a bigtime Civ I & II player, but 3 never bit me, even when I returned for Conquests.

I'm enjoying Civ4, and in the early game I'm damned near enthralled by it (OMTS is the clinical term, I believe). But once things grow a bit, it gets lost, and the fun factor flies right out the window.

I've narrowed it down, and I believe the entire reason I can't stand to play a game when I get too many cities comes down to two things:

1] I open every city every time it completes something. I'm not a control freak, but I can't really figure out a way not to do this due to the single fact that I need to know what's already been built. I can deal with a few cities from memory, but when it gets over that I am just desperate for a way to see already constructed improvements.

When I get the "This building has been completed! Choose another." pop-up, I hit Examine City every time, because that's the only way I can tell what's there already. I'd be more than happy to try to pick out a few key buildings visually, but the "building has been completed" dialogue locks me out of zooming in, and there's no way I can pick out any city details from a bird's eye.

Is there any way at all to see a list of city improvements without opening every city screen? Perhaps through mods? That alone would be massive for me.

2] Workers. Unlike #1, which never got to me like it does here, this seems to me the same problem as the previous games. Once my empire gets to a certain scale, I've got a continent stuffed full of cities and about 10-15 workers running around trying to find things to do. But at a certain point I run out of the obvious things. I start going over the map each turn struggling to find enough jobs for them to do, and while I can usually pull that off, it takes way too much time and isn't much fun when I want to get back to growing & warring.

At a certain point I just slap half of them onto automated, but then a few turns later I see that there are windmills where I wanted mines, and they cut down all my forests where I wanted the health bonus. D'oh!

Okay, perhaps I am a control freak on my #2 complaint. I obviously want the efficiency of micromanagement but it just gets too much for me to take, with 10 minutes of worker shuffling and city opening each turn after 1750ad or so. These are all on standard speed, standard size maps.

I've started around eight games and finished two, including one that I devoted a lot of time and energy (and fun) into up to 1900ad but just could not bear the tedium of when I reloaded a save.

Does anyone have any tips for me, whether on correcting the game or correcting my own perspective? I'd like to finish my games. I really would.

 

[Jarrod32]

I sometimes find myself in the same shoes. The 'setup' part of the game is fun...building your empire, watching it grow, and so forth. But then...it is built. And it seems to get boring.

I've found that having a clear-cut victory plan helps. I played a game last weekend with the focus on a cultural win. Watching the 'big three' cities go to 300 culture per turn, to 400, to 500, to 600...that was fun. And there was always that next building...or the next wonder...that would increase the culture output more. It was a focused goal...and once the path had started, it became hard to turn away.

Now, I am on a game as the Mongols. I am (or was) on a continent with three other Civs...the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Inca. I'm friendly with the Inca (we have the same religion), I took out the Arabs, and the Greeks are next (though my Keshiks do have a wee bit of fear when thinking of the Phalanx). Clear focus, clear victory plan...the continent will be mine!! Then, I will either get a diplomatic victory, or domination.

 

[scienide09]

#1. I too like examining my cities to see what's already bulit. And I too can't always remember what is already there, and find myself going back. The solution is to add items to the build queue. Visit the city once, and tell it to build a number of things. Hold <shift> while clicking on items to add them to the queue. Hold <ctrl> to immediately add that item to the top of the build queue.
Eventually you'll have to go back to the city to issue more orders, but this way you can avoid doing so every few turns.

#2. Unfortunately the auto-worker problem seems to have been transported from CivIII as well. There just isn't a way to have them on auto AND maximize tile improvement --- they inevitably get something wrong. I will say that in CivIV they do a better job. If it really frustrates you, you'll have to micromanage.
One option might be to store workers in one of your cities until there is a number of jobs to assign. Then send them out one by one. Of course, this will mean delaying when that tile actually gets improved.
Or, leave them on auto, and simply let them improve at will. You might not get maximized tile usage, but at least you'll enjoy the game more.

 

[Astax]

1) You can click on the city bar that lists the production and it will let you see the production without going into the city screen. Also if you zoom in on the city you can see the buildings right on the map if you know what to look for I personally dont like lot of cities so I stick to smaller maps cause I know I'll never finish a big map :/ You can try that approach too.

2) Once you cant find somethign for your workers to do, AUTOMATE them. There is an option you can set in the game options that will keep them from voerdoign already placed improvements, so they wont plant farms all over your cottages :/ I guarantee they'll have something to do, running around placing roads on every single tile. And when they are done they sit tight in the city till something else comes up. It's only for your own sanity, and its what I do. After a while you dont have to micro your workers.

As I said, game can be fun no matter what the map size. Play a couple of Duel maps, those can end quick A tiny continent map with 2-3 opponents will still be somewhat challenging provided the level is right. And you'll find it on a small map you can really be without a crucial resource which will provide additional challenges Imagine a game where you have no horses and no iron, all you can do is sit tight and make sure the AI is pleased with you so he wont attack you archer only cities tilly ou get gunpowder Oh and late game where there is very little oil, CHALLENGING.

 

[petey]

The early game is far superior to the late game. This is due to the fact that there just aren't all that many different things to do as you get further into the game and it does tend to go into somewhat of a rut. There are many times that I've just quit halfway through and started another game, even when I'm winning - the beginning part is just more fun.

For the cities, try using the build queue more often and have each city work on five or six things in a row, that way you won't have to go back in so often. For the workers, once they're done with everything, I just fortify them in a stack next to my capital. That way, they don't tear down anything I've built and I know where they all are if something come sup where I need them and I don't have to cycle through them each turn.

Also, for the end game, you could try disbanding all your military units and then dropping a bunch of nukes on your neighbours and watch them run over all your cities. It's not a productive solution, but it might be fun to watch.

 

[Gargoyle]

1] You could put 2 or 3 items in the build que. You don't even get a pop-up at all when your city finishes one, it just starts the next and you get a little text message.

2] I try NOT to build to many workers. If they can stay ahead of city needs (each city has population to work improved tiles while a worker is improving a tile for the next population increase) then you have enough.

 

[Nut]

I appreciate the advice. Utilizing queues helps, but I notice that when you do let one run out of orders you're unable to queue more than one item when it automatically takes you to your city without changing to the details screen. That combined with the inability to view what's already been built without also going there seems to counter my efforts to try to manage cities from the world view.

This is coming off as an interface whine now, and I suppose it is. I'm loving the game, but it sounds as though we are in agreement that things get out of hand in the later game, especially if you have conquered additional land. With too many cities it turns into a little more clicking than grand strategizing.

Perhaps that's unavoidable to some extent, but I hope that we'll be able to put our heads together and share the ways in which we each try to mitigate the tedious bits of an otherwise engaging game system.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

One other thing to do in terms of building improvements... look at what improvements it will let you build...
if the city Has a Barracks, then you can't build one

If you have the tech for university but there is no university Or library in your list of possible buildings, then the university has been built there.

This doesn't help with Wonders, but with normal buildings it does.


As for queues, the idea is to still Go to the detail screen every time one runs out... they just means that you only have to do it 1/5 as often.