are automated settlers totally ******** in this game?

[Illusion13]

Are they? Or, if they are nearly as effective as what they are in Civ 3, I might consider automating some... But, if I remember correctly, they dont even go clear up the freaken pollution when there is some....

 

[SVAndrei]

You are absolutely right. The automated settlers in Civ II are totaly ********. I have a hard time controlling them. So don't use that option. It will just ruin your day!

 

[funxus]

I think cleaning up pollution is just about the only thing they do right.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

You can try to get it to irigate far avay from water, but if it doesn't click on it straight away so you dont loose it, or find that it irrigated down all your forests...

 

[Achinz]

After playing for a while you soon realise that all the functions are best done yourself although it definitely contributes to the tedium of micromanagement in the late game.

 

[Illusion13]

the thing is... You cant just mass produce a bunch of settlers like you can do for workers in Civ 3 cause they require stupid upkeep....

 

[Archer 007]

I like to hand-control settlers.

 

[Ace]

Originally posted by Archer 007
I like to hand-control settlers.

That is the only way to go. In Civ2, automating settlers is totally wasteful. The only point to doing it is if you want to try to irrigate a hex that is not near water, and that does not always work. I cannot imagine the trouble a bunch of automated engineers could cause in the late game! Gems to grassland, coal to buffalo and all kinds of other mischief. Besides, one of the big attractions in building a really large civ, 150+ cities, is making each city reach a state of perfect balance. By that time, the ai will be reduced to one pet city and you are just trying to achieve the "perfect" civ...!

 

[The Person]

It's about time people stopped posting this. It's getting quite boring.

 

[Old n Slow]

Maybe we need to try some experiments -- take a smallish island, drop off two transports of engineers, automate them all & see what happens. It would be interesting to see if a new town springs up.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

A new town wont spring up. Auto settlers don't build cities. As for the reply to the question at the begining, YES.

 

[Carrot]

Actually, I did some testing. With cheat-mode I put two engineers on a small island and turned half of it into mountains. They roaded the entire available landmass before idling with 'no orders'. So I had my first settler build a city and put two engineers on a different island, only grasslands, and one of them immediately formed my second city while the other started roading an irrigating.

But sometimes they just run around, apparently trying to go to your other cities. A pointless attempt given that they are on an isolated island. I have yet to find a pattern in their behaviour, but more testing may reveal preferred actions given terrain, other cities and distance to them.