auto worker yes/no?

[twocan7]

I'm new to civ iv but have played II and III. I always automate my workers but it seems from what I read that might be a bad idea. I am married with kids so I try to make the game fast and easy. For some unkown reason with Civ IV I have started getting a lot more addicted to the dismay of my wife. Anyway, to automate or not to automate?

 

[Imrahil91]

I also used to automate them before I knew more about the improvements. Now I just automate them in the late game when everything is improved, or to make them build roads and railroads (I have checked the options to stop them from destroying old improvements and forests.

So my advice is to keep them automated until you know what you're doing

And since this is your first post, welcome to CFC!

 

[DaveMcW]

The most important thing is to build enough workers! 1.5 workers per city is a good guideline.

 

[twocan7]

This brings up another question. Late in the game when I have a lot of workers just sitting around should I disband some of them or keep them all?

 

[kcmarkwell]

Usually maintenance that late in the game for a worker is minimal. I keep them around because as I am taking cities, they help get it up to speed fast. I do not automate in the first 50% of the game where workers are crucial to get resources / cities hooked up fast. After that, I usually go half automated, half not.

 

[Daedal]

Automated workers tend to give you too many farms. They'll also chop forests haphazardly so you won't be able to use them to rush important items. They also don't take into account any sort of specialization you're trying to maintain in your cities. You can probably get away with automated workers at noble difficulty and below, but they'll be a handicap to you. Read through some of the other articles on this board to see how people normally work tiles then look at how the AI works tiles... Orion's Home School games are really good at showing this because he goes into detail about what he's doing in his cities and why.

1.5 workers per city is a good number, but it all depends on circumstance. Your cities won't be operating at peak efficiency until you have all their worked tiles improved. Maybe later on you want to switch improvements? Maybe you wanted to grow your cities fast so you put farms on flood plains, but then you wanted to grow commerce faster so you cottaged over that. Then there's railroads... you'll want lots of workers when you get that tech so you can hook up your empire ASAP. It's really up to you how many workers you keep. If they're a drag on your economy and you're not using them, disband some. Otherwise they may as well stick around. I tend to hang on to them throughout the game because I stop building them after a while so that 1.5:1 worker:city ratio drops and the workers formerly working core cities start working newly captured cities and outlying colonies.

 

[LlamaCat]

automate your wife... not your workers

 

[twocan7]

Thanks for the Tips. I just discovered orion's home school and started to read it but there is a lot of reading but what else would I be doing while at work

Automate wife = don't get any

 

[oyzar]

automated workers are pretty darn inefficient. They don't necessary build the right improvements they don't move optimally and they improve the wrong titles in the wrong order... Of course if you have no clue what you are doing then it might end up even worse than automated workers though this should seldom be the case as managing workers is fairly intuitive..

 

[Levgre]

if you want to automate workers, automate them to "improve nearest city", which will save travel time and allow you to concentrate on cities that need improvements.

Also have a couple workers automated to "build trade connections", so your resources linked up.

The main problem with workers is that they always choose farms over cottages if there is irrigation, but in fact cottages are much more important for winning the game.

So what you can do is build some cottages manually, then set workers on auto.
Make sure to check "workers leave old improvements" in the options menu, so they don't just build farms over the cottages.



Then, after you have all this automated, just keep an eye on your workers as they go about automated. If you see them doing something you don't like, or want them to do something specific, order them to do so.

 

[Milarqui]

Well, I am really hooked to the game, and as a some-kind-of-veteran in Civ4 and its expansions, I do recommend the following:
1: At first, when you have very few workers, don't automate them. maybe you can tell them to go and make a road to a resource you really need with the "Creating Route" command. That will take care of the farm-quarry-mine-or-whatever-you-need.
2: When you start having many cities in your continent, put a few of your workers on "build trade connections", which will take care of the resources, and control your workers manually. It's better if you don't put them to "improve next city", it might make something you don't want.
3: Be careful and constantly look for what the workers do. I have suffered many times the stupidness of the workers, because sometimes (especially if it's a resource you can see but can't build the required improvements) they decide to build a fort over said resource (does anybody happen to know how to correct this bug?)
4: If there is one or more continents and you have managed to expand your empire overseas, send many workers there and put them to "build trade connections". Your economy will appreciate it.

 

[InFlux5]

In the beginning, go manual and build all key improvements. As you run out of important tasks, it's ok to automate some, as long as the options to leave forests and leave old improvements are both checked in the game options. This way you don't have to worry about the automatons building over your chosen improvements, or wasting valuable forests on random builds. But manually controlling all your Workers will always be superior. The computer doesn't know what you want to do overall and in each city, so it doesn't know whether a farm or cottage is more appropriate.

 

[troytheface]

some sorry advice is given above. However, as a hypermodern civ player i automate everything and suggest the following ....

Click "Automated workers leave forest" and "Automated workers leave old improvements".
"Missionaries/Executives Start Automated" (better chance of successful conversion if automated)

I also suggest "units autopromote" .

By freeing you up from all of that you can devote more time to overall strategy and espionage and your wife, which supports your original intent- Nietschze (sp) "instinct is the keenest intelligence"

Tedious picky perfectionist old style players refuse to automate because surprise builds are, i guess, to much for them to bare.

 

[twocan7]

I tried autopromote my last game and hated it. I like to get several troops together and specialize each one differently which makes the group more well rounded.

I appreciate the advice. I think I know what I'm going to try this weekend. I'm first not going to automate until later in the game. If that proves to slow the game down to much or is a pain in the butt then I will go full auto.

Thanks everyone. I know my game has improved today. I can't wait to get home and start a new game! I might try noble the game after that.

 

[JBossch]

I suspect a direct correlation between your tendency toward automation and the difficulty at which you are still playing. Automation is only a good idea in multiplayer games where the turn timer is set at something ridiculous. There i almost always something for your workers to do and if not just put them to sleep somewhere safe. In the early game, worker use is so critical - call me old school but automation is suicide.
Does anyone know if it is true that missionaries get better results with when automated? This makes no sense.
Autopromote is a terrible idea.
If you absolutely must automate, definitely make sure they are not chopping forests/bulldozing your towns for farms as others have said.

 

[stoots]

I think automation is not quite as evil as these forums make is seem.
I play on emperor atm and have no issues winning when I dont manually control my workers after say 1300AD.
Its not that hard to keep the workers busy with useful improvements before then. But I just get sick of doing it and its not that bad if you use the city governor settings. Just pay attention to your GP farm as the gov there blows and the workers just go generic improvements without a gov.

 

[Refar]

3: Be careful and constantly look for what the workers do. I have suffered many times the stupidness of the workers, because sometimes (especially if it's a resource you can see but can't build the required improvements) they decide to build a fort over said resource (does anybody happen to know how to correct this bug?)

Since Bts you will get access to ressource, if you build a fort over it. So the AI (and autoworkers) will build forts over Ressources, that are not in the BFC of any city and hence can't be worked. Since the Fort takes more worker turns than everyting else, its just stupid, but it's not a bug in the strict sense...

 

[Belisar]

Is it most efficient to automate workers? NO
Does it cost time to do everything on your own? YES

So by automating workers you are simply not playing the most efficient way, that's all to keep in mind. If you are accepting the performance loss then it's no problem, but if you are struggling with a difficult level and want to get the most of your worker turns I would not automate.
Personally, I'm against ANY kind of automatization, I even want a pop-up every time a city grows asking me "Sire, what tile should we work next?"

You were asking about disbanding workers in the middle of the game where the basic infrastructure is built.
Don't. Railroads and biology will result in a lot of worker action even in a peaceful game.
And if you are a warmonger like me you always need combat workers.

 

[Diamondeye]

Auto workers yes or no?

NO

 

[Deriem]

Whenever I automate my workers, I always use the "Build Trade Route" command. I still keep a pair or two in case I need to change an improvement/chop. But I like the automation for the command. It hooks up all your resources first, then all your improvement, and if you leave it long enough then they build a road/rail in every square of your empire. They're pretty smart about getting rails too, imo. They always seem to beeline to mines/lumbermills so I can get that extra . But when it comes to improvements, I will never trust an AI!