auto worker yes/no?

[Paykorm]

1)check the boxes : "workers leave the old improvements " and "workers leave the forest" ,

2)use the workers not automatel till :
a) you have made all your cities connected (automated workers will not do this for you),
b) you have made all improvements that you think is useful ,

3)then make your workers automated for "making trade routes",check them after : a) when you find "replacement part " , they will not make lumbermill automatically,
b) when you find railroad ,because they will not make railroads automatically,

best,

 

[Paykorm]

I wish to emphasize the most imprtant tip separately :

If you automate the workers, you will miss the subtle changes in and around your city , and this will make the game less fun!

 

[Anon]

Auto-workers ftw.

 

[Cam_H]

I feel as though I'm just echoing some of the earlier comments, but;

(a.) Unless you're contracted by or employed by the game designers, then you're playing Civ4 for fun. If you find handling Workers manually unbearably tedious and am content to just roll along with the game on the understanding that automated Workers will in most cases be a handicap to your chances of success but you can live with that, then maybe automation is the way to go for you.

(b.) If you want to prospectively increase your chances of success and am prepared to put in a little effort in thinking about how your Workers are shaping your empire, then I believe you should manually control your Workers.

If you get Automated Workers to leave old improvements, then they won't respond to 'say' converting Farms to Workshops when that could be the better move thanks to a change in Civics ... if you let Automated Workers change existing improvements, then they can rip up your Towns for unnecessary Farms and do other detrimental things.

Automated workers don't grasp your strategy, they're poor if not incapable of specialising cities' roles, don't position themselves to work on a new improvement when a key technology is about to be discovered (e.g. move to an Oil resource when you're about to get Combustion) and tend to find themselves on the cultural borders next to nations that you're about to have a conflict with!

With all of the expansions and patches, for all I know the behaviour of Automated Workers may have improved, but I haven't used them since I was playing at Noble level on Vanilla.

So, in summary, given that this is the Strategy & Tips forum where I presume people are interested in improving their gameplay, I'd recommend not to Automate your Workers.

Auto-workers ftw.

"For the weak"?

 

[jray]

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

As a tedious picky perfectionist old style player, I control pretty much everything manually and enjoy it that way. I think that once you learn some of the more subtle patterns it becomes its own little mini-game.

For example, you can learn how to checkerboard-chop (that is, chop in a checkerboard pattern and avoid putting roads on the tiles you want to spread forests to...since forests don't spread diagonally and are hampered by roads on the receiving tiles). That will net you a lot more forests throughout the game, and if you plan the checkerboards well, you won't be wasting too many tiles you would otherwise want to put improvements on.

A lot of players tend to use Build Trade Network automation, but I don't even use that anymore after seeing how many more forests I can generate by being more careful with roads.

You can spend a few minutes counting food and using Alt-S to put up signs indicating the improvement you want on each tile throughout your empire. After that, you can just use those signs as guides and not have to stress about micromanaging worker decisions anymore...just move a worker to the nearest sign, start the indicated improvement, and delete the sign.

The game is enjoyable on a whole new level once you learn the nuances of conversions among food, hammers, and commerce. But I know it's not for everyone. If you prefer the other aspects of the game and don't mind playing a couple difficulty levels below what you could play at, then by all means automate your workers guilt-free. I don't really care whether I can say I won at Emperor vs. won at Prince. I just do everything manually because I enjoy the optimization challenges.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I generally automate my workers and find that what is needed for greatest efficiency is

1. "workers leave old improvements" and "workers leave forests"
2. control the first few workers, those first few tiles are important
3. once you have enough workers, put one or two on "Trade Route"
4. Have some workers that you manually use to 'optimize', putting in key improvements first and switching improvements towards what you want for this city

Other things to remember, By holding down shift you can give workers a list of commands to do.

 

[Fetch]

The ONLY time I automate workers is when I've finished all the railroad techs. Then I tell them to build a trade network to lay down the rails. They will go to mines first, which I like (+1 hammer) and then connect cities.

 

[Matty R]

I only automate workers for building trade networks. They leave old improvements and forests.

I've found that stacking my workers and building improvements one at a time with all my workforce is making things much less confusing for me.

 

[twocan7]

I've tried several combinations. I have learned I suck at managing workers but I'm getting better. I was reading another post and learned how to specialize. I'm going to try it over the holiday. My biggest problem is knowing what to build. If I specialize it will give me some direction.

I did start watching what the computer builds and I think I could feed the entire planet! Farms farms and more farms. yuck. I also noticed the computer will chop a forest and then build it back several turns later. weird!

This game seems to be much more involved then civ III where I put them on auto and was quite successful.

 

[duende29]

I automate workers only after I get Railroad, because by then (95% of the times) I have fully improved the BFCs of every city. Only then I use the one that automates roads and resources AND I have "leave improvements" and "leave forests" enabled. The AI generally does a decent job at building railroads where it matters the most.

Unless I'm at war, cuz then railroading to the next front takes priority.

 

[Lazonby]

I think the folks that automate workers either have too many workers or don't know what to do with them if they used them manually. At least that's how I felt about it when I first started playing.

My last game was excessively successful...total butt-whipping (Noble) because I got my cities off the ground quickly. I typically build 6 workers for an entire 15+ city empire. Granted 5-7 of those cities come late game when the workers have nothing to do. Strategic planning is key, so here's my take:

1. When starting cites, you only have so many pop points an tiles you can actually work. Work the necessities (corn, cows, stone, copper, etc) & connect them with cities. Connect your cities /w roads. Try to build them on rivers so you get them auto-connected. If not, no biggie.

2. You should be expanding early...very early. After your second city, you need a second worker, then a third, then 2 more settlers, then 2 more workers, then 2-3 more settlers. Build your workers/settlers after your pop reaches 2. This will allow your city to work the main resource tiles until you get your workers back to the city. After getting your initial expantion complete and workers built, this is where you build an army (/w copper/iron) and the necessary infrastructure (cultural) while you let your cities grow and your workers work.

3. Basically you're only working the essentials for quick, early growth that will sustain your city for a bit. Eventually, you'll get your workers back to the original city and develop it to last you a while. At this point, you will want to work on commerce/production depending upon your city specialization. Don't work water tiles when you can be working a cottage. If you're going production w/ mines in hills, you'll need to work on food BEFORE the mines. The next city pop will hit the mine as long as you have a surplus of food (+2 for stagnant, +3 for further growth).

3a. You got to have a plan for your city: you need to know exactly where your next pop point is going to be working. You'll use a worker to improve the next tile your upcoming pop point is going to work, that way, you can run off to another city and do the same. While your working another city, your city you just worked has grown and still continues to grow. You do NOT improve land you cannot work until you need to work it! Just be sure you know which tile you're going to work and when you need to work it so your city doesn't stagnate or starve.

4. I almost always save forests for last because I like to put lumbermills on them. Unless I need a certain improvement, I just leave them. I only remove jungles surrounding the city and get back to them when I have the necessary improvements.

5. It's cost analysis. If a improving a tile won't help you on the next turn, then why improve it? Stay only 1 improved tile ahead of your next pop point.

Hope this help a little for what you should be doing with your workers. When you play like this, it makes for a much better game and not so tedious.

 

[Iranon]

Of course, automation isn't the optimal choice. However, if we assume you're only willing to spend a set amount of time on a turn, I think having a few ones automated on trade network is a smart move; other forms of micromanagement will probably do more.

Under no circumstances should you automate them all, and I would restrict them from demolishing improvements and cutting down forests (an option to clear jungles but leave forests would be nice). Even then I prefer to do improvements by hand if I have a clear plan for the city (which I ususally do).

 

[bsghetto]

im pretty new to civ4 but i think auto-workers takes half the fun out of the game..i mean el oh el laaaaazy.

 

[Aeravel]

At first I automated my workers but I realized I had to stop because they seemed to build forts everywhere which consumes many turns that could be used more effectively. It might save you a few minutes of time using automated workers but automated workers can waste a lot of turns. Five turns for a mine compared to thirteen for a fort adds up after a lot of forts. Also sometimes you want certain cities connected first before the others. Then there's the problem of autoworkers loving to chop trees you want to keep for lumbermills.

As others have said it's better to first develop the land you'll actually use which autoworkers don't prioritize.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

(an option to clear jungles but leave forests would be nice).

That's what the current option does... The only way to stop an auto-worker from chopping down a Jungle is to have a Preserve on the Jungle and "Workers don't replace Old Improvements" on.

 

[twocan7]

I didn't know this was so complicated. I have played a couple of games and did some experimenting. I still have a lot to learn on what to do on different tiles but I'm getting better. I usually take my fourth or fifth work and auto trade networks and when I get late in the game I auto all except a few. On the latest game I found a problem. I had a farm where uranium was and so the computer wouldn't destroy the farm. Luckily I discovered this and now know to watch for it. Thank you all for your help. Maybe one day I won't be a Newbie anymore