automate workers?

[Jawz II]

Bumpero.

So how do I automate them for pollution clearing only? I found a PDF file on the main site with a list of commands at it said "shift+p" to automate for pollution clearing only. I also remembered having seen it here a bunch of times.

tried that but nothing happened. I have conquest with the latest patch and everything.

I have only 1 button for automation, which makes the workers behave like drunk children, theyll screw up my carefully balanced improvements and or will fortify themselves somewhere on the edge of the map (I own the continent) or they will scatter and fortify in some obscure small town somewhere (almost like they are trying to avoid work, great AI there).

what am I doing wrong?

 

[Desertsnow]

Yes, it's true, and it's not a glitch, electricity can let you irrigate any tile that can be irrigated, without direct access to freshwater.

 

[thetrooper]

@Jawz Zwei: it's 'shift + d' for C3C.

 

[Desertsnow]

Oh yeah, automate for cleaning. Well yeah, theres thetrooper's suggestion, or if you go into the preferences menu and check 'advanced unit actions' a screen button for it will appear in future turns.

 

[seanos08]

I can't be bothered micromanaging all workers. I use road to and rail to to link cities and resources. I use auto clear wetland if I have a lot of it. Late in the game I set most workers to auto - non alter which has the effect that all pollution is dealt with witout me having to do anything and the workers will rail all my tiles.

 

[poisener]

To automate certain things its easier to just during play click "menu" then "preferences" and check the box that says "advanced actions".
this allows u to do all these complicated actions without having to memorize
a bunch of hotkeys

 

[Sashie VII]

I don't even automate for pollution, but only because I'd forget which cities were cleaned up and didn't correct the citizen allocation and stuff

 

[poisener]

i usually just automate workers after i get over about ten. it makes it easier to concentrate on other things.

 

[CommandoBob]

i usually just automate workers after i get over about ten. it makes it easier to concentrate on other things.

With ten workers you can really begin to use them well. One stack of three making roads, a tile every other turn (Turn 1: all three move into the tile and stop. Turn 2: all three make and complete road. Repeat as needed.) A second stack of three workers, also making roads. One stack of 4 workers irrigating already roaded tiles.

In a rather quick amount of tile your cities will be connected to other, which means every citizen can benefit from the luxuries you have connected and each city can build whatever units your strategic resources will allow.

More roads being worked by the citizens in your cities means more commerce, which in turn translates into a faster tech pace and more gold in the bank.

More roads also mean a better response time if the AI decides to become grab-happy with some of your more distant cities.

 

[Bartleby]

Quite a bump.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Incorrect. Incorrect. Incorrect.

Learn proper worker management as early on in your play development as you can. That means NEVER AUTOMATE THEM! The AI uses workers in an amazingly inefficient way. Automating them puts you on the same level as the AI. At anything at Monarch or above, one of your few advantages is knowing how to develop territory and when. Believe me (I'm playing at Deity now), you will need to fine-tune your worker management to the point where you'll be calculating when exactly to lay down that road and where it has to be to put you in position to dig the next one. Every sheild and coin counts. You can't afford to have a worker wasting turns mining a mountain when you need to be irrigating that wheat for your settler factory.

 

[Desertsnow]

That and train lots of them. I would not have advanced above Warlord if I had not learned to start producing workers early in the game. You will need to produce hordes of workers (or buy or capture slaves) especially at higher levels. Yes, this means more of them to manage, but it also means more of them managed stupidly if you automate them.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I never automate my workers, they are just too stupid. Even for pollution. Even if you own your entire continent, with no worry about them wandering into a war-zone. The first time that happened, it convinced me. Hey guys, let's build a road across enemy territory, that way we can be captured by some other country! Never again! Or go running off to clean up volcano damage and get roasted by a new eruption. It happens. Automating workers is folly. Do it at your own risk.

 

[Nergal]

It is funny though ... I hate volcanoes but when they fry workers or barbs I have to laugh. Or when you have a ROP and either your workers or theirs build a rail across each others territory.I do tend to automate my foriegn workers to clear wetlands, its such a terrible job, I may as well victimise them. But thats only when its safe. I've lost track of the number of times automated workers have run off to work on the border just before the enemy attacks and pinches them all. Stupid isnt in it, they are like lemmings, left to themselves they would be trying to dig up ICBMs and stuff. Its either that or they decide everything is done, and next thing you find them playing cards in a city while another city is starving due to lack of irrigation.

 

[Sweetchuck]

I used to automate workers until I saw them continuously move to a spot and move back without making any improvements and wasting turns.

They do that a lot.

Plus, you'll see them pile onto a spot like a mountain with what appears to be a setup for improvement (10 of them or so). Then, next turn - a spot of pollution appears and every worker including the ones on the mountain rush toward the pollution. After every worker on the continent has delt with the pollution - they go back to wasting turns.

I don't even automate them for pollution. It's too easy to forget about them and you have to re-set your citizens once the pollution is cleared.

As far as mines & irrigation go, you really have to decide that yourself. If you don't have a food square nearby, irrigating a green tile (if only green tiles are within your city limits) is a good thing if you want that city to grow. The AI sometimes over-irrigates and having a city growing at an alarming rate with little shield value only leads to excessive unhappiness.

 

[Desertsnow]

It is funny though ... I hate volcanoes but when they fry workers or barbs I have to laugh.

Or when they fry enemy units.

I've never experienced the irony of losing workers clearing volcano damage because the volcano goes off again. They've been lost on rare occasion while doing other tasks near volcanoes, though. Ironically I automate only to clear damage. I don't think I've ever automated to clear wetlands. I like to do the terraforming in its due time.

I've lost track of the number of times automated workers have run off to work on the border just before the enemy attacks and pinches them all. Stupid isnt in it, they are like lemmings, left to themselves they would be trying to dig up ICBMs and stuff. Its either that or they decide everything is done, and next thing you find them playing cards in a city while another city is starving due to lack of irrigation.

The biggest example of lemminglike actions among workers is watching the enemy's workers flee into a city currently under attack--not that I mind.