Automated Production

[sullivan87]

Although not a fanatic, I have been playing Civ since Civ I, and long ago discovered that I preferred to automate city production and just work with what I get. That worked great with Civ III. Not so much with Civ IV. In most cases, after producing a few warriors and archers, my cities simply stop producing military units. Needless to say, this becomes a problem when opponents show up with tanks. Am I missing some way to encourage the production of a more appropriate number of military units?

 

[blackrabbit]

If you want something done right, do it yourself lol. Seriously though, isn't there an "emphasis on defense" or "emphasis on military" option in the city detail screen? I think there is one to emphasize production, commerce and stuff i think, not sure about a military option though. If there isn't one, there should be!!!!

The other option is to queue up a bunch of units so you don't have to deal with managing production as often.

 

[sullivan87]

If I recall correctly (at work), Civ III gave the flexibility to emphasize certain types of production, but (as you say) Civ IV only has "emphasize production". Yes, I could queue up a bunch of units, but that would mean picking which to queue up, which I was trying to avoid.

 

[g.neuman]

I've been playing Civ since the release of Civ II. I have never and will never automate anything. Not even a settler. Poor long-term strategy and an inability to plan are evident in the way the AI manages the other civilizations. Why the hell would I let it make decisions for me?

The solution to your problem is "don't automate production". I know that's not the answer you wanted, but it is nonetheless the correct one.

 

[sullivan87]

I've been playing Civ since the release of Civ II. I have never and will never automate anything. Not even a settler. Poor long-term strategy and an inability to plan are evident in the way the AI manages the other civilizations. Why the hell would I let it make decisions for me?

The solution to your problem is "don't automate production". I know that's not the answer you wanted, but it is nonetheless the correct one.

I fear that you have missed my point. I wasn't suggesting that automating the cities is the easiest way to win. I said that I enjoy playing that way. It's more of a challenge, and it frees me from administrivia.

We're talking about a game here. The is no "correct" answer.

 

[AppleTheMan]

I TOTALLY agree! I wish there was a way to automate all my army, diplomacy, and government as well, then I could have my cities, production, government, army, and workers all automated and all I would have to do is sit down and press end turn!

What would be even better was if end turn was automated. Then I could just start the game in the morning and go to work!
I wouldn't even have to feel bad if I got home and found out that I lost the game because it wouldn't be my fault.

 

[sullivan87]

I TOTALLY agree! I wish there was a way to automate all my army, diplomacy, and government as well, then I could have my cities, production, government, army, and workers all automated and all I would have to do is sit down and press end turn!

What would be even better was if end turn was automated. Then I could just start the game in the morning and go to work!
I wouldn't even have to feel bad if I got home and found out that I lost the game because it wouldn't be my fault.

Cute - though a bit unsubtle. Two points:

1) The point of the game is not winning. It's enjoying.

2) Micromanagement is not an ethical imperative.

 

[AppleTheMan]

Cute - though a bit unsubtle. Two points:

1) The point of the game is not winning. It's enjoying.

2) Micromanagement is not an ethical imperative.

Also very cute, well written, and philosophical Mr. Gandhi. I especially like how there are two points.

Just take a joke for a joke.
Life is better when not taken too seriously. *pats you on the back*

 

[sullivan87]

Also very cute, well written, and philosophical Mr. Gandhi. I especially like how there are two points.

Just take a joke for a joke.
Life is better when not taken too seriously. *pats you on the back*

Sorry - I guess I'm a bit grumpy today. (I'd rather be at home playing!)

 

[AppleTheMan]

Good thing the game is not all automated then!

But on the more serious note, Civ is definitely a very deep game and isn't really the type of game that can be played or was made to be played without giving a lot of thought to things.

 

[sullivan87]

Good thing the game is not all automated then!

But on the more serious note, Civ is definitely a very deep game and isn't really the type of game that can be played or was made to be played without giving a lot of thought to things.

I agree. I just prefer to spend most of my time thinking about military strategy rather than economic management or force development. In essence, I play the game as operational commander, leaving most of the other roles to the computer. Yes, I am missing out on some of the depth of the game, but it makes the game move along much faster, increasing the amount of time spent in my preferred role.

Yes, playing that way does often result in non-optimal development and production. It resembles reality that way. I take a perverse pleasure in going to war with an oddball force.

Isn't part of the beauty of the game that one can to a large extent define one's role?

 

[AppleTheMan]

Then try some of the scenarios... You might find the WWII one pretty fun. (although these may only come with WL and BTS I can't recall)

 

[g.neuman]

I fear that you have missed my point. I wasn't suggesting that automating the cities is the easiest way to win. I said that I enjoy playing that way. It's more of a challenge, and it frees me from administrivia.

We're talking about a game here. The is no "correct" answer.

No, I understood your point perfectly. My point is that there is a solution to your problem, it's just not one that you like ("practical solution" would have been a better phrase than "correct answer", but I wasn't aware that I needed to choose my words quite so carefully).

Of course you're welcome to play the game however you like; the primary goal is to have fun. But the problems you're encountering - a dearth of good military units, in this case - is a direct result of your unwillingness to administrate (even part-time). That's kind of like refusing to do basic security and maintenance on your computer, then wondering why your browser is four versions out of date and how all this spyware is getting into your system.

The AI does not plan well. It is not creative, nor is it good at long-term strategic thinking (this is why the computer civs have to be given production, research, and commerce advantages in order to increase the game's difficulty). As a result, you're going to be hamstrung if you let it do all of your administrative work. This leaves you with two options:

1) Let the AI administrate for you and accept its limitations without complaint.

2) Do some of your own administration. At least enough to ensure that you have a acceptably large and modern military.

I'm not berating you or insinuating that your playstyle is somehow unethical. I'm simply pointing out the root cause of your problem (the AI is a crappy and uncreative strategist) and then offering the only practical, real-world solutions that I can see.

Enjoy the game, however you decide to play it.

 

[sullivan87]

Thanks. I was just hoping that there was some preference setting that I had missed. It seems odd to me that they would give you less control over automatic production in IV than in III.

In the meantime, I play occasionally for old times' sake, but RTW and MTW2 have largely weaned me away, as they better suit my preferred mode of play.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

To ACTUALLY ANSWER the OP's question: not to my knowledge. You can tell the governor to emphasize certain things, such as hammers/commerce/gp/whatever, but I don't think that actually modifies what the city produces as much as it should.

Honestly, with minimal effort the automation in this game could be a lot better. Just simple things like "build military" or maybe classifying production options (wealth buildings, science, hammers, military, wonders lol, etc) and letting the player pick those along with the "tile" emphasize buttons. Implementing this and then having the AI actually "specialize" cities using it would likely make AI usage of land more efficient also.

But alas, such is not the case. We're stuck with micro. Hey - if you don't like it don't do it and just play at prince or below. Otherwise, I suggest learning to queue builds in cities and set loops for unit production - it does cut down on some micro tedium after all.

I micro most things until pretty late in the game when playing with my roommate in multiplayer, with the "blazing!!!!" turn timer on...so it doesn't have to take long. Still, if you don't like it, don't do it.

The only way to get the governor to consistently build military that I'm aware of is to get into war, but that's...kind of late IMO.

Edit: Automation of tiles is better in civ IV, while production was better in civ III...couldn't they have combined this? I can't imagine the programming was too much...

 

[sullivan87]

Thanks. At least now I know that I'm not missing some preference setting somewhere.

Although I didn't find the fix I wanted for IV, the discussion started me thinking, and I think I've decided to go back to playing III, which I loved (although I will definitely miss some of the features of IV). First, though, I'll need to reclaim my III; I gave it to my Dad when I got IV. That shouldn't be a problem; he doesn't really seem interested in anything more complex than computer "Texas Hold'em".

 

[Baskedyt]

I suggest learning to queue builds in cities and set loops for unit production - it does cut down on some micro tedium after all.

You do know you can make you own default building queue?
Just make a queue in one city, select the "save building queue". After you've made a new city, you can then load the building queue into that city. As far as I remember you can only have one queue saved (Copy-paste like), but you can always overwrite it by selecting something and the it will just be #1 in the queue, and bumping everything else a notch down.

 

[sullivan87]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

[t1footsoc]

Can you explain how to make the building queues and loops for unit production. I'm a fairly new player to Civ IV, and I find it rather annoying in the late game to select the production for 5 or more cities per turn.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

You could drop down the difficuilty level perhaps to noble or even less. This would reduce the odds of getting your grenadiers steamrolled by tanks without any micro on your part. While your cities still won't produce many miliatary units, but neither will the AI and thus, you might have a chance to wage war.

I believe the shortcut keys you are lookking for relating to production are <SHIFT> click to repeat build a unit and <ALT>/<CTRL> click to add to the bottom/top of a queue.