Automated workers and road building....

[ProphetMaster]

I want automated workers to just build roads and nothing else, ESPECIALLY not build terrascapes. Is there a way to set that up?

 

[Browd]

Use the Route To command when instructing a worker to build a road -- the worker will build a segment and move to the next, until the road is done.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Use the Route To command when instructing a worker to build a road -- the worker will build a segment and move to the next, until the road is done.

Yes, I know. But I was looking for a way to have them automatically keep building roads nonstop without any further instructions. I could do that in CIV4, but I don't see a way to do it in this game. It gets tedious doing it the other way in a large empire. I keep running into the "route cancelled" message when the road builder runs into another worker, and then have to reroute the worker.

 

[Browd]

There is no way to do that, and frankly you don't want to do that. In Civ IV you spammed roads (they cost no maintenance) to connect every tile with every other tile (frankly, whether or not a resource needed to be connected). In CiV, that is a swift route to bankruptcy.

 

[tedeviatings]

It's kind of a shame that Civ V has the "automated for roads only" setting and it's useless. And in Civ BE it might not be if you're supremacy but we don't have the setting anymore.
That said if I had to chose between "The devs reintroduce road automation" and "The devs do anything else at all on the game" I'd probably chose the second.

 

[ProphetMaster]

There is no way to do that, and frankly you don't want to do that. In Civ IV you spammed roads (they cost no maintenance) to connect every tile with every other tile (frankly, whether or not a resource needed to be connected). In CiV, that is a swift route to bankruptcy.

Yes, I know that also. The "route to" feature is some help, but there is still a lot of manual work and attention required to build roads for all trade routes. What I want is a "build roads for all trade routes" button.

 

[liv]

Trade routes do not need roads.

I rarely build roads at all. I try to have as many coastal cities as possible.

 

[Victus75]

For me, roads only have an advantage to connect non-coastal cities for the bonus, and also to move troops quickly within my territory. If I go Supremacy, I wouldn't mind spamming magrails everywhere since they are maintenance-free.

 

[Ryika]

The problem with spamming magrails is probably more the time-component. I don't think my workers would even find the time to build them all over the place.

@OP: Don't have a direct solution for your problem, but I was pretty much in the same spot in the beginning of Civ 5 - if you're not using them already, I'd strongly suggest using hotkeys when giving orders to workers. It makes the whole process feel SO much less annoying, as it spares you a LOT of mouse movement once you got used to it.

 

[ProphetMaster]

For me, roads only have an advantage to connect non-coastal cities for the bonus, and also to move troops quickly within my territory. If I go Supremacy, I wouldn't mind spamming magrails everywhere since they are maintenance-free.

Your trade convoy will run faster on roads. Yes, there is maintenance costs for roads, but they pay for themselves. I even build roads into the capital of my neighbor if I am getting a lot of science and energy from them. My goal in every game (especially at Apollo level) is to become the science per turn leader ASAP. If you do that, you win most of the time.

 

[Ryika]

Roads don't change anything about the Science per Turn though. It doesn't matter if a trade route travels to your neighbor for 20 turns or for 3 turns - the output per turn is the same. If you don't have the alien immunity then you even increase the vulnerability of your external trade routes (if they lead through neutral territory), as they'll travel more tiles per turn and thus have an increased chance of being eaten by alien units that happen to stand on one of these tiles (same is true for times of war and enemy units).

The only real benefit of roads is that, after the trade route minimum duration has expired, it needs to arrive at home before you can re-assign it - and roads can shorten that time.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Roads don't change anything about the Science per Turn though. It doesn't matter if a trade route travels to your neighbor for 20 turns or for 3 turns - the output per turn is the same. If you don't have the alien immunity then you even increase the vulnerability of your external trade routes (if they lead through neutral territory), as they'll travel more tiles per turn and thus have an increased chance of being eaten by alien units that happen to stand on one of these tiles (same is true for times of war and enemy units).

The only real benefit of roads is that, after the trade route minimum duration has expired, it needs to arrive at home before you can re-assign it - and roads can shorten that time.

The science benefit is indirect. The sooner the convoy reaches its destination, the sooner your colony gets the trade transaction completed. The roads increase the volume of trade transactions. I apply those goodies to increase my science output. Also, trade via magrails is faster than water routes.

Aliens should not be a big problem. Many trade routes have no aliens around, and those that do can be protected by your military.

 

[Ryika]

No, that is not how trade routes work. You get a fixed amount of energy/science every turn, no matter where that trade unit is at that moment and no matter how fast it travels between 2 cities, based on a(n not entirely known) formula that factors in the size of both cities.

A trade route will always last for 25 turns (+a however long it takes to return home after that) and there is no bonus when a trade route ends.

 

[legalizefreedom]

And what if it take 5 turns to get back home? How much have you wasted by not being able to immediately assign that route?

 

[Ryika]

You still get yields while that trade route returns home (that amount of turns is just added to the total duration), so by default you have not lost anything.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Also, you get an energy bonus by connecting your cities to capital with roads. The bonus increases as the size of cities increase.

 

[Ryika]

Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with your original claim that roads to other players cities somehow benefit trade routes. Connecting your own cities (if they do not already have a somewhat save sea-connection) is of course a different story und usually a good thing to do.

 

[ProphetMaster]

I usually follow the 1.5 workers per city rule. I have at least one worker per city and one worker dedicated to road building between the cities. As in CIV4, once tile improvements are complete in each city, I use the workers to build the magrails. Yes, it takes 8 turns per tile, but they have nothing better to do, and those magrails are fabulous for military movements.

 

[liv]

Developing every square can be unnecessarily expensive if you build academies (and you should) or biowheels (and you should). So do not develop more than what your city use. A city of eight will only use 8 squares.
I play really wide and I make sure to watch this or else I run out of funds.

 

[ProphetMaster]

Developing every square can be unnecessarily expensive if you build academies (and you should) or biowheels (and you should). So do not develop more than what your city use. A city of eight will only use 8 squares.
I play really wide and I make sure to watch this or else I run out of funds.

Agree. Sometimes I will check to see how many more turns before I gain a population and then time the tile improvement so that the citizen has a tile to work on exactly the turn he arrives, but that level of micro managing gets too tedious as the empire grows.

I always go for Academies if I have Supremacy affinity. Otherwise, I think Biowells are much better. They save my but on health, institutes gets you 3 science slots without having to use up a tile to get them.