Civ2 & Civ3 - Automate Settler/Worker

[Licentia]

I'm going to post this in both the Civ2 and Civ3 forums. I just want to see a comparison to see if more people use the Automate feature now than with Civ2. I personally think that the workers are much better in Civ3 than the settlers in Civ2, so then if they are indeed better then more people should be using them, right?

 

[The Person]

Seeing as I still haven't finished a Civ3 game before, I don't really know. But I have tried the automated workers in Civ3, and thought them to be better than the Civ2 automated settlers/engineers, who outright suck.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Automated workers in CivIII do outright suck. That the CivII automated Settlers suck even harder is no excuse.

The exception are the road-to and rail-to commandos, which are decent enough if you're building a road somewhere where enemy or barbarian attacks are not a concern, and you don't care about the exact route taken.

 

[Specialist290]

Have both Civ2 and Civ3 (and the Conquests expansion). Never used automated Settlers/Workers in either.

 

[Andu Indorin]

Automated Settlers (and worse) Engineers seem to follow a basic rule of their own: The more cities one has built the more bizarre their behavior. I've been always been tempted to perform an "experiment" of automating all my engineers in one my games where I've got up to a thousand or so Engineers at work just see what percentage of them actually wind up doing something productive.

 

[Ace]

The only time (in Civ2, I hate civ 3) that I use the auto settler function is if I am trying to Irrigate a hex with no water source. It sometimes works, but be sure to note what city the settler is from. I did this once with an engineer in late game and it took forever to track down the auto eng because it jumped onto the nearest RR and took off.

I never use the auto function other than to do the irrigation trick.

 

[The Person]

Automated workers in CivIII do outright suck. That the CivII automated Settlers suck even harder is no excuse.

Maybe you're right. I only tried them in one game, and I thought them better than the Civ2 ones. Later on I've just plain forgotten about that function.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Late in the game (Civ 2), after I have rail links between all my cities,
I will put one or two engineers on automate as pollution finders.
Once pollution appears, they hustle on over and clean it up, without
input from me. Otherwise, I agree that their behavior is pretty random.

 

[DesertPlah]

I use them when everything takes so damn long, and when I want to spruce up a city.

 

[Juputoru]

I'd only automate them if I had to do the "irrigate without access to water" trick. Which I haven't.

 

[Titi]

Have both Civ2 and Civ3 (and the Conquests expansion). Never used automated Settlers/Workers in either.

Same for me, or at least for Civ3. I tried once or twice with Civ2, and de-activated the option after only a few turns:

- why build a road to the East when the cities are to the West?
- at the beginning, I prefer a forest (and the shields it produces) instead of a plain!

Even for irrigation far from any water supply (that's cheating anyway), I don't trust them!

 

[Licentia]

I guess if you are playing for a top score then you would want to do them youself. Personally I find it too exhausting in a regular game. That's like not using the GO command and moving the units around yourself. It's a pain that I don't want to bother with.