Controlling puppets

[Enigma256]

is there any way to control puppets?
or at least stop them from building stuff that uses strategic resources? it is very annoying not being able to build my army because my puppets used all my resources on useless buildings.
annexing them is also not an option, the happiness penalty is just too big.

any way to deal with this? (maybe even with mods)

 

[Rohili]

No, you can't control them. That's the whole point - otherwise why bother with the annex option? If you can't support puppet states, you should raze them.

 

[Celevin]

is there any way to control puppets?
or at least stop them from building stuff that uses strategic resources? it is very annoying not being able to build my army because my puppets used all my resources on useless buildings.
annexing them is also not an option, the happiness penalty is just too big.

any way to deal with this? (maybe even with mods)

Do what I did, just don't research the techs that build those unnecessary buildings. I got into the Industrial era before getting Bronze Working once.

 

[S.K. Ren]

Do what I did, just don't research the techs that build those unnecessary buildings. I got into the Industrial era before getting Bronze Working once.

This

 

[Enigma256]

but i would like to have a hydro plant or a atomic plant in my "main" cities
and i miss a "sell building" option to sell all the crap they built after i annex them.

i think in the next game i won't bother with conquering much, too much trouble.

 

[eviltypeguy]

but i would like to have a hydro plant or a atomic plant in my "main" cities
and i miss a "sell building" option to sell all the crap they built after i annex them.

i think in the next game i won't bother with conquering much, too much trouble.

The ability to sell buildings is supposedly coming in the next game patch.

However, I agree that there doesn't seem to be much "puppet" to "puppet cities". "puppet" implies a level of control somewhat greater than what we currently have in my opinion.

 

[Enigma256]

exactly.
being able to give them instructions what they should focus on, stop them from building buildings that will never help them (military xp buildings) and buildings that use resources would make them actually useful.

or they could lower the penalty for new cities, i can usually live with the extra unhappiness, but the higher culture cost of policies kills me.


i'm just surprised puppets in this state made it through beta.

 

[DGMan]

exactly.
being able to give them instructions what they should focus on, stop them from building buildings that will never help them (military xp buildings) and buildings that use resources would make them actually useful.

Well some of that's coming: http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94438

• City - Make sure Puppets don't construct buildings that require Resources. (new 10/14)
• City - Add a Puppet city strategy that turns off training buildings and emphasizes gold. (new 10/14)

 

[Enigma256]

that together with being able to sell (or at least destroy) buildings should fix it

 

[neptune2000]

Can you look inside a puppet city to see what it has? I haven't figured out how to, and it seems really stupid. If I click on the city, it just asks if I want to annex it. Speaking of which, I accidentally razed a city I wanted to puppet (clicked wrong button). I then stopped razing, and it automatically annexed the city...

Regarding the above discussion, the coming puppet city/sell building fixes will be nice. I was thinking some sort of "pay to play" mechanism would be good too. If I have a puppet, I should be able to interfere and to some extent control or at least influence what they do (rigging elections, installing puppet governors, threats, etc). This would cost money of course. I think it would be interesting and fun if there were a few things you could do if you spent a large sum of gold. For example, pay X gold to "convince" them to build financial buildings, even more for a specific building, or to spend x turns focusing population/specialists on science. Like iirc the way spies were handled way back in one of the older Civs. For me it would make puppet cities much more fun and alleviate some of the current problems.

 

[Nunya]

Can you look inside a puppet city to see what it has? I haven't figured out how to, and it seems really stupid. If I click on the city, it just asks if I want to annex it. Speaking of which, I accidentally razed a city I wanted to puppet (clicked wrong button). I then stopped razing, and it automatically annexed the city...

The only way to check to see everything what a puppet has built is to save the game, annex, check out, and reload the save.

 

[neptune2000]

The only way to check to see everything what a puppet has built is to save the game, annex, check out, and reload the save.

That makes a lot of sense actually. Why should a puppet city allow their overlords to come in and have a look? After all, they're giving gold and science, isn't that enough?

 

[aguds]

Really love it when I'm in a modern-era war, having one piece of uranium, to find my puppet city of Coventry making a Nuclear Plant when I need to get that in my capital! And there are only farms around you Coventry, are you drunk? Real nice annexing it when my happiness is allready in the red, only so I can get that piece for Athens instead.

But I forgot to change production in Athens to a NP because I'm an idiot and press next turn..

Next turn Goa(also puppet) is starting construction on a Nuclea.. ffffffuuuuuuuuu

 

[bryanw1995]

Can you look inside a puppet city to see what it has? I haven't figured out how to, and it seems really stupid. If I click on the city, it just asks if I want to annex it. Speaking of which, I accidentally razed a city I wanted to puppet (clicked wrong button). I then stopped razing, and it automatically annexed the city...

Regarding the above discussion, the coming puppet city/sell building fixes will be nice. I was thinking some sort of "pay to play" mechanism would be good too. If I have a puppet, I should be able to interfere and to some extent control or at least influence what they do (rigging elections, installing puppet governors, threats, etc). This would cost money of course. I think it would be interesting and fun if there were a few things you could do if you spent a large sum of gold. For example, pay X gold to "convince" them to build financial buildings, even more for a specific building, or to spend x turns focusing population/specialists on science. Like iirc the way spies were handled way back in one of the older Civs. For me it would make puppet cities much more fun and alleviate some of the current problems.

if you raze a city it annexes it first then starts burning it, that's why your happy-meter goes so low for a few turns while you're burning down all of elizabeth's pathetic cities.

 

[neptune2000]

if you raze a city it annexes it first then starts burning it, that's why your happy-meter goes so low for a few turns while you're burning down all of elizabeth's pathetic cities.

Ah, so that's actually by design. Thanks, I thought maybe it was a bug. Why can't you raze a city a bit before making it your puppet, just to show 'em you mean business?