Do you automate workers and citizens in cities..

[pokeravi]

or is it better to take control of things manually? I've been automating everything except production ever since I started playing the game and I'm not sure if the computer is making the right choices for me. Sometimes I see an automated worker build a hamlet for instance but then replace it with a workshop the next turn.

 

[Revent]

If you want to beat the computer, how can you let the computer do the work for you?

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

After a certain point in the BCs my extreme laziness kicks in, and I do. But this is not a good play habit to pick up so don't do what I do mostly. But microing 50 workers is an extreme hassle.

 

[coanda]

The computer makes... a choice for you. It's not generally a particularly good choice. It would be about as effective to just have a random number generator select something out of the options. There are times when out of laziness this is just fine ("build anything, I don't care, just stop bothering me!")... but if there is even the slightest question of whether you're going to win the game, you should not be automating.

 

[pokeravi]

I guess I can see how it's better to manually direct the workers. But what about citizen automation?

 

[jarhead_leif]

,never automate workers..especially if you want to have a large prospering empire..why??cause improvements inside the BFC determine how productive your city will be..GP Farming, Cottage Economy, and Military/Production City...there's a thread for this somewhere..
(i think its just okay to automate workers to
build trade networks)

..citizens in the BFC?? .,its better to micromanage your cities always..from working tiles to specialists to production.,its needed to improve your game..

 

[Smilingrogue]

Citizen automation isn't as bad as worker automation. But the city governor will occasionally do something stupid like working a plains hill mine instead of a riverside grassland hill mine when either mine finishes the item in queue on the same turn, but the grassland mine helps you grow faster and brings one extra commerce.

It is best to cycle through all your cities at least once every couple of turns to correct such stupidity and to fire those damn Spy specialists the governor seems to want to hire everywhere!

 

[vranasm]

citizen management is ok except for the situation when you're running wealth. Then the governor goes just crazy... even if you stimulate hammers through the option...

 

[Zx Zero Zx]

If you build wealth, research, or culture the coding for the govna gets all wonky, and acts like it is told to focus food.

 

[vranasm]

If you build wealth, research, or culture the coding for the govna gets all wonky, and acts like it is told to focus food.

it goes totally crazy...I remember me wanting to change the behavior but didn't found any relevant code after 2 hours digging so I stopped my tries.

 

[NetGear]

I hold off automation as long as I can. I start automating lil by lil tho, only manually controlling cities and workers i want it done right at that moment. By renaissance/industrial phase though, I'm probably fully automating and busy moving war pieces here and there.

Then state property comes up, and now I have to hunt all my worker and cancel action... I play with worker leave old improvement because I get sick of watching them improve over towns. But that also means I don't benefit off state property unless I manually rewrite over farms and subpar cottage sites myself.

 

[duckstab]

I never, ever, automate workers or the production queue.

I've learned that most of the time I can get the governor to work the same tiles I would have by micromanaging. You just have to play around with the buttons to get the combination you want. I think I'm in the minority in that I will sometimes use "avoid growth" as well -- but never when I'm in Slavery and can whip away the angry faces anyway.

But in any case, every now and then you should cycle through your cities to make sure the governor isn't doing something silly. That's when at least knowing how to micromanage is important.

 

[RD-BH]

No,
... err, well
... late game,
... you know,
... the umpteenth conquered city,
... I'll focus and automate citizens/production.
Workers? NEVER!!!

 

[UnholyMudcrab]

I never automate citizens, because I get better results by micromanaging them, and I only start automating workers after Railroad is researched. By that time, all the infrastructure and improvements are usually already built and I really don't want to sit and build RRs on every mine, lumbermill, quarry, etc. So I set most of the workers to "Build Trade Network" and let them have at it.

 

[babar]

I never automate citizens either. On the other hand I would quite like to automate armies. Actually, does anyone know if there's a mod for that? I would quite like to focus on running my empire while my incompetent generals blundered across the map (on a suitably low level ofc).

 

[RD-BH]

I never automate citizens either. On the other hand I would quite like to automate armies. Actually, does anyone know if there's a mod for that? I would quite like to focus on running my empire while my incompetent generals blundered across the map (on a suitably low level ofc).

I love that feature in SMAC/X

 

[nerdfighter13]

I automate citizens, and late in the game when I have built improvements around most of my cities, I'll automate the workers to finish the job.

 

[elmurcis]

I never ever automate workers (even when have 40+ cities I still like to decide what, where and when to improve).
But I automate citiziens with turning "emphasize production" on for all cities to get best production.. I find it as best setup for my games

 

[SyntaxError]

I only automate workers to auto build roads to resources. Other than that, I pretty much micro manage most of my games.

 

[RD-BH]

Looking at this from:
... How do I automate workers for 'best' outcome?

1) Emphasize in city screens
2) Settle/Conquer aggressively with an eye to
3) Focus on techs/civics
... organized religion (if you have a religion)
... currency (for build wealth)
... forge
... caste
... bureaucracy
... universal suffrage
... workshop + techs
... factories
... state property
... etc
4) Build Wealth/Research as needed

IMO Workers don't misbehave as often with

In conclusion:
... NEVER automate workers!