(FEEDBACK BONUS QUESTION) When do you finally have most of your workers automated?

[dh_epic]

I've been working out my analysis, but I wanted to add one more question.

When do you finally stop manually controlling most of your workers? By most, I mean that you've automated or fortified your work force aside from the occasional focused mission to hook up a vital resource, or transport a few workers in galley. That stuff doesn't count. It might vary depending on how many cities you build, although I still wouldn't count that pair of workers you send to that late city to hook up some oil.

This question comes down to when you basically stop manually controlling your workers, and either put them to sleep or automate them for all but the occasional need. It's likely the same moment that most of your main cities have their most important tiles improved. If more stuff is important to you, then this moment will probably be later.

EXTRA NOTE: By stopping manual control, I mean that most of your workers are either fortified, sleeping, OR automated. Not just automated. Sorry for the lack of clarity in the poll question. (<-- added in an edit.)

Here's a few other guidelines, to help get some consistency between peoples' answers:

• The map is neither huge nor tiny.
• The map is not a Pangaea.
• The map is not an archipelago.
• Do you build lots of cities, or fewer cities?
  • Does this affect how soon you switch to automating your workers?
• Do you care about some cities more than others?
  • Does this make your worker choices less difficult in some cities?
• How does your preferred technology path affect your workers' missions?
• Ignore that one last worker, that one last resource, that one last city.
• Overestimate. If you can't decide if it's sooner or later, pick later.

 

[dh_epic]

Here's the previous survey question, for those still curious:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=180976 (Yes, I claimed this would be the last one, but had to add one more.)

Feel free to discuss this one. This will likely be the last survey question before I compile the results, which should be relatively short. It's more of an analysis of how Civilization 4 flows. (Not sure which forum to post it in).

Thoughts?

 

[Chode]

Why are you making this effort?

 

[jimbob27]

It totally depends on the game. I voted after 1700ad, although sometimes its 100's of years earlier, and some games I never automate them. Some games everything is improved really early on, but other games I'm reaching the industrial age before I'm finished. I'm never happy with the improvments the AI has when I take over a city, so I generally re-do everything when get new land. The only exception is when I'm going for domination and I'm attacking my final opponent before I reach the requirements. At that point my economy can support a few junk cities, so the last few don't get improved.

I only ever automate when the only thing left to do is build railroads everywhere. Thats all the AI can be trusted to do properly.

 

[T.A JONES]

Why are you making this effort?

Ya I think you should tell us or repeat why your doing this. Science fair project? like really who cares, whats all the analysis leading to? Nothing concreate as far as theory goes anyways right? its been a lot work, Whats the reward? Sorry for sounding so neg your free to do what ya want man, I know that. Take care and goodluck on whatever it is

 

[StarWorms]

Whenever windmills come around or else I don't know if it's best to leave them as mines or change them, I guess that's after 800AD...

 

[dh_epic]

Alright, I guess I'll spoil it, seeing as we're rounding the end of the survey... I just hope this doesn't bias the results at all. I've put a spoiler in here:

Spoiler :

My main goal is to investigate the claim that Civilization 4 becomes boring in the latter portion, along with the number of abandoned games.

I've been looking at the most salient aspects of gameplay and trying to determine milestones where the balance of gameplay shifts (e.g.: from this point on, exploration becomes less important). I've also been allowing people to say that the milestone does not exist. For example, in this survey, lots of people don't think that workers are a milestone at all, thinking of them as important right until the game's end.

We encouraged subjectivity because we wanted it to reflect how people actually play, not the expert mathematics of a strategist. To me, it wouldn't matter if someone said "it's stupid to ever build a city later than 1400 AD", because I'd care more that most players end up building their last city later than that, or perhaps sooner than that.

Anyway, this is not too contraversial an investigation. In fact, the conclusion is pretty obvious if you just ask a few people their opinion. But I wanted to try to put some numbers and figures to the conclusion, so we may be able to discuss it more intelligently.

 

[Till]

I have never automated a single worker. They are the most important units in the game! If there is nothing for them to do, i let them sleep.

 

[The Great Apple]

Around railroad time. Once I've built my main railroad network I just let them finish it up. By that time I've built pretty much everything this is to build with them.

As for the date? I can't remember seem to remember it was the late 1700s in my last game, but that was quite quick on the tech. Not sure date is really the best method of doing it.

 

[dh_epic]

Oh man, I forgot about SLEEPING workers. No wonder so many people are saying they never automate. I really didn't care about automation so much as "when do workers run out of things to do". I'm going to amend the top post, and hopefully that will alter the sway a bit.

And even if this question turns out to be a total bust, I should still have enough data to make my case.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I automate workers once I've already "won" and I'm sick of micromanaging them all. Usually, this is really late in the game, like past 1950 AD.

 

[Judge Dee]

I automate them once railroads come along. The thought of re-roading everything by hand makes me depressed. I do send some workers to manually railroad the important things, but there's a gradual automatization (??) that happens around that point.

 

[Panda]

I never automate workers in any game.

 

[PMabey]

I automate once i have improved all the tiles that are in all my cities' workable areas. I also have the option "workers leave old improvements" on so they dont go destroying a 9c cottage for a farm

 

[princecharles]

I never aoutomate, group, or tell workers to sleep. Each one always has an individual task. Then again, I usually only have a maximum of five workers.

 

[ggganz]

I automate all workers when I have all resources in my cultural borders hooked up. You should put other in your polls if it is concevable to have another choice.

 

[lost_civantares]

I never automate, the crazy AI is going to mess everything up if I let it have control of my workers, maybe I'll just put them to sleep, but that doesn't happen too often.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

I usually automate for trade networks only with "the don't replace existing improvements" option on once I've railroaded all the mines and lumbermills and created a railnetwork. It can become too tedious to rail all the farms and cottages they don't receive any bonus from it but it's usually more efficient and quicker for your other units to get from A-B when an AI drops a stack somewhere on your coast.

 

[Wodan]

Full automation is silly because the algorithm is wacked. What got me was one game early on when I saw a worker changing a Town to a farm, and right next to it another worker changing a farm to a cottage.

Trade automation is okay, sometimes, but then again sometimes I don't want to develop resources. I might prefer my fully developed Towns, or my farms, or what have you. It'd be nice if trade automation simply did roads and railroads, not resources.

Wodan

 

[Dearmad]

you left out never. bad poll.