Growing stops during Worker and Settler training?

[FarbroBarbro]

Hi there!

This might sound like a stupid question, I don't know, but why does the city stop growing when you train either a worker or a settler in it?

One example, the city has 16/14 in food supply -- it grows. Train a settler, and voilà, food supply says 0 and nothing happens. Why? It is frustrating, especially during very early game.

 

[AfterShafter]

Yep, growth stops. Time it properly so your first worker is built within a turn or two of when you want him to perform his first action.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

It stops because the food is used to build the settler/worker

 

[Bob-san]

All that surplus food becomes hammers. Since workers and settlers are, in essence, civilians, some of the population dedicates themselves to becoming a unit, thus stopping growth, albeit temporarily. That's one large reason it's a bad idea to build a worker in a size 1 city--usually it's 33 turns in a Marathon game or 11 turns in a normal game to pop to size 2, and if you had a good start <11 turns to pop to size 3. At size 3-4, you can take advantage of 3-4 tiles while researching full blast. If you pop a worker from a goody hut/tribal village, you saved yourself two dozen turns in most Marathon games--which can now go towards making a Warrior rush or improvements, such as barracks.

 

[Grawss]

The food supply doesn't go to zero, but the growth does stop.

The idea is you're training the citizens themselves to become more than just citizens. So a settler would be a batch of citizens from another city or village (in the case of lower difficulties) who can make another city.

Of course, for either balance reasons or something I'm not seeing, combat units don't stop nor slow growth.

 

[oranges]

It stops becuase both your food and production go towards building them.

 

[AfterShafter]

If you pop a worker from a goody hut/tribal village,

Doesn't happen on higher difficulties... I'm fairly certain it doesn't happen on Noble.

 

[FarbroBarbro]

Of course, for either balance reasons or something I'm not seeing, combat units don't stop nor slow growth.

Yeah, that's a bit strange, it seems to me that equipping a bunch of people with shovels and ropes must take less food and resources than training an army.

Anyway, thank you all for your answers!

 

[warpstorm]

In the old days (before Civ IV) building these actually removed population from cities. This is much gentler.

 

[Kesshi]

Hi there!

This might sound like a stupid question, I don't know, but why does the city stop growing when you train either a worker or a settler in it?

Hello FarbroBarbro,

The reason this happens is for balance. It can be explained away as "because this or that" but in the end it all comes down to balance.

Another example of something where balance takes prescience over reality is the English Unique Unit. The Redcoats replace Riflemen. Even though a more historically accurate replacement would have been musketeers, the Riflemen have been chosen to be replaced for game balance.

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums FarbroBarbro.

 

[FarbroBarbro]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

 

[mudphud]

All that surplus food becomes hammers. Since workers and settlers are, in essence, civilians, some of the population dedicates themselves to becoming a unit, thus stopping growth, albeit temporarily. That's one large reason it's a bad idea to build a worker in a size 1 city--usually it's 33 turns in a Marathon game or 11 turns in a normal game to pop to size 2, and if you had a good start <11 turns to pop to size 3. At size 3-4, you can take advantage of 3-4 tiles while researching full blast. If you pop a worker from a goody hut/tribal village, you saved yourself two dozen turns in most Marathon games--which can now go towards making a Warrior rush or improvements, such as barracks.

On the other hand you are working unimproved tiles for a long time and you can't chop forests for hammers and (as mentioned earlier) workers don't come from huts at noble+. Growing to size 3-4 before building your first worker is rarely advisable IMO.