help with the build queue ("QUEUE ACTIVE" weirdness)

[mycophage]

Hi there --

I'm perplexed about the queue in Civilization 3. I like the idea of a queue; Civ2 didn't have one. But here's what's puzzling:

The first time I played a game, I was able to add items to a city's build queue by shift-clicking.

After my first game, however, this doesn't seem to work. When I have the queue open and am trying to add something to the queue, the words "QUEUE ACTIVE" appear in red letters as soon as I hit the "shift" key. And it won't let me add anything. So I'm limited to a queue of length 1.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[dojoboy]

I've no idea. What version of Civ3 are you patched to? Is it straight out of the box (version 1.16f)? You can tell on the main menu screen, lower left-hand corner. It could be an old bug that I no longer remember. If you're not patched to 1.29b2, I recommend it.

 

[mycophage]

NEVER MIND.

This is one of those things I should have tried harder to figure out. It turns out that with the shift key depressed, one needs to click the word (e.g., "Barracks"), not the icon. Clicking the icon won't put anything in the queue.

Having figured this out and used the build queue for a while, I have to say that it still seems clunky. Inserting an item is a pain. Maybe this is something else I need to figure out...

 

[AlanH]

I didn't reply, as I've never really felt the need for the queue. I obviously have a lot to learn about forward planning . Do you find you can play to that much of a formula?

 

[Trixter]

The queue is really nice when playing huge maps with little water. In later expansion phases, I feel it helps me to stay focused on the larger picture, instead of having to cycle a lot of cities every turn to choose appropriate items to build in every one of them, while avoiding the use of governors, which I don't like.
(Yes, I'm paranoid! I don't trust that bunch of #&%*§$s who think they are to decide, what MY cities are to produce! )
Oh, and yes, inserting items into the queue is a PITA.

 

[mycophage]

Originally posted by Trixter
I feel it helps me to stay focused on the larger picture, instead of having to cycle a lot of cities every turn to choose appropriate items to build in every one of them, while avoiding the use of governors, which I don't like.

Are governors a specific thing, or do you just mean the suggestions for what is to be built?

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by mycophage
Are governors a specific thing, or do you just mean the suggestions for what is to be built?

You can open up a City Governor page by control clicking on a city and selecting it. In that page you can set the governors to manage all sorts of things, all of which they do incredibly badly IMVHO. You can set governor options that will apply to one city, or all cities on that continent, or all new cities. I play with them all switched off, all the time, but then I don't play huge maps with hundredds of cities. I don't have that kind of play time

[EDIT: I lied. I do turn on "Emphasise production" when I have a settler factory that needs the bonus shields at pop growth time in order to make the 30 shields per settler target. This setting ensures that the new pop works the 2 shield forest or whatever during the interturn.]

 

[dojoboy]

I'll queue up 3 - 4 orders at a time, usually never deeper than that. But, I always have the city governor check w/ me after anything is built, so I can make changes based upon immediate needs. If needed.