How does AI build units/buildings so fast ?

[Desmond5]

First I must say I use the governor, I think there's the problem. I've heared that by using governor it makes a cityzen entertain instead of work. But when I do not use governor I soon end up having a civil disorder. To prevent that I just turn a citizen into entertainer (and by doing that I probably do the same thing as governor would). So what should I do ? Every time I finish my first settler, the AI has produced allready several plus many other units. How does he do that (where does he get so meny shields per turn) ? What's the deal with it ?

Any is it safe to have workers in automatic mode (or is it just as bad as the governor is) ?

I've also heared that you can somehow "put citizens into tiles" or something, what does that mean ?

Also, when I "Contact Governor" there are many options like:
1) Manage citizen moods
2) Empasize Food
3) Empasize Production
4) Empasize Commerce
...witch I don't understand what they do, complitely. The first one I guess does what it says - manages citizen moods (turns my workers into entertainers) - but what does the other ones do ?

Regards, Desmond

 

[Desmond5]

Maybe you could refer me some documentation/tutorials covering the questions I've just asked. I looked for them but didn't find any ...

Regards, Desmond

 

[whitecow]

Alright now first of all before I could answer you to how the AI are beating you I have to know this:

What difficulty are you playing?

But Empasize commecre means that the city governor will do what the name says... Empasize commerce, same with the others. The governor while place the citizen on tiles that produce more commerce. You can manully do this by simply clicking on a tile. Experiment, some tiles are better than the ones that the governor puts the citizen on. But any ways never use a governor! For a couple of reasons:

1.They start to produce things you don't need
2.They are dumb
3. THEY ARE AI, exactly what you are competing agaisnt.

Also never automate workers, and produce a ton the will pay for themselfs over and over again. Workers will always have a job.

 

[Desmond5]

I'm usually playing regent or monarch.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

i dont use those guys, but if i see what you can emphasize on, i think you need to do so on food.

Growth is definately the most important thing for your cities. That is of course as long as you can keep your people happy, but that is less an isue than it often seems. remember a bigger city gets more happines from the luxury slider as it is a % of its income. Also, you better have a large city with an entertainer than a small city. The problem only comes when your cities has multiple entertainers and instead of making production, your people are only making food to feed the entertainers.
3 surplus is nice for towns
4-5 surplus is nice for cities
6+ surplus is nice for metropols
early granaries can also be of great help.

simply put:

Food > production > commerce.

Also important is that except for very early game, you should never be using any tiles that are not fully optimized with roads. irrigation and or mines etc...

 

[Gwadaman]

How can you keep your city producing the same type of unit? I mean everytime I want to massproduct Swordman (for exemple) the governor automatically switch on spearman after he make 1 Swordman. And I play without city governor. It would be great to know how I can force the production because it's pretty boring to swutch back everytime on the unit I want.

 

[Tappara]

How can you keep your city producing the same type of unit? I mean everytime I want to massproduct Swordman (for exemple) the governor automatically switch on spearman after he make 1 Swordman. And I play without city governor. It would be great to know how I can force the production because it's pretty boring to swutch back everytime on the unit I want.

Check "preferences". There is an option which you are looking for.

 

[Desmond5]

I have another problem that I cannot understand...I am building a worker or settler and all shield seem to have been collected (1 turn left) but when I hit the next turn it says I still have 1 turn left to complite the unit. And so on for about 10 turns. The AI has produced about 4 units by that time. What's wrong ?

See the attached picture, too ...

I'm using Conquests by the way ...

Regards, Desmond

 

[Bibor]

Ouch, you made many mistakes. First of all, resources (like iron, dyes, horses etc) need to be connected by roads for them to function. I see you created a colony NW of London. It has to be connected by road to london if it holds a resource.

About woker not coming out:
Note that London is still size one (1) town. Now, wokers "eat up" 1 population from city, settlers take up 2 population from city. And since London cannot drop below size 1 (it cannot have population 0), that's the reason you can't build a worker.

In another words: To be able to create a worker, the city must be at least 2 in size (number in the red box), and after you create a worker it will drop to size 1 (or size 8 if it was 9 some time later in game).
To create a settler, city must be at least size 3, and after you create a settler i will drop to size 1 again (it will "lose" 2 population).

Here is a general tip for start of game:
Don't use your first worker for anything more than to build roads to the next city spot and to resources (you can look them up in the Civilopedia). Colonies (like you did with your worker) are not needed if the resource is inside your borders. The easiest way to expand your borders is by building another city.
So... make London grow as fast as it can to size 3, build a settler and place it north of london (lets say 2 moves north, 1 move northwest, on the hill) so it covers the resource you need.

-bibor

 

[MikeH]

Don't use your first worker for anything more than to build roads to the next city spot and to resources (you can look them up in the Civilopedia).

I respectfully disagree there, in the situation in the screenshot the first thing I would have done with the worker is irrigate that cow and then build a road on it, that will increase food production enough to grow London to the point where it has enough population to produce workers and settlers, the road will help with commerce and movement.

A good war academy article on opening worker moves is this one by Cracker:

http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/civ3_starts/

 

[Desmond5]

The picture is from a modification "Rhyes of Civilization" witch is a Earth map and modified rules (tend stick very close to the original one but are best for huge maps, especially earth map) and new graphics (based on Sn00py's). What You called colony was actually a goody hut or barbarian camp (though it does look like a colony) ...

 

[Desmond5]

I found a formula that helps me to know when to irrigate:
Irrigated tiles formula: = 0.5 -2 - 3xFloodPlains + 2xMountains + HillTiles + Tundras + PlainTiles + 2xDeserts
But it doesn't seem to work very good - in the game (picture) above the formula returned negative and so I should not irrigate any tiles. But then my city will never grow enough to produce enough settlers and workers ...

 

[Desmond5]

As you can see there isn't much territory on the island (Great Britain actually). How many tiles should I keep between cities (I usually do 4 to 6 on huge map but this time there's just not enough room) ? Where would you place the next city ?

Sorry about the size of the images, the machine I'm behind has basically only MS Paint installed ...

Regards, Desmond

 

[MikeH]

Currently the tile with cow on it is producing three food and one shield, if you irrigate it it will produce 4 food per turn, at size one this should give you four bonus food per turn, which should grow your city fairly quickly. After you've irrigated and roaded that tile I personally would then mine and road the bonus grassland next to it, which means that tile will produce two food, two shields and two commerce, so ypu will still be producing 4 surplus food. You should make sure from the city screen that you have a citizen working on the bonus grass, as you are making more than three surplus food the governor will put the next citizen to work on the woods tile.


Building a granary in London will make it easier to produce settlers and workers. Your own research should concentrate on getting to map making as soon as possible, you'll probably only have room for three or maybe four cities in Britain and you need galleys to send settlers or military units overseas.


Edit: I forgot that the English start with pottery.

 

[scoutsout]

I found a formula that helps me to know when to irrigate:
Irrigated tiles formula: = 0.5 -2 - 3xFloodPlains + 2xMountains + HillTiles + Tundras + PlainTiles + 2xDeserts
But it doesn't seem to work very good - in the game (picture) above the formula returned negative and so I should not irrigate any tiles. But then my city will never grow enough to produce enough settlers and workers ...

I'm not sure if that formula applies in despotism or in 'better' governments. In either case, I don't think you need it yet. MikeH's advice was good: irrigate the cow. (assuming that's a river next to it that will provide fresh water...)

As a general rule, you want to irrigate bonus food tiles (cow, wheat, game) if you can. From there, the mantra "mine green, irrigate brown" makes a decent rule of thumb. If in doubt about your next worker move, build a road. Lots and lots of roads. Road connect your empire and resources, and add commerce to your treasury.

These "rules of thumb" should work for you until your game develops to the point that you know when to irrigate green and mine brown.... about the time that you hit Monarch or Emperor level... you'll still have questions, they'll just be different.

Granaries in your high-food cities are also helpful. Find "Babylon's Diety Settlers" in the War Academy.. that, and Cracker's piece that MikeH referenced, are excellent "must reads" for growing your civ in the early game.

And try not to use workers for colonies. Better to claim resources with new cities. Workers are the only unit in the game that you use in every age and every phase of the game. (hint, hint) They are arguably your most important unit. Use them well, and your game will improve.

Good luck!

 

[MikeH]

MikeH's advice was good: irrigate the cow. (assuming that's a river next to it that will provide fresh water...)

London's on a river, Scout, it will allow any tile next it to be irrigated.

 

[scoutsout]

London's on a river, Scout, it will allow any tile next it to be irrigated.

I suspected as much, the terrain looks modded and I wasn't 100% sure... which is why I put the caveat in there.

Of course, London with a river WOULD be geographically correct, wouldn't it?

 

[KayEss]

I'm usually playing regent or monarch.

Don't forget that the levels will change the relative costs of everything that a city produces.

Not sure about the mod that you're using, but for the normal game then important level is Regent. At Regent everything that you do and everything the AI does costs exactly the same.

Below Regent level then the AI pays a penalty. This means that you can make things faster and research faster than it. At above Regent then the computer gets a discount on production and technology research. The AI will also receive some extra goodies - bonus settlers, workers and offensive and defensive units (the mix depends on the level and can be changed in a mod).

So, if you're playing Monarch the AI may not be generating any more shields, but what it builds is always going to be cheaper.

I would recommand going no higher than Regent until you learn all of the game rules and work out some strategies of how to go about your game. To progress above Regent normally requires a complete rethink of your strategy.

 

[Desmond5]

Thank you all!

I've read most of the articles by now in the War Academy.

One more question - how would you place you cities on the map above ?

 

[scoutsout]

One more question - how would you place you cities on the map above ?

This is off-the-cuff, and easier for me to do with the gridlines on...but probably something like this:

Note that all but 2 cites have access to fresh water (never need an acqueduct) and all of them would be 'coastal' (can build boats). With the exception of one forest (unknown) all of the city sites are not on bonus grassland.