How to find idle workers?

[TNTTony]

Hi All,

I have been a fan of Civ since Civ 3...infact Civ 3 was what introduced me to TBS games. I now have Civ4 and it is really really good. The thing about the game is that it is so complex but yet so simple...but yet so hard to master but yet so easy to learn..sorry I'm rambling now.

My question is this: When I play Civ4 I usually have two workers per city automated to that city (ie I use the automate nearest city button). So from what I gather, those two workers will only work in that city? Right? The other question was: Sometimes my workers would be idle...but I only knew this because I opened up a city window and saw the workers icon in the "task force" (ie. the part of the tile manager that shows you how many troops I have).

Is there a way to automatically find how WHERE and HOW MANY idle workers I have? I tried to use the military advisor but it just shows me where the workers are on the map (ie. it doesn't tell me what city nor does it allow me to zoom to that idle worker).

Thanks in advance guys.

Great Game!!!

 

[tombeef]

Welocme to the forums! First off, automated to a city will mean workers will only improve the nearest city. There is an option to automate workers to do anything. However, it is generally considered bad practice to automate workers, as the game does not do a very good job with them.

To find them? That's a little tougher. I hate the setup they have for them to, but you could just go to a city screen and get the workers from there becuase I don't know a way to find all idle workers at once. I thought there was a screen that organized all your units, but I can't remember if I'm thinking of the military advisor screen. I'll have to check it out, unfortunately I havn't been able to play lately.

Hope this helped, and enjoy your time at CivFanatics.

 

[lost_civantares]

Your thinking to the military screen Tombeef.

If I remember correctly there is a key complenation that will go from unit to unit (something like alt-a, I don't remember quite), but that could take a while in the later games.

 

[Harrier]

In the Military Advisor screen - click on show all units. That will tell you what each of your workers are doing or not doing.

 

[lost_civantares]

Yes, but he needs to be able to get to them. I don't think that you can do that from the military advisior screen.

 

[Jmaz]

In the Mil Adv screen. Highlight only 'Your' head and then click on worker.

Fron the map view click on any of the highlit squares and it will take you there. I find this quite useful when I'm upgrading units.

 

[lost_civantares]

Didn't seem to work when I tried it. Oh well

 

[jeremiahrounds]

i wish there was a way to "wake" every unit of a type. Is there? So that they will automatically get cycled as the units waiting for orders get cycled.

 

[TNTTony]

Thanks all for your reply. Much appreciated.

TomBeef: Great name I also enjoy manually moving my workers but later on it just get too much. How do you handle your workers without automation? ie. Do you have some sort of plan to how your workers will work to make it less confusing later on? I too find the AI automation to not be optimal.

Jmaz: I've did some proper exploring of the military advisor screen. You are right it gives you a list of all your workers. I am assuming however that the workers with "nothing" after their name are idle? ie some workers had this "Worker - Build Road". However, for the life of me I can't get the computer to zoom to the worker when I click them on the map.

Also, I don't understand why Civ4 didn't just follow Civ3 in terms of idle workers. From memory, in Civ3 if your worker had no job to do...the computer would zoom to that idle worker for you to issue a new command.

 

[The Tyrant]

Is there a way to automatically find how WHERE and HOW MANY idle workers I have? I tried to use the military advisor but it just shows me where the workers are on the map (ie. it doesn't tell me what city nor does it allow me to zoom to that idle worker).

I've been looking for some quick way to do that, myself. The only thing I will automate is road-building after all the other tasks are done. When the workers are done they'll park themselves in a city and then when I need one later I have to go looking. So far the best thing I've found is to mouse-over each city to see what units are in that city.

Another post I read tonight said that you can cancel ALL worker actions by pressing ALT-TAB. I'm not at home right now so I can't test this. If you don't mind reassigning tasks to workers who were in the middle of something, you could use this. You won't lose any work-turns on tiles being worked, and it should cancel the "automate" task of the idle workers. Hmm... dunno if that would activate them or not, though. Anyone willing to try this and post the results?

 

[thordk]

it's not alt-tab. select one automated worker, there will be a "cancel orders" button. when holding alt and clicking this button it will cancel orders of all workers. you won't lose any rounds when doing this. all workers that haven't get their task in the current round can be ordered to do something else, workers that have used up their task for this round will be available the next round.

so let's say one worker is set to build a road and needs 2 rounds. in the first round you cancel his orders and in the second he's available for another task. but the one round of work (building road) has been done to the tile. so if you order him to build road on this tile again, he will only need 1 turn to finish it.

 

[vinstafresh]

There is always some sort of hill or desert tile in the middle of your empire that is not in the big cross of any city. I always put idle workers on that tile when everything is improved (waiting for railroads or hooking up coal, aluminium, oil)

 

[ferenginar]

How to find idle workers, I'm looking round the office now and can see 5, not including me, I'm busy.

 

[ChicagoCubs]

I saw a tip during the load screen, I think it said...

"Use the '/' key to cycle through all of your workers."

Can anyone else confirm this?

 

[vinstafresh]

How to find idle workers, I'm looking round the office now and can see 5, not including me, I'm busy.

hehe, guilty

 

[Bringa]

I think / only cycles through non-automated workers.

 

[tombeef]

Thanks all for your reply. Much appreciated.

TomBeef: Great name I also enjoy manually moving my workers but later on it just get too much. How do you handle your workers without automation? ie. Do you have some sort of plan to how your workers will work to make it less confusing later on? I too find the AI automation to not be optimal.

LOL, I get that great name quite a bit. I admit, in later games I sometimes automate workers, since, ironically, it's a lot of work. You can automate workers to build a trade route, since they do a fine job with that. But really it depends on your patience. There isn't really a fast manual work strategy. If I'm winning big, I'll automate, if not, I'll go manual. Usually by late in the game though all I need is railroads anyways.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

2 workers per city! I usually take 0.5-1

 

[3 EMS]

If you automate workers to improve a city they will move into that city when they are done. Hovering your mouse over the unit on top of that city will show them in the list. They can be given new orders by right clicking on them.

 

[bbdk]

Hmm. Quite an old thread. However, there's no answer given, so I thought I'd just complete the thread. After searching for it myself in the forums for a while, I just gave up and mucked around in-game until I found it. So for anyone else looking for their idle workers...
1. Open the military advisor.
2. Make sure all units are shown. If not, press the plus sign above the unit list.
3. That will expand your list of workers. (and all other unit types)
4. Find the workers marked with an asterisk and click them so they get underlined.
5. This makes a dot blink on the little map. Click that spot on the little map and hey presto, there's a worker!!