is it 'good' to automate?
- Thread starter Xong
- Start date
ChaosArbiter
King
Or remember what the hotkey is (Shift+D, I think). But the button is easier.
darski
Regent in Training
if you have your stacks waiting, you hit [shift] D when pollution happens and they will clear any pollution/damage. the only problem is that this is really only effective when you create pollution every turn. otherwise you sentry your workers and then have to re-automate them on the next instance of pollution.
Note they will all run to clean up volcanoes - that you may not care about at any given point.
darski
Regent in Training
that is my point. You may not want to waste worker turns on that and they will head there like flies on a corpse if you use [ shift]D
Since I will have all my tiles railed by this point, I just put all my workers into a big stack, wake all when the pollution comes, use Control-x to move them to the polluted squares, and the Clear hotkey to do it. I am careful not to waste any worker turns doing this though, since I put all my workers into a big stack. Most of the time, I get bored with that and put my workers into individual stacks that can clear pollution in 1 turn on various terrain types. I will have grassland stacks and hill and mountain stacks. 
CommandoBob
AbstractArt
The issue I had with automating workers was that it slowed down the IBT. For each worker, the game had to check to see if there was a new task for the worker to do and then decide 'No'. It was the equivalent of spacebarring units on your turn.
Once I fortified the workers, the IBT went much faster.
This was not an issue until most of my territory was railed. With roads, I would assign worker tasks. After rails were done I thought I would make it easy on myself. That did not work out as I expected.
Now, that was a 500 MHz 128 MB RAM box, so the IBT was a bit slow anyway. But when I had automated workers it was taking 15 minutes on the IBT. Without that, much, much faster.
Once I fortified the workers, the IBT went much faster.
This was not an issue until most of my territory was railed. With roads, I would assign worker tasks. After rails were done I thought I would make it easy on myself. That did not work out as I expected.
Now, that was a 500 MHz 128 MB RAM box, so the IBT was a bit slow anyway. But when I had automated workers it was taking 15 minutes on the IBT. Without that, much, much faster.
I love my workers far too much to let the AI have control. I need a litte time each turn to catch up with them, ask how the family is and make sure they are satisfied with their career. I find that it boost morale and productivity. I find it easier to control them if I give them all names too. (Okay, I don't quite that far . . )
Yeah. I'm a builder. I'd rather control my workers than my warriors, not that I want the AI fighting any battles for me either. For some reason I receive more happiness from each tile that is improved than for each fight I win. Setting up a settler factory is emmensely more satisfying than earning a GL. I know, it is a sickness.
I also put all of my workers in small stacks; each stack is sized for a particular task so I can grab the right stack at need.
Hmmm. Maybe that is why all of my games require 100+ hours of play?
Honestly, I don't see how you could possibly win above Regent with automated workers and governors turned on. I did use the governors for a while, but I always control every move of my workers.
Yeah. I'm a builder. I'd rather control my workers than my warriors, not that I want the AI fighting any battles for me either. For some reason I receive more happiness from each tile that is improved than for each fight I win. Setting up a settler factory is emmensely more satisfying than earning a GL. I know, it is a sickness.
I also put all of my workers in small stacks; each stack is sized for a particular task so I can grab the right stack at need.
Hmmm. Maybe that is why all of my games require 100+ hours of play?
Honestly, I don't see how you could possibly win above Regent with automated workers and governors turned on. I did use the governors for a while, but I always control every move of my workers.
I fall into the camp of "very little automation." Maybe because I like the details,
maybe because I just moved up a difficulty level.
In the very early game, I care about doing the right thing to the right tile. Roads to connect the resources, and to link up the cities. Mine the bonus grassland, and irrigate to spread the fresh water.
Once I revolt into republic or monarchy, I want to improve the tiles I will be working, and to mine those hills. I usually don't build quite enough (about 1 per city), so I hate losing them to barbs. I move them to spruce up newly captured cities.
In the Middle Ages, they get bored and I will often just fortify or sentry them.
I try to avoid the temptation of joining them to cities, cuz I will need them for railroading. Late middle ages, I will clear some jungle to avoid disease.
I use stacks of 3-5 for this (as CommandoBob suggests) so it goes faster.
Once I get steam, it's important to me to manually build the main trunk lines, from my core cities to seaports, so that troops can be shipped to the front easily.
When pollution starts appearing, I'm willing to use the clean up command (shift-D in C3C, and shift-P in vanilla, IIRC) If there is no pollution, I often stack them up next to a lake or mountain (think peaceful resort
) where it's easy to find them and wake all. I will keep slaves in one stack, and native workers in another.
maybe because I just moved up a difficulty level.
In the very early game, I care about doing the right thing to the right tile. Roads to connect the resources, and to link up the cities. Mine the bonus grassland, and irrigate to spread the fresh water.
Once I revolt into republic or monarchy, I want to improve the tiles I will be working, and to mine those hills. I usually don't build quite enough (about 1 per city), so I hate losing them to barbs. I move them to spruce up newly captured cities.
In the Middle Ages, they get bored and I will often just fortify or sentry them.
I try to avoid the temptation of joining them to cities, cuz I will need them for railroading. Late middle ages, I will clear some jungle to avoid disease.
I use stacks of 3-5 for this (as CommandoBob suggests) so it goes faster.
Once I get steam, it's important to me to manually build the main trunk lines, from my core cities to seaports, so that troops can be shipped to the front easily.
When pollution starts appearing, I'm willing to use the clean up command (shift-D in C3C, and shift-P in vanilla, IIRC) If there is no pollution, I often stack them up next to a lake or mountain (think peaceful resort
) where it's easy to find them and wake all. I will keep slaves in one stack, and native workers in another.
darski
Regent in Training
I fall into the camp of "very little automation." Maybe because I like the details,
maybe because I just moved up a difficulty level.
In the very early game, I care about doing the right thing to the right tile. Roads to connect the resources, and to link up the cities. Mine the bonus grassland, and irrigate to spread the fresh water.
Once I revolt into republic or monarchy, I want to improve the tiles I will be working, and to mine those hills. I usually don't build quite enough (about 1 per city), so I hate losing them to barbs. I move them to spruce up newly captured cities.
In the Middle Ages, they get bored and I will often just fortify or sentry them.
I try to avoid the temptation of joining them to cities, cuz I will need them for railroading. Late middle ages, I will clear some jungle to avoid disease.
I use stacks of 3-5 for this (as CommandoBob suggests) so it goes faster.
Once I get steam, it's important to me to manually build the main trunk lines, from my core cities to seaports, so that troops can be shipped to the front easily.
When pollution starts appearing, I'm willing to use the clean up command (shift-D in C3C, and shift-P in vanilla, IIRC) If there is no pollution, I often stack them up next to a lake or mountain (think peaceful resort
this is pretty much my plan as well.
I always want my empire connected so I use the [road to] command to get that done without my having to rethink every turn.
However for jungles - I put all available workers on the task and all work all the tiles together. The tiles are usually in patches anyway.
Hasdrubal Barca
Emperor
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2007
- Messages
- 1,441
I tend to use the automation for clearing marshes and jungle, or the "auto-no altering", that is after the grass shields are mined and some other tiles micromanaged the AI tends to perform the correct options on this button for governments like Republic/Democracy/Despotism, howhever if i´m Comunist, corruption will be comunal in a large empire, thus you will have to micro to mine the grass in far away places, instead of allowing the AI to irrigate at will (90% of the times).
Options like the "road to", "rail to", "colony to", "build trade", i find them usefull after i´m over 50 worker barrier.
The thing i like most is to have 2 stacks of workers for building "highways", that is 3 workers go to a open tile and 3 other sit idle close by, on the next turn, 3 workers build road, then the other idle workers move over and reach the other empty tile, thus allowing a "highway" build of 1 tile per turn.
Options like the "road to", "rail to", "colony to", "build trade", i find them usefull after i´m over 50 worker barrier.
The thing i like most is to have 2 stacks of workers for building "highways", that is 3 workers go to a open tile and 3 other sit idle close by, on the next turn, 3 workers build road, then the other idle workers move over and reach the other empty tile, thus allowing a "highway" build of 1 tile per turn.
Skullsplitter
Warlord
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2010
- Messages
- 108
Problem with automating jungle clearing is that it rarely puts the right number of workers onto the tile. 24 turns is long enough without it tossing, say, 11 workers at the task. (11 worker- turns moving onto the tile, then three worker-turns to clear it, for a total of 44 worker-turns, rather than the 25 worker-turns it would take a single worker, or 27 worker-turns for 3 workers.)
CommandoBob
AbstractArt
Late in my games, when workers and slaves are plentiful and need something to do, I'll road the jungles with one stack and then follow it up with another stack to clear it. And other times I just clump all the tasks together: 24 workers to clear, 3 to road, 6 to rail and 4 to irrigate; 37 workers to convert a tile from poodunk to productive in one turn.
The catch: not to move this huge stack to an adjacent tile! Then I'll have to sit and watch each one of them move and stop, move and stop, move and stop.
The catch: not to move this huge stack to an adjacent tile! Then I'll have to sit and watch each one of them move and stop, move and stop, move and stop.
