Manual or Automatic?

[heikeott]

I'm curious how many people "micro-manage" as opposed to letting workers run on automatic and city governors manage the citites.

My prediction is that "warmongers" tend to run more on autopilot, especially later in the game, and those who are builders and/or go for diplomatic/SR/cultural wins tend to manage their empires themselves down to the smallest details.

In any case, I think it will be interesting to see how many of us manage all the details ourselves, and perhaps some of you will post a line or two and tell us why or why not?

 

[wilbill]

In midgame, I'll occasionally click a few workers to "Automate this city only/no changes", but generally only to clean pollution. I haven't used the governor since maybe my second or third game. Did 1.29 or PTW improve the governor's function at all?

 

[MajorFallout]

I suspect that you are correct in your guesses.

I am not generally a warmonger, more of a builder of empires, and defend it to the hilt. And that means that I do a fair bit of manual managing of workers, but generally let the governors do most of the work.

 

[heikeott]

Wilbill:

I wouldn't know, but I doubt it. There is a whole thread going about how to turn the @#$% governor completely OFF, and some of the participants (Killer for example) I think are PC types who probably have one or both.

(Did you miss my new sig, or were you ignoring it on purpose to see if I would react?)

 

[Globetrotter]

I manage everything all the way!!!

 

[Woody]

I set governers to manage moods but otherwise handle city output manually. I will override the governer if the city is bulding a wonder and I need to increase production at the expense of growth. I keep workers on manual until I get railroads and get all my cities connected by rail, at that point in the game I do two things, double the number of my workers and turn most of them to automatic except a few I keep on manual for important projects.

 

[Sinapus]

I set a few workers to build a trade net after I have several cities, plus some others to automated clear jungle (I tend to play on hot and wet worlds so I have tons of jungle). Otherwise, I run it manually, though lately, I've been manually working on the flat squares, then setting that worker to "Improve (no changes) this city only) so it can finish the hills and mountains.

I also have the governor manage citizen moods and emphasize production. It does it rather well most of the time.

 

[Frithiof]

I usually automate (w/ no altering) most of my workers. I do keep my eyes on them though, and change their tasks if need be.

I have never used governors. Is it beneficial to use governors to take care of some of the city details?

 

[heikeott]

Originally posted by Frithiof
I have never used governors. Is it beneficial to use governors to take care of some of the city details?

I think that's a matter of opinion. There seems to be a school of thought (the Taoists? ) that says if you use the same AI to manage your cities & workers that is running the AI civs, how can you beat the AI to win the game? (by other methods than conquest/domination).

Then there are people who think that, for example, moving Citizen Pane from the grassland tile to the mined hill temporarily so that the Aqueduct is completed 2 turns faster and then moving him back afterwards so that the city pop will grow faster is boring, or even annoying, detail and doesn't change the game's outcome enough to bother with.

The city governors generally (IMO) emphasize growth unless you tell them otherwise, which can be really annoying when your town is stuck at size 6 anyway because it doesn't have an aqueduct yet and you're trying to build the Great Library, but your city governor has the citizens working to produce 4 extra food (which is wasted) every turn instead of the 2 extra shields they could be producing on those forest tiles....

Ahh, like I said, it's a matter of opinion, and I guess what I'm trying to find out is do the guys who can win on Deity do it themselves or automate (as opposed to the people like me who are still struggling to win a Warlord game), and does play style (warmonger vs. peaceful builder) affect this choice?

Using the governors could make the game go faster and more smoothly if one has like 30+ cities, letting them auto-build instead of having to choose what to build next for every city every time it completes something. On the other hand, seeing the idiotic things the governor suggests to build next sometimes (Antioch is pop 3, has no improvements and only a warrior to defend it, and you want to build Sistine Chapel there???) makes me want to decide for myself, every time, what each city is going to build next no matter how long it takes!

So.. it depends!

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by heikeott
(Did you miss my new sig, or were you ignoring it on purpose to see if I would react?)

No, I just missed it. Duhh. Forget PxW and 1.x9. Wouldn't want to ruin your day.

 

[heikeott]

Ahh, you didn't. Just the fact that you asked for my opinion on something came closer to making my day!!

I just wondered if I were being teased, and of course I couldn't just ignore it after putting that in my sig!

 

[wilbill]

Well, everybody's opinion is valid until proven otherwise - as mine often is, lol. I know you're still waiting for a Mac patch equivilant of 1.29. In the Readme for PTW there was a tantalizing entry to the effect of "tweaked AI performance". There's been a lot of speculation as to what the tweak(s) might have involved.
BTW, I have no problems with Macs. Used one at work for several years and found it most enjoyable.

 

[planetfall]

For a short spell, I used city build queue, but now I find it is easier to just pick the next improvement when the last is finished. I do set preferences to continue last build order so if I am building up military, then I don't have to change anything.

Only automate workers for cleaning up pollution because they can find it faster than I can.

I don't know if I am a builder or warmonger. Suspect half and half.

== PF

 

[cromagnon]

Never use it. The few times I have used it (e.g. automate pollution), it annoyed the hell out of me, and it ADDED to the time between turns, as the AI doens't know how to move a stack of captured workers to the pollution.

 

[DaDoo]

I tend to automate my workers most of the time. I control my worker when I need them to do some much more important task than just improving tiles; ie connecting all the luxuries inside my border. I definitely use the governor to manage my city. I set it to manage mood and prioritize for production only. This way I still have total control of what the cities produce while I don't have to worry much about cities going into disorder.

 

[MummyMan]

Nothing gets automated when i play, although during the modern ages when you can't improve anymore with workers, i might fortify them and use them when pollution breaks out. I never use governors either, not really that hard to change production, unless you play on huge maps or something and have a lot of cities, i like to play on large pangea myself. I am more of a builder though, but if a civ pisses me off they're dead.

 

[kb2tvl]

One game I had about 200 ~ 300 caputred workers.... I razed 3 civs to the ground. I would manually *fix* my automated workers mistakes... such as changing irrigation to mines. I also use ctl I after I have railroad connections done and my capitol railed.

I use govenors and manually irrigate/mine such that the govenor will have 0 food at size 12.... Sometimes I will manually set a size 12 city to 0 food If I cant get the govenor to do the right thing.

 

[BiatchGuy]

I don't use the governors.

I do automate workers though. Having to give orders for like 25 workers every turn once it gets close to the end of the game gets really boring.

 

[tao]

In the beginning (September 2002) I used governors. Then I started to give them guidelines (emphasize xyz). Soon I optimized some key cities to speedup production. Next came squeezing out additional food. Now I micromanage all my cities, as long as I fight to win. In an easy endgame, I may automate some cities.

Workers I supervise until all worked tiles are to my liking; afterwards fortify some to have a task force available, the others are shift-A'ed. It's really not too much effort, if you group your workers in stacks.

 

[Park Ranger]

I've recently started to use governors to manage city moods and they've saved me so many turns of disorder that I'm thankful. They do have to be watched, however, and I turn them off in cities where I want a WLTKD. Once I start a war as a democracy I turn them all on again.

Only auto-pollute and short road-to/rroad-to orders for my workers. Automation with no altering on small islands once grasslands are done.