Manual or Automatic?

[heikeott]

I almost got into a war last night because I had done most of what I felt I needed to do around my cities and put the workers on [shift]-A for pollution cleanup and odds 'n' ends, and they kept running into enemy territory to do.. well, I don't know what they were trying to do.

Is there any way to keep your automated workers inside your own boundaries?

 

[LordMongoose]

MMing is the road to success.

 

[MummyMan]

I've found that when invading an army of workers is almost as effective as the troops themselves. After you get one city you can build railroads to the next as far as possible and attack with Cavalry or Panzers, tanks work if you get the city by the corners if culture isn't very strong. I've taken as many as 6 cities with one force in one turn, a definite incentive to keeping workers on manual

 

[heikeott]

I know, I know. But when my city improvements are all done and the RRs are all built and there's (temporarily) no pollution, what am I supposed to do, space bar through 30 or 40 workers every single turn? I'd rather not, thank you anyway. On shift-A they will go sleep in the cities when there's nothing to do and activate automatically when there's pollution. Great! Except for last night when they nearly got me in a war by straying onto enemy turf.

So, is there anyway to make automated workers stay out of other Civs' territory?

 

[Goatman]

I only use automate to remove the pollution in the late game, after i have improved everything (i.e railroads in every square).

Basically, the ai is too stupid to do anything right. It will mine the only grassland square in the radius of a city surrounded by hills/mountains, and it tends to want to build longbowmen in all of your cities regardless of the fact that you can build much better units.

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

I only automate workers to clear pollution. They have a nasty habit of irrigating needlessly otherwise. I learned this the hard way.

The city governors, for me, speed up gameplay. I generally set them to manage citizen moods and emphasize production, while taking select cities and changing their governor's orders or overriding them entirely--especially in times of war.

Later!

--The Clown to the Left

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

hiekott: In the scenario you described, I handle it like this:

seperate workers into stacks numbering as many workers as necessary--depending on advances/government/nationality--to clear 1 tile of pollution in one turn. Fortify them until pollution starts popping up. Then wake up a stack as needed and send 'em to work.

Workers trying to go into another civ's territory is easily remidied one of two ways: first, you can restrict the worker's range of operation by ordering it to work one city only, or, get that annoying AI civ off of YOUR continent...

Later!

--The Clown to the Left

 

[PRIMEMOVER]

In my early days of CIVing (I and III), I'd automate everything, thinking that the AI would be more efficient than doing it myself. Which was true, problem was that I didn't understand the subtleties to managing workers and manipulating production. After reading Cracker's “Civ3 Opening Plays Site” in the War Academy, I'll never automate again. The closest I get to it is managing moods via the governor but I will move workers manually and switch often between emphasizing production, food and commerce via the governors.

If more people read this, Firaxis would have to come up with a tougher challenge, because scores would soar. This is inside-type information including information on how the AI really works and how it compares to other strategies of city production. Very complex and very insightful.

But getting back to the question...I'll never automate workers again. Like he said on his very lengthy "Opening Plays Site", you sign your death warrant when you automate!

In short, the AI works with a narrow "window" of view...it only considers those tiles within the initial eight-square ring and doesn't anticipate beyond that. If you read this piece, you'll never automate again, except for maybe happiness via the governor (that's a pain!).

For those of you disappointed in the "Strategy Guide" for CivIII that's currently on the market...these articles in the War Academy, particularly this one and others written by Cracker are must reads for anybody serious about learning the game not only from the human perspective, but also from the AI perspective! Unbelievable stuff!

 

[peace_frog]

I manually use my workers until RR is complete. then I usually automate the majority of them,m leaving maybe 10 to 15 to do specific taks, more if I'm at war. I would never let the computer decide what I'm going to build, but I find the AI is less inept at managing moods. I forget that part too often and have a city go into disorder. It is too tedious for me to look at 50 cities each turn. But then I see what the stupid AI does with the citizens and have decided I have to MM the large cities. So I'm 80% MM, 20% lazy.

 

[Darkness]

automate workers s*cks, unless your only task is pollution control.

 

[Sinapus]

Originally posted by Darkness
automate workers s*cks, unless your only task is pollution control.

As I said above, I find it reasonably good at mining hills and mountains, or auto-railroading the area around a city. Trade net is decent, though I do sometimes have to make new routes here and there. Automate Clear Jungle is somewhat useful to have a few workers performing here and there.

(Actually, I wish the "automate build trade" function would make sure each city and resource was connected via rail. It usually stops after every city and resource has a road. Feh.)

 

[StarG]

I play Regent & Monarch, large & huge maps - PTW 1.29.

I used to micromanage everything and I have now switched over to automatic cities and automatic w/reserve manual workers. This is not because of what is BEST, this is because it gives me a game that I enjoy.

You get a sustantial/huge/overwhelming performance boost by micromanaging cities and workers if done correctly - especially in the early game where 1 or 2 shields/food difference can generate your horseman 1 turn earlier. If your goal is the quickest win or highest score then micromanagement is required. I have micromanaged all MP games I have played (5). I strongly agree that you should read Cracker's threads if you LIKE to micromanage.

I personally found that I like to PLAY more then MANAGE and I especially like the Modern Age. I now set my cities to Governors to manage moods and emphasize production. I manually override the specific production as needed. I manually handle ALL workers until I have RR connected my "core" empire. After that they go automatic with about a dozen in reserve for special projects. This is enough to win more then 80% of my Monarch games in the Modern Age. (On the 10 or so Diety games I played this way I LOST ALL of them.)

The micromanaged games take as long in time as my automatic games but have only half the game turns since the improved production wins more quickly. It of course takes longer to micromange each turn.

Have fun!

 

[Moonsinger]

Sadly to say that I manage everything manually. Therefore, sometimes, it may take me up to 1 hour per turn during the industrial age.

 

[Michael York]

I generally let the governor choose what gets worked except when I have a wonder under construction or a pressing need.
I never automated workers in either Civ 1 or 2, and I only tried full automation on Civ3 once (and that #$@) worker made me mad), I generally set a couple of workers to pollution automate late to remind me of pollution locations to send in my hordes of human controlled workers.
This sometimes works for me on Deity, but I need a good start.

 

[SirPleb]

Over time I've automated less and less. I'm at the point now where I don't automate anything (workers or governors) except a few shift-A workers at the end of a milked game. (I shift-A a few workers just to catch anything I miss, e.g. a global warming tile which needs to be re-improved.)

The first thing to go for me was the governors. After I'd played a while I started to see that I often disagreed with their decisions and started taking over from them. Both production orders (first to go) and then citizen assignments (over time I came to control these more and more.)

Next came worker automation. For a while I played a mixed style, shift-A'ing some workers and manually controlling others. (I suggest that no one ever use simple "A" automation except in the very earliest stages of learning the game. If automating, stick with shift-A.) But over time I found that I didn't agree with the AI's priorities and I'd rather control every worker assignment.

The last thing to go in my style was automated pollution cleanup. I used to put a large number of workers on shift-A in the final phase of a milked game to handle pollution. But I ended up finding even that a nuisance - when automated for that part of the game, they'd often clean up polluted tiles before I'd noted where the tiles were, and then I wouldn't know which cities to go and fix the citizen assignments in. (To me this is the most irritating single automated thing in the game - when a tile becomes polluted, the game takes the citizen currently working that tile off it. So I have to go and manually put the citizen back on the tile. Tedious.)

 

[André Alfenaar]

Usually, I start with governors on controlling mood and optimizing food. After the advent of a more advanced government I switch to optimize production.

Concerning workers: until the advent of railroad I manage them manually; after the moment all my cities are connected by railroad I set them on (A)utomatic.

 

[anarres]

I micromanage everything, always.

Once I put workers to clean up pollution, but even that was inneficient (see SirPleb's answer as for why).

As a hardcore civ player from the days of the Amega, the concept of allowing a stupid AI to move my workers for me is strange. If you have ever looked at the stupid things the AI does for itself, why would you let it do that to you?

 

[Aggie]

I wouldn't be surprised that automating everything would cost you a level. At higher levels you HAVE to micromanage...

 

[Cartouche Bee]

I think that if you are playing against the AI you should have to automate, otherwise it's an exploit. Fair is fair.

 

[bluenote13]

I have never used the governors because I like the managing of all the cities. Early in the game I manage all the workers but once I have to start fighting I automate them. This is only bacuse as I conquer cities I end up with too many workers to manage them all. A single turn would take way too long if I had to micromanage 100 workers.

On a side note...when I start conquering cities late in the game I tend to stack all the workers of different civs together and move them in stacks to clean pollution. It is just my little quirk and ads nothing to the game but if I am particulary pissed at a nation I just kill all thier workers to make myself feel better.