Micro management

[Ribannah]

In Civ3, 80% of what I do during a turn consists of:

- checking the diplomacy screens to see if there's anything new;
- adjust the science slider when necessary;
- check all worker jobs to see if they will be finished at end of turn;
- go through all of my cities so I won't throw away too many shields, food and commerce, and to check for a possible riot.

Now, some of this involves strategic planning, which I like, but a lot is just tedious work, and it slows down my play to the point that I rarely ever finish a game anymore.

And that is a shame, and totally unnecessary.

The following changes are easy and would not diminish the game in any way, but would make my play a lot faster.

(1) When a city is about to grow, don't give it shields from a tile that isn't being worked yet.
(2) When a city is about to grow, store the superfluous food.
(3) When something is built, store the superfluous shields.
(4) When a technology is discovered, don't throw away the extra research (but convert it into gold).
(5) If a Worker's job will be finished at end of turn, show that already on the city screen.
(6) When a city is about to riot, provide the chance to adjust the workforce and prevent it.
(7) If a rival civ has discovered a new tech, sound the trumpet.
(8) When the treasure is about to run out, provide the chance to adjust the sliders and prevent it.

Plenty of micro management will still remain, but that will be the interesting stuff.

Some of these (6,7,8) could be options. And I will probably think of more, similar requests and add them to this list.

 

[rcoutme]

I would also really like to see the trade advisor show (not tell after a million clicks) me what resources I have that the other civs do not have. All on a large screen with multiple civs. I am really tired of going to each civ to find out how much gold they have, what resources they need that I have (they already show us what the other civs have, why not what they need as well?), and what their attitude is.

 

[Vizurok]

Good suggestions!!!
I really like the idea of sounding the trumpet...
Personally I would like to see an event list in the beginning of every turn:

for example: You have 8 new events -->
o Show the list, advisor!
o I don't need it now... throw it out!

Factory built in Dresden BUILDINGS
----------------------------
Rifleman built in Berlin, Hamburg UNITS
Cavalry built in Munich
----------------------------
Civil Disorder in New Berlin DISORDERS
----------------------------
Disaster in Konigsberg DISASTERS
----------------------------
City growing in Nuremberg, Cologne CITY GROWING
----------------------------
Other events ( I must forget some)

 

[Warlord Sam]

First off, I'd like to point out (and I don't mean to be confrontational), but nobody's forcing you to micromanage. I barely micromanage, usually only in my core cities, and even then only some of the time. I'm being less efficient than maximum, sure, but I still enjoy the game and am having fun. You don't have to micromanage, and if its causing you that much trouble then maybe you shouldn't.

However, I do agree with your sentiments. I don't like that in order to get the most out of my civ, I would have to spend 30 minutes a turn micromanaging. I don't like that at all, and I imagine that most people would agree. The game is supposed to be fun, and micromanaging (past a certain point) isn't even close to fun, and it kills any element of "strategy" when it just takes sooo much per turn.

 

[hello]

I agree with Ribannah 100% because I hate micromanagement.
Pop-Up for tech is ok, but with different delay depending on distance to the respective civ or without delay, if you have an embassy there and it's on the same continent or sth like radio communications exists.
Generally pop-ups should be kept at a minimum

First I disliked that civ 3 was imo simplified, but then I discovered the more fluent game play. The developers have found the right direction here and many posts that I’ve seen here would affect this trend negatively.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

In 'Birth of the Federation', you got a list of new events at the start of each turn. You could cycle through to see what planets had been settled, what new races had been discovered, what new espionage missions had occured etc. It was easy and compact and, if you didn't care about any of the events that had occured, you could just ignore them and continue! Very easy.
Hell, now that I think about it, even VGA planets had a events list which was easy to manage!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[searcheagle]

I would like to a list of all the new units built, by type, then civil disorder, etc. This would speed up that phase of the game and give us more time for the movement.

I know its a different subject, but why can't the computer manage the civil disorder- I know Civ III says it has it but stops if it takes the city into starvation. It should continue reguardless of whether it would incurr starvation.

 

[dh_epic]

Especially if you have embassies in other nations, there's no reason you should have to check for thing like new technologies available for trade.

No doubt.

 

[Pook]

I agree with Vizurok and Aussie Lurker- there should be a pop-up screen at the beginning of the turn giving you major events. That was one of the best features of Birth of the Federation.

 

[hello]

yes, one report with all news each turn is very good

many pop-ups apearing at different times are disturbing

 

[Milan's Warrior]

I agree with what is said in this thread, there is really too much micromanagement to be done.
The points listed by Ribannah could simply be automatized. Other things could be taken care of by making the governor screen more comprehensive

 

[QuantumEleven]

I agree with the "list of events this turn" feature - it was done in Alpha Centauri (to quite a good degree, IMO), at the beginning of each turn there was a list of events that had happened in the toolbar: What city had built what, where there was (in the case of SMAC) forest or fungus expansion etc. Then you could click on each event to zoom to the place where it happened, and deal with the event as you saw fit (and you could ignore or postpone the less important events). I found this feature really useful, as it stops you having to negociate through endless popups at the start of each turn, and, also, you can easily check where everything happened. This is especially good for things like pollution - often, I had to hunt through my entire empire to find the one polluted square because I hadn't quite paid enough attention in the two seconds where it announced that pollution had struck (okay, in this case, I could just have set a worker to auto-clean pollution, but I wanted to find the city affected and change its production around too).

 

[Pook]

I'd like to see another page under the Trade Advisor. We could label the current screen as "Resources", and as rcoutme suggested, list the resources you have that the various other civs don't. Then, add a button (just like the Military Advisor view "by unit" and "by city" button) that would take you to a new page for technology and communications trading. It would list the civs, then by columns:
1) Gold in their treasury
2) Techs and comms they have that we don't
3) Techs and comms we have that they don't
By looking at these two screens, I could see in under a minute where I had a reasonable chance of making a trade.
This screen could just as easily go under the Science or Foreign advisor- I chose the Trade Advisor because the format is the same as what's already there.
Yes, it has drawbacks:
A) I don't think we could fit all the info for resources, techs, and comms on one page
B) It doesn't have Giant Death Robots
That said, I think this would considerably speed up the game without being hard to program.

 

[dh_epic]

Yeah, being practical instead of complaining about bad micromanagement...

It would be pretty cool to display at least a quick spreadsheet of what your opponents have available that you could trade for.

 

[CiverDan]

I think one probably is that the Screens just take too long to access. In GalCiv I can just click on a tab and "bam" its there. In Civ 3, I have to wait a few seconds to access, they may seem minor, but when ur checking 16 civs, this becomes tedious.
Cities need better auto-management when improving currently non-used terrain in the radius, clearing pollution, etc. Trim down the "rioting". I am tired of a city rioting just because it grows. auto assign entertainers etc. unless it would create a food shortage.

 

[Love Trumpet]

The Status Page is a very good Idea indeed, with each occurence as a hyperlink to that occurence for quick response. Bit also like you used to get in SimCity etc. Civ4 makers take note this is a good one and would make the game more enjoyable and less time consuming.

Also, lets have the ability to control workers more, like one Button for Building roads only, So, wot i mean is, 1 button to stop what all workers are doing and then shift them all another task in one fell swoop. Cos say if you knew something (?) was gonna come up then your re-task them to building all roads, to prepare for a war or good trading, infrastructure etc or if you ewnated to grow a lot then they could all go to irrigate, get my drift!

 

[AA-battery]

All I have to say is that I think that micromanaging is bs. I think that there should be more specific automation options. Haven't any of you guys noticed that on these threads we are kind of more improving civ3 than suggesting for civ4?

 

[jonathan_95060]

All I have to say is that I think that micromanaging is bs. I think that there should be more specific automation options. Haven't any of you guys noticed that on these threads we are kind of more improving civ3 than suggesting for civ4?

yes I have noticed it but I don't mind. I don't want some revolutionary new change, I just want a better Civ3.


Other ideas:

• have multiplayer/internet integrated into the game rather than some kludge.
• Allow a team to manage a single civilization.
• SMAC II -- I like the SMAC system but I want the civ3 improvements folded in.

Cheers,
--jfc

 

[eromrab]

i think it would be really cool if there was a "Workers" screen... (Department of Labor? ) where you could set priorities for the workers to accomplish before other tasks... and definately be able to quickly end all automated workers, and also an ability to end all automated workers after their current tasks are completed...

i don't know about anyone else, but when the time comes around to start building railroads, i've got almost all of my workers on auto... so running around and stopping all of them a few turns before i can build the railroads, so that i can get them into position can be a pretty big pain in the butt...

once i get the railroads tech, that becomes my #1 priority... so i don't want workers to be irrigating and such... so that would be awesome if i could set them all to do railroads before anything else... and even better... if i could set them to build railroads that connect cities before doing the "extra" railroads around each city...

what y'all think?

 

[Love Trumpet]

Yep, best idea I've seen on this subject. You could even stick it in with City Governor maybe, 3rd tab along the top, with "Manage Labour Force" under the "Manage Production" line. With such things as...

1, Irrigate all squares
2, RR between all Ciites
3, Mine....>insert applicable or appropiate choices<
4, Resources & Trade sq first
....yadda yadda!! you lot come up with some!

then we could have Priority/Queueing boxes by the side of each!

...then "assemble at set rally point" when completed the task, (annoying, them all going back to a city and then having to wake them all up)

"Department of Labour"....Like It Like it, nice one centurion!

RR'ing that's exactly what I do too, annoying too