Problem with workers staying in city

[Tsavo]

Hi Guys

I'm new here so apologies if this is the wrong forum for this.

My workers (set to automated) seem to have run into the nearest city when a neighbour declared war and his knights started moving through my territory,
I assume they have some AI that tells them to hide from enemy units.

But they never came out again. Even when I've destroyed all the units on my land. I tried moving them outside the city manually and then press the Automate button and... zip! Straight back to hide in the city the cowardly little... grrr.

Does that mean I have to abandon that game or play the workers on manual for the rest of the game (painful).

Grateful for any help/advice.

 

[semirami]

Automated workers are just stupid. There is an option however to improve the nearest city only, so if you bring them back and activate the option it will probably work. But seriously, you should manage your workers manualy.

 

[Kesshi]

Tsavo,

I don't have much experience with automated workers, but here are some possibilities:

1) You never mentioned that the war ended. Perhaps the workers are coded to hide in towns during wartime.

2) Did you accidentally choose the "Improve Nearest City" option instead of "Build Improvements Automatically"? If that was the case, then they'd go hide because there was nothing left to do for that city.

3) Is there anything left for them to do at all? If there is nothing left to do, workers will naturally hide in cities.

But I agree with semirami, you really should learn to manage your Workers manually.

 

[Tsavo]

Thanks to both for the replies, re the questions/possibilities:

The war hadn't ended but I'd be surprised if they were programmed to hide when the enmy were nowhere to be seen?

However, the workers should have had things to do since the enemy had pillaged some things and my biggest city has contracted by 2 population in the meantime.

And I was definitely pressing the right button

 

[Kesshi]

Tsavo,

Another thing that kinda bothered me about Workers that may be the issue here. (Not definite.)

The new worker threat detection system is broken both in our favor and not in our favor. The workers will sense danger from units it cannot see (due to FoW) and stop working so you can move them. I'm wondering if your workers sense a chariot just outside the FoW that can come snag them if they move to the boarders.

Also how the threat detection system is broken not in our favor is if an enemy at war's unit that can only move one space (Axeman, Spearman, Warrior, etc) is on a road, and 2 tiles away from your worker, but in your teritory where it can only move one space. In this scenario your worker will sense danger and not complete its task unless repetively told to do-so. Even though the worker is totally safe from a "next turn attack," it will constantly stop working.

 

[Supr49er]

It may seem like micromanagement, but it really is better to manage your workers yourself.

Welcome to the Forums Tsavo.

 

[Dirk1302]

I'm generally not so negative about the automation system. I usually handle the workers manually until there's nothing significant to improve, then i automate them. If i go to war or are declared upon i turn automation off. After railroad or getting a new resource i resume command for a while.

 

[JammerUno]

I find setting them to build trade network after improving manually saves me alot of time. Automated workers aren't too bad either. Select the option telling them to leave already improved land alone, and let them do their thing. The only real problems are them farming over towns (hence the not improving improved tiles option) and wasting workerturns, which ceases to be a problem later on.

 

[Dirk1302]

The ai's automated workers do that indeed (farming over towns). I was watching a few ai tiles closely once since my chain irrigation in that part of the world depended on it. They just keep on changing tiles, cottages are destroyed , a farms go up (yes!), 4 turns later there are workshops. Ai workers get bored otherwise.

 

[Gliese 581]

The ai's automated workers do that indeed (farming over towns). I was watching a few ai tiles closely once since my chain irrigation in that part of the world depended on it. They just keep on changing tiles, cottages are destroyed , a farms go up (yes!), 4 turns later there are workshops. Ai workers get bored otherwise.

They like to do it to your towns if you capture a city but they retain control of culture around it, which is of course to their advantage since you'll eventually get the tiles back with 70 turns of work undone.

 

[Gwynnja]

You can further improve your automated workers by managing the city governor. If you tell the governor that you want to emphasize commerce, hammers, or food, then the workers will do their best in that regard.