Ruhroh

[darski]

I just discovered a bit of a flaw in the program.

I had bombarded a tile and caused the craters to form. After the war, I figured it was easier to build a city on the tile than to clean it up. The problem is that when I try to use [shift] D to clean any pollution the workers all head to that city to clean that tile but having a city built on it means it cannot be cleared. they ignore any other tiles as this is the oldest incidence of damage.

Does anyone have a suggestion to fix this? I could remove the city and clear the tile but I have a goodly bit of culture there (cultural victory chosen)

 

[CKS]

I have no solution for this frustrating problem except to manually clear pollution. MapStat and CivAssist both tell you where the pollution is, and you can use the appropriate sized stack of workers to clean them.

I find this problem especially frustrating when it takes me several turns to figure out what's happening (as it often does).

 

[vmxa]

Don't use auto clear or auto anything. Now you will have to manually grab each worker to clear that command. I just make a stack or two that sits and I send to clear any polution that appears.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Agreed, watching the AI mishandle your workers is even less fun than managing them yourself. So I wasn't aware of this problem, I just assumed that the town cleared up the craters like it clears forests and jungles. I wonder if it gets reduced shields and commerce in the city square? (you'd still get the minimums, of course, but would a town built on cratered gold get less commerce than a town built on pristine gold, for instance?)

 

[Spoonwood]

I'd also advise not using auto clear. I wouldn't fortify workers either. If you just have workers around to clear pollution, and nothing else, once you have moved all of your units, click on the next turn button in the upper left-hand corner of the box in the lower right hand corner of the screeen.

 

[creamcheese]

This is a very strange bug, never heard of it before. Like the others, I never automate anything. Once you have rails, pollution cleanup is easy anyway, just have a big stack sitting around and move them and clean in one turn.

 

[darski]

Ok, how is moving a bunch of workers to a spot and hitting [shift] D any different from having a stack of workers and hitting [shift] D? I have batches of workers stacked around my empire ready for the days when I start building airports and such.

BTW, I did finally just clear out the city and clean the land. I put all the settlers back in but I wish I had known before I built that city. would have spared a great deal of wasted time and frustration.

 

[CKS]

Don't use shift-D. Use "Clean Pollution On This Tile", not "Clean Pollution Automatically".

 

[Core Imposter]

I fail to see what is wrong with auto clean. In some of my games I have 800 units. Turns take half an hour.

 

[CKS]

Nothing is wrong with auto clean except that if you have build on a cratered or polluted tile, the workers try to fix it but can't, and they won't clean up anything else. (Also, they don't stack optimally, and they won't just wait patiently when they have no damage to fix.)

Shift-A automation and auto-cleaning in the late game are vastly different from automating in the early game or while railing (both of which are bad ideas). I let my worker rail the mountainous wastes and frozen tundra all on their own; the tiles will never be used, but we might as well be able to move freely through them.

 

[Ataxerxes]

I fail to see what is wrong with auto clean. In some of my games I have 800 units. Turns take half an hour.

It depends how many tiles are craters (darski's annoyance) and erupted volcanoes (my annoyance). Those 2 swallow whole armies of workers who then can't clear the pollution where it needs to be. That isn't to say your point isn't valid, because it is. It's a balancing act. I actually think pollution is the worst thing in Civ3.