School question?

[Techhead451]

How do you choose what specialist the colonist in school becomes? I had a colonist in the school, and it showed different professions and that it would graduate in three turns, but when it graduated i got a farmer which i did not want. Is there a way to specify the specialiy?

 

[dalgo]

How do you choose what specialist the colonist in school becomes? I had a colonist in the school, and it showed different professions and that it would graduate in three turns, but when it graduated i got a farmer which i did not want. Is there a way to specify the specialiy?

That list of different professions also showed you the amount of cash needed at graduation. If you don't have the money available you will get someone who is free instead (like a farmer). It's not a very tidy system - I'd rather they asked if you preferred to wait a turn until you had more cash on hand.

 

[Techhead451]

Thank you for the explanation Dalgo. The way I understand it you need a specialist in the city to train in that certain specialty? Do you want schools in all of you citys or do you want to move specialists in and out of one city with a shool?

 

[dalgo]

Yes you do need to have a specialist in the city to be able to train a student in that profession, and he needs to be there at least as long as the student to get the cheapest rate. Because of this it is usually best to build schools in all your cities.

 

[ditchhook]

Because of this it is usually best to build schools in all your cities.

I don't agree with this strategy. I bring Civ4 ideas to city development, and try to specialize each city. I have a college town, a smithy/weapons town, a horse town, then towns built next to resources: The rum town hopefully has a sugar plantation within its borders, coat factory has furs etc. If there is adequate food, I'll add cathedrals. All towns get printing presses and newspapers if possible. (I usually have a team of carpenters who go from town to town.)

I also will have small, undeveloped farming, lumber, and fishing villages to exploit those resouces.

 

[dalgo]

I don't agree with this strategy. I bring Civ4 ideas to city development, and try to specialize each city. I have a college town, a smithy/weapons town, a horse town, then towns built next to resources: The rum town hopefully has a sugar plantation within its borders, coat factory has furs etc. If there is adequate food, I'll add cathedrals. All towns get printing presses and newspapers if possible. (I usually have a team of carpenters who go from town to town.)

I also have specialist cities - one for Coats, another for Rum etc. However when I need a new Fur Trapper or Planter I find it better to have a school in each city so I can train him in place while his teacher is still working at his trade. Also the time needed to train new students in a city increases with each graduation in that city, so it is quicker to train one or two in each city.

That said, I still use a couple of college/university cities for bulk training Elder Statesmen and Veteran Soldiers.