There just shouldn't be worker units.

[Some guy]

One thing I liked in CivRev was that you could purchase roads to connect to other cities.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be improvements, but I think it would be better if you could build improvements on tiles from the city screen.

It already does this if the improvements are pillaged, so I think it would be better if you could just utilize your population to temporarily construct improvements.

 

[pagh80]

Call to Power had a nice system also. It offered something similar to gold. With that you could buy improvements.

 

[Chassit]

I miss the old days where you'd build your settler, have him build a road to the place the next city would be and then plant the city, pre attached.

 

[Stefanskantine]

I support this. CTP had the best system, you set a Public Works tax on production with which you could buy infrastructure. Infrastructure should be abstracted, its not fun to bother moving around workers imo.

 

[Stoney the I]

I miss the old days where you'd build your settler, have him build a road to the place the next city would be and then plant the city, pre attached

I can highly recommend you play the old civs again! I played a game of 1-4 before the release of Civ5 to get into the spirit of it again

I for one like where a road on a tile gave more commerce there. more roads = better. It is now the other way around. you need as little road as possible.

So on topic: I agree. workers end up automated once much of the groundwork is there anyway. In another thread it was mentioned it is (for a large portion) the workers that slow the late game down. I think with the civ5 culture system (1tile per culture pop) it should be easily implemented to simply buy the improvement on those tiles, and automating it on a percentage of yr income in late game. (or simply like : spend x gold/turn on improvements as an option)

 

[poncratias]

and maybe a first-person-view-mode too?

 

[DaveGold]

I agree. You should be able to give instructions on how your land will be worked and let some invisible process carry it out. This could be still by workers just let the player produce them, let the automation move the workers around, and keep them out of sight. It would be less efficient but the game play would be better for everyone.

 

[jjkrause84]

I miss the old days where you'd build your settler, have him build a road to the place the next city would be and then plant the city, pre attached.

You have to be joking.....

That always drove me NUTS!

Athough I do miss the 'slaves' from Civ3.....

 

[Doctor Phibes]

I second OP and pagh80. Workers are well past their sell-by date. The micromanagement was bad enough in Civ4, but they could get by if automated (and only improve the nearest city. They did it badly, but at least they didn't run amok). Now you shouldn't dare to automate them, plus they block up the roads for each other and other civilian units and cost you a fortune in maintenance.

The only reason, I think, that CTP's Public Works system hasn't been introduced by Firaxis - and it would be cool to have had it in Civ4 - is NIH ('Not Invented Here'). A charge usually levelled at NASA - but hey, Firaxis ain't NASA...

 

[HanWuDi]

Buying improvements is one option, but I like the OP's suggestion for tiles to be improved by your city's population. My thought is that using a tile would slowly improve it. It'd be more realistic too: land is usually brought under cultivation by the people who will cultivate it in the long run. At a certain stage, I suppose, you'd have to give an order for a tile to develop down a food/produce/commerce track, but since we already do that with workers anyway...

 

[Thormodr]

PW (Public Works) actually worked very well in the Call to Power series.

 

[cf_nz]

One thing I liked in CivRev was that you could purchase roads to connect to other cities.

I wasn't totally a fan of this largely because I felt it took control away from me as the player, roads weren't always put in the 'right' place. I think you would need to specify exactly where the road went (tile by tile) rather than having the game pick the route for you.

 

[Qoojo]

When I took a worker off automation in my last game, I swear there was an option to build a road to a specific city. I don't mind workers. I typical create a few and then automate them all the time, then occasionally pick one out to do something specific.

 

[PawelS]

I like managing Workers, and I never automate them. Checking which cities need improvements and building them is one of the things that make the game fun for me. And I like the fact that they don't stack - there should be a minimum time to build an improvement, massing Workers to build it faster seems "cheesy" to me.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

When I took a worker off automation in my last game, I swear there was an option to build a road to a specific city. I don't mind workers. I typical create a few and then automate them all the time, then occasionally pick one out to do something specific.

As long as they just keep on building trading posts ad nauseam, then automation's a fine thing. But they will eventually get bored and gift you a lovely road network, I'm afraid...

 

[Lightzy]

I don't think it would be wise in CIV5 to put even MORE ephasis on gold generation as opposed to tactical/strategic decisions.

At least workers force you to actually watch and defend them, and allow you to take risks too.

 

[zonk]

Might as well.

Might as well just make food a global progress bar, too.

Maybe in VI they'll find a way to get rid of cities entirely.

 

[afa2000]

I like managing Workers, and I never automate them. Checking which cities need improvements and building them is one of the things that make the game fun for me. And I like the fact that they don't stack - there should be a minimum time to build an improvement, massing Workers to build it faster seems "cheesy" to me.

I second that.

 

[gilmore606]

I agree, workers are just pointless micro. For that matter why even have tile improvements? Just make mines/farms city buildings that up your food/hammer output.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Buying improvements is one option, but I like the OP's suggestion for tiles to be improved by your city's population. My thought is that using a tile would slowly improve it. It'd be more realistic too: land is usually brought under cultivation by the people who will cultivate it in the long run. At a certain stage, I suppose, you'd have to give an order for a tile to develop down a food/produce/commerce track, but since we already do that with workers anyway...

I'd really like that to happen. The only difficulty would be tiles+improvements outside city radius (access to resources, roads, forts) all those could be covered by direct gold payments.