wasting shields?

[doolally]

In Civ III, I always micro my city's production - when the thing I'm building gets down to 4 or 5 shields to finish, I pull some workers (city workers, not terraformers) out of the fields and turn them into scientists or tax collectors (depending on what my needs are), so that my city's output matches exactly the number of shields needed to finish building the item. That way, no shields are ever wasted, no workers are ever unproductive. Then, once the item is built, I fire the scientists or tax collectors and put them back to working the squares they were on before - and the city's shield production goes back up.

I'm finding that a bit more troublesome in Civ IV. I used to be able to hit F1 and see how close to finishing an item was, and then go in and micro the build, but that info isn't on display there any more. Does anyone know an easier way to see how many turns until an item is complete without scrolling around the map and checking out each city individually?

 

[Vael]

There is no wasted shields or science when something finishes - it simply carriers over to the next project.

 

[warpstorm]

So in other words, stop micromanaging and start strategizing.

 

[gravix]

Question: Does the shield carry-over only work for one project? I haven't been able to figure this out through play yet...

Say City X produces 90 shields, and you use it to build 3 missionaries (50 shields, I believe) in a row. After that you switch to a Laboratory. How many extra shields go towards the production of the laboratory, 40, or 120?

 

[CrackedCrystal]

nevermind...

 

[Pfeffersack]

Question: Does the shield carry-over only work for one project? I haven't been able to figure this out through play yet...

Say City X produces 90 shields, and you use it to build 3 missionaries (50 shields, I believe) in a row. After that you switch to a Laboratory. How many extra shields go towards the production of the laboratory, 40, or 120?

AFAIK, the overflow can be carried from project to project.At least I haven't noticed any losses here.

 

[Mujadaddy]

Does anyone know an easier way to see how many turns until an item is complete without scrolling around the map and checking out each city individually?

Hover the mouse over the city display bars in the main menu and it will show you ALL the info you need. If you click once, you can change the city's production without entering the full screen---which you can enter by double-clicking.

Hope that helps

 

[JustDerren]

That doesn't answer the question posed by gravix. By the third missionary he has carried over enough shields to complete the unit without that turns' production. Do you lose it?

 

[Shillen]

Question: Does the shield carry-over only work for one project? I haven't been able to figure this out through play yet...

Say City X produces 90 shields, and you use it to build 3 missionaries (50 shields, I believe) in a row. After that you switch to a Laboratory. How many extra shields go towards the production of the laboratory, 40, or 120?

I just tested this out because I was curious. You would end up with 120 shields towards the laboratory, it will continue to add up each turn. I can see some easy exploitive behavior from this mechanic. Let's say you have a city producing 80 shields per turn and you're like 3 techs from a wonder you really want to build. So over the 20 turns it takes to get those 3 techs you can build nothing but missionaries/explorers at 40 shields each. Over those 20 turns you'll accumulate 800 shields to be gained on the next turn. So you could half or even fully complete the wonder on the turn after discovery of the tech.

 

[Shillen]

edit: Weird, I edited my post and it made a new one.