Worker idiocy

[al_thor]

Automated workers do the darndest things:

1. Run onto an undeveloped tile (wasting 2 turns), only to realize that the tile is not within a city border, do nothing, come off of it, repeat.

2. Nothing to do, so run around, making sure to burn all MP's, return to city or end up stranded.

3. Run directly to the front lines during war. Quite possibly the most irritating of all automated actions. Now my already thin defense has to either watch the workers get captured and killed(disbanded more than not) or stretch myself even thinner trying to defend the idiots.

Although these are a mere nuisance, it would be nice to see a little bit more intelligence built into the worker. BTW - I NEVER automate workers until AFTER I have railed to connect all cities and railed around all cities. Then I use the [shift-A] command. Playing C3C 1.15beta

 

[Jaybe]

If the automated workers didn't DO those "darndest things" I wouldn't have a problem with automating them. As it is, I only Shift-A 1 or 2 workers on occasion to have something to scream at. "Improve City/No Changes" does fairly well in some situations.

 

[Point13]

Then dont automate the idiots, and if you do, select, this city only

 

[Qpdaj]

I have yet to automate a worker (on purpose - on occasion I've hit the wrong key and only noticed 5-6 turns later ("Forest Harvested, 10 Shields to Bobtown") and been, like, "What the heck, I didn't tell him to do that!!!"). Certainly under vanilla Civ3 it was dangerous, but it sounds like C3C gave better control. However, I haven't played an epic C3C game long enough yet to find that out (keep giving up when I realize there's no saltpeter *anywheres*).

Anyway, the only time (back in vanilla Civ3) that I wished I could usefully automate was late in the game, when the only thing my workers were doing was group rushing polution, and fortified the rest of the time. I think C3C gives me the option to do just that, but as I said, I haven't gotten that far yet...

 

[Speedo]

The main thing I hate about workers is their decisions on improving tiles. It seems that if it's possible they'll always irrigate grassland, plains & desert and usually only mine bonus grassland. If you let them run the show you end up with a size 20 city putting out 8 shields.... If you city has a nice mix of terrain (hills/mountains to provide shields) then what they do is acceptable.

I usually manually do my core cities then put them on automate-no altering to finish the rest, do railroads and etc. IMO there should be an option for what the workers emphasize in improvements: food, shields or a mix.

I haven't really had a problem with them running to the front lines... if enemy units come close enough they automatically cancel what they're doing and run to the nearest city. What always irritates me though is when your borders expand across a waterway to get a few tiles they try to go running across the continent to get to em.

 

[Endureth]

The governer helps decide what those darned workers will build.

If you never touch the governer then the peons seem to default to food production.

But if you go in there (even is the governer is off) and tell it to concentrate on production then the workers will build more mines.

He's actually very smart once you learn how he works and how to set him up.

-E

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Yes but the governor is not as smart as the human brain. You can think much better than the AI.

 

[Civslayer4sure]

I see many of you say you don't auto workers. You must have plenty of time on your hands or are playing small worlds. I usualy play huge/large worlds where the average civ has 30+ workers. No way in hell am I gonna continualy keep controlling 30+ workers. And I agree with the plain stupidity they have when automated. I was gonna post the same question. How do you stop fearless workers? That is plenty annoying when every worker you have bumrushes across an immense mass of war zone to get to the enemy capitol you just took to be evil. I for one would like to be able to stop that without controlling all my individual workers. How is a mystery.
Till then, as soon as I see them heading out, I send them back in and fortify all my workers until the war is over. I control a few to build roads, clear pollution and such but that's it. suffice to say much of my area goes undeveloped during wartime.

 

[SesnOfWthr]

I mainly do what Speedo had mentioned -- I manually control them until it gets later in the game and then I automate (no changes). As for what civslayer said, I must be doing something wrong, i usually have 30+ workers at the end of expansion on a standard map. If you can get by with that few on a large/huge, maybe I am better off just automating them.

By the way, I haven't noticed, but if your worker gets captured but then you recapture ( if he's not disbanded) does he still work like a slave or a national?

 

[Civslayer4sure]

he stays a national.
and automating does seem to require less workers.

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by SesnOfWthr

By the way, I haven't noticed, but if your worker gets captured but then you recapture ( if he's not disbanded) does he still work like a slave or a national?

You get back your national worker,

 

[Cedrick]

Originally posted by SesnOfWthr
I mainly do what Speedo had mentioned -- I manually control them until it gets later in the game and then I automate (no changes). As for what civslayer said, I must be doing something wrong, i usually have 30+ workers at the end of expansion on a standard map. If you can get by with that few on a large/huge, maybe I am better off just automating them.

By the way, I haven't noticed, but if your worker gets captured but then you recapture ( if he's not disbanded) does he still work like a slave or a national?

As a rule of thumb, I have 2 workers per city so on a huge map I usually end up with 70+ workers. Not all the workers require orders each time ( they are following previous orders building something) so only a fraction needs guidence each time. I find I can order all my workers that are free in under 5 minutes. It takes much longer to guide my army in war

As such, I only automate a few workers late in the game as polution cleaners.

 

[Commander Bello]

I *NEVER* automate them.
Currently, I have appr. 160 of them (80 of my own and 80 slaves) on a huge map.
But, since they are stacked (24 slaves built a mine on mountains in one turn), it doesn't take much time to manage them.
I even use them in wartimes, although then they will be some tiles away from the frontline. Of the get one or two defenders attached.
Anyway, managing them by hand seems to be the better solution for me.

 

[MattII]

The only automations I give any workers are road to, railroad to, and colony to, and even then only when the routes are secure.

 

[philippe]

i think automising workers is a bad choice but controlling them manually costs too much time...*sigh*

 

[Madman8987]

I manually command workers for the first half of the game when resources are critical for expansion. I hate manually commanding workers for the entire game. I do not play Civ3 for that reason, and the game is less fun if I have to do that. If 70 workers are stupid and I do not want to micromanage them for 200 turns, I would rather play 1 level easier than usual (say Monarch) and automate them. The game is more fun for me that way. The hit I take from the stupid workers is counterbalanced by the easier level.

 

[amtrick]

Guess I fall into the "manual control early ... auto control late group", and I do make use of the city governors to get the workers to do what I want. Sort of a middle ground between managing them individually and letting them run wild. And I do like lots of workers.

One thing I think I have noticed. When in a scenario with invisible units (like Ninja), the workers seem to know that they are around and go into their "freeze" mode. So you can use them like canaries in a coal mine ... whenever they unexpectedly stop working and just stand there or make a run for the nearest city, you're being infiltrated.

Anybody else noticed this?

 

[Admiral_Tarton]

I only automate with Shift+A and even then i rarely automate
I'm currently playing a 200 x 200 map and have 50+ workers and only 5 are automated(for pollution)

 

[The Last Conformist]

Like MattII, I only use road-to, RR-to and (very occasionally) colony-to, and of course only if no enemies are remotely near.

 

[superpelon]

I only automate them to clear up pollution, but this can make them run into newly conquered territory to clear up damage.

The rest of the time i like to micromanage them.