I know that I *can* fire workers, but I'm wondering if that is part of the gameplay that they use to slow down things going on in the game and meant for me to do?

What I mean is take for example my construction shop has got some pregnant woman working there, I follow her around for a while to see what she's going to be working on and find her just aimlessly wandering around down near the ocean, is she stuck in there so that as an added bit of micro I am to keep track of each buildings workers and fire those that seem to wander around aimlessly, or is just a randomness of who was hired into that position and left to the games own devices she will eventually become a good part of the work force?

It seems my construction crews do a whole lot of aimless walking around doing nothing and only a couple of them actually do any real constructing.

City Builder Wrote:I know that I *can* fire workers, but I'm wondering if that is part of the gameplay that they use to slow down things going on in the game and meant for me to do?

What I mean is take for example my construction shop has got some pregnant woman working there, I follow her around for a while to see what she's going to be working on and find her just aimlessly wandering around down near the ocean, is she stuck in there so that as an added bit of micro I am to keep track of each buildings workers and fire those that seem to wander around aimlessly, or is just a randomness of who was hired into that position and left to the games own devices she will eventually become a good part of the work force?

It seems my construction crews do a whole lot of aimless walking around doing nothing and only a couple of them actually do any real constructing.

I get the same. They walk around not building things even though i have a ton of stuff to be built. its like 3-4 out of the whole crew is working while the rest walk around.

Early game it seems to not happen, but i guess once the city gets bigger they decide to wander around.

Well, she's stuck like that until she's no longer pregnant. Same with the US, normally people don't quit when they get pregnant, they go on maternity leave.

But the construction workers do seem a bit lazier in T3. I think the MOST I've ever seen on 1 building was 5 workers. And I think that was with TWO construction offices.
If I had 2 back in T1 (offices being MUCH, MUCH smaller btw) there would have been a swarm descending upon the building area.

And of course (right or wrong, speaking only of the game), if i was doing the hiring, I would certainly NOT hire a pregnant lady for a construction job, I'd tell her to come back when she's ready to work. Seems silly to me that the game would hire on a pregnant woman that can't even work when they hire her on.

I built a second construction office and found 3 pregnent ladies working there, of course not really working, just wandering around the island in their teeter totter manner. Had to fire all three of them in that office. I don't mind having to micro my workers, but I'd like the game to hire them with a bit of smarts.

Are you sure she was hired or did she become pregnant AFTER being hired?

Im not really sure why construction is so inefficient, just thank god roads are auto build or they would never get done due to the inefficency of construction workers

Kind of impossible to tell Luwinkle. I wait until the 2nd construction office is built then clicked on it a few moments later and find 3 or so regular workers, then a few moments later I check on it again and there are a full team of workers, with 3 "mothers" working there too. So either the game hired them on while pregnent, or they were hired on and in a flash of a moment became pregnent.

I really would like to see construction workers improved in a patch.

City Builder Wrote:Kind of impossible to tell Luwinkle. I wait until the 2nd construction office is built then clicked on it a few moments later and find 3 or so regular workers, then a few moments later I check on it again and there are a full team of workers, with 3 "mothers" working there too. So either the game hired them on while pregnent, or they were hired on and in a flash of a moment became pregnent.

I really would like to see construction workers improved in a patch.

Yeah i hope they can fix it somehow. Its really annoying when you have several important buildings to get up but take forever because only 1-2 decide to go to the job site ;[

Just a couple thoughts.

If you increase their pay they seem to work better, 50% seems good.
The longer they hold that job the more experience they get and the better they become.
Workers have to fill their wants, try to design so everything is close.
Click the priority up button in the build menu, only one or two buildings at a time, and try to have your Mayor on-site when they are constructing.

kwah2249 Wrote:Just a couple thoughts.

If you increase their pay they seem to work better, 50% seems good.
The longer they hold that job the more experience they get and the better they become.
Workers have to fill their wants, try to design so everything is close.
Click the priority up button in the build menu, only one or two buildings at a time, and try to have your Mayor on-site when they are constructing.

MAYOR!?

Ok, I've now confirmed that the construction office hired in the pregnent ladies. I had one that was "working" for my construction office, I fired her, and two more instantly hired on, I fired those two and finally got a full staff of "workers" actually supposedly working as best as construction crews work in Tropico 3 anyway.

kwah2249 Wrote:...
Workers have to fill their wants, try to design so everything is close.
...

You have probably hit the problem. The Construction Workers are NOT Zombies; they have to fullfill needs just like all Tropicans.

• Rest -- need a home, even if it is a shack.
• Food - Have to go to a market with food stocked or other food source.
• Entertainment - Have to visit an entertainment building.
• Religion - Have to visit a church or cathedral.
• Health Care - Have to visit a clinic or hospital.
  

If those buildings are not available, they will spend time wandering around.

For T1, there was an ocean of ink spilled about the "Brain Eating Plague" when workers of all kinds would go on a 'walk-about'. It turned out to be either a lack of the support buildings or a path-finding program glitch. Since T3 uses an entirely new engine, one would doubt that it is a path-finding problem.

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BTW, I'm curious how you know a worker is pregnant.

I guess when I see the workers doing nothing I should read their thoughts, maybe it will clue me in like "I need medical attention" or something along those lines. It just seems a total shame that a staff of 9 has one work project and theres only 1 construction worker actually working on it. The game has me building pretty tight to begin with, since the landscape is not really accessible in many areas so I would think that I've got all the necessary buildings within a small enough area to get more than 1 worker to actually work at a time.

Don't get me wrong there were times when I saw 3 workers on one building although that still leaves the other 6 workers doing their own thing. I've yet to see more than 2 work projects going on for one construction building so far.

I remember the original game having this situation and read a lot about it back in the day, but I don't know that was always less than desirable to me in my gameplay to have such inefficient workers regardless if it was them taking care of their needs or pathfinding or lazyness or whatever, that I guess I must have been hoping it would be more streamlined now so that they spend more time working and less time taking care of their needs. It's really just not fun to me to have some building projects waiting for years for them to get around to building them. Rather annoying really.

Anyway, I'll see about reading their minds next time I load up the game and see if that clues me into what 'I' might be doing wrong for the game to be more efficient.

City Builder Wrote:I guess when I see the workers doing nothing I should read their thoughts, ... , since the landscape is not really accessible in many areas ...

Reading their thoughts is not the most efficient way -- IF T3 follows T1 closely. If it does, look at the "overview" for an individual == T1 provides "meters" for the five basic needs on that page. Naturally T3 has changed the format somewhat, but hopefully there is a similar display. I know so much clicking is a pain in the ass -- but perhaps you look at all the pages available for an individual --- just to check it out once.

If I may venture a guess, you have assumed (god bless your gentle builder nature) that all those rock piles do absolutely prohibit construction on them -- as is the nature of similar geologic formations in pre-modern city building games -- and that all building is limited to the billiard table flat locations. Have you gone "out of the box" and tried to build without such assumed restrictions?

Since I do not have my new computer, I can't say you can. But you could try - eh?

---

BTW, you didn't answer my question on how you can tell when a female is pregnant.

you can tell the woman is pregnant by her movement, mannerism, and appearance, she acts just like a pregnant woman would. arching the back and sticking her belly out. it's very obvious.

yes, the large rock formations simply turn the building red to indicate it can't be built there. The tiny white rocks allows building on top of them. It's very finiky with things like elevation, roads won't go up what looks to be a relatively easy slope to the eye of the gamer, apparently if I were in Tropico, I wouldn't want to be on the crew to build that same road.

minmaster Wrote:you can tell the woman is pregnant by her movement, mannerism, and appearance, she acts just like a pregnant woman would. arching the back and sticking her belly out. it's very obvious.

WOW! I really have to complement the Haemimont artists on their fine addition to the avatar annimations. I hope that is included for all the female avatars and not just the construction laborers.

City Builder Wrote:yes, the large rock formations simply turn the building red to indicate it can't be built there. ...

Yes, I now understand that the geology of T3 is quite different from that of T1. So I'll drop the questions and discussion. Thanks.

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Opps. I had in mind only the construction vs geology part when I said drop the discussion.

City Builder Wrote:... take for example my construction shop has got some pregnant woman working there, I follow her around for a while to see what she's going to be working on and find her just aimlessly wandering around down near the ocean, is she stuck in there so that as an added bit of micro I am to keep track of each buildings workers and fire those that seem to wander around aimlessly, or is just a randomness of who was hired into that position and left to the games own devices she will eventually become a good part of the work force? ...

Female sprites wearing the Mother avatar seemed to generate much of this thread.

An observation (posted in another forum) from the basis of a different attitude seems to indicate a major change in T3 from T1. In T1, the Mother avatar was clearly defined as "NOT in the workforce" and indicated the after birth caregiver to (her) helpless infant. You may recall -- the old time system of "child care" where mothers cared for their infants/babies until they could toddle about and mostly care for themselves -- about three years. A lot can be debated about that on the basis of class.

Never-the-less, it seems that the developers of T3 have recast the use of the Mother avatar to cover the period of pregnancy/pre-birth and not to have anything to do with after-birth (post-partum) infant care. The early and tentative observations seem to indicate a liberal, politically correct -- or perhaps communist -- kind of pregnancy job leave. Maternity leave doesn't seem to quite fit since the female sprite has to return to work immediately after giving birth.

Another factor yet to be clarified is how much flack El Prez will take among the Tropican women for rushing about firing all the workers on 'Pregnancy Leave'.

To note, the pregnant women have a change in clothes, they aren't dressed the same as other women of the same job. As far as construction, paying them more is a good way to get them to continue working hard. Though it starts a bit of upset as farmers will leave thier farm and work as construction workers, as well with any job.

The one thing that threw me off guard was the secret police had all pregnant women. I found it kinda funny and ironic. I could just see a pregnant woman trying to kill an assassin.

EDIT: On a funny side note, I just had 3 pregnant women walk out of a pub....here come the alcoholic babies.

Hello_tropico Wrote:To note, the pregnant women have a change in clothes, they aren't dressed the same as other women of the same job. ...

That is called a change in avatar I believe.

In fact, that is what I am trying to ask about.

Avatars in T1 defined the "occupation" i.e. the "work role" of the sprite. So what is happening in T3 with "the clothing change?"

um...heaven forbid...avatar...jesh....

The pregnant AVATAR's wear gowns, etc. Fishermen avatars wear like a sailor type clothes, engineers wear...nevermind. For sake of sanity, each job has a different distinct dress, and it changes per un-employment, retiree's, etc.

I am actual abundant accede with your account CoconutKid.


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private labeling

CoconutKid Wrote:

kwah2249 Wrote:...
Workers have to fill their wants, try to design so everything is close.
...

You have probably hit the problem. The Construction Workers are NOT Zombies; they have to fullfill needs just like all Tropicans.

• Rest -- need a home, even if it is a shack.
• Food - Have to go to a market with food stocked or other food source.
• Entertainment - Have to visit an entertainment building.
• Religion - Have to visit a church or cathedral.
• Health Care - Have to visit a clinic or hospital.
  

If those buildings are not available, they will spend time wandering around.

For T1, there was an ocean of ink spilled about the "Brain Eating Plague" when workers of all kinds would go on a 'walk-about'. It turned out to be either a lack of the support buildings or a path-finding program glitch. Since T3 uses an entirely new engine, one would doubt that it is a path-finding problem.

---

BTW, I'm curious how you know a worker is pregnant.

Yes but I find a big problem in Tropico is that there is no selection at hiring. They tend to hire anybody who is available and people do not even try to relocate when you build more housing.

New housing should go to people working close by in priority. Workers at any place should be chosen from areas which are commutable.

I understand you need to provide housing entertainment and religion close-by. But when I see people commuting from a flat on the other end of the island.

At my current office in real life, if I can show up only 2 hours at work every day, you can be sure that I will be sacked.

On another note, even if companies don't sack pregnant women, they get temp staff to replace them. Do you see people building more offices to compensate for pregnant women who are not at the office ? No they just hire temp staff and suffer the added costs ...

kwah2249 Wrote:You have probably hit the problem. The Construction Workers are NOT Zombies; they have to fullfill needs just like all Tropicans.

• Rest -- need a home, even if it is a shack.
• Food - Have to go to a market with food stocked or other food source.
• Entertainment - Have to visit an entertainment building.
• Religion - Have to visit a church or cathedral.
• Health Care - Have to visit a clinic or hospital.
  

If those buildings are not available, they will spend time wandering around.

It's interesting to point out that, as far as I understand (correct me if I'm wrong), work hours as set in some jobs (sweat shop and such), don't really have anything to do with the amount of time works will come at work.

14h workday doesn't mean 60% of the day worker will work. Just that he will get some production bonus when working and that his job quality is lower.

Workers will only come to work if they have their other needs satisfied to some extent.