Measure

Micromanagement load

You might say: turn time, clicks per turn, busywork

The number of small repeated orders a turn asks for, which can grow with the empire.

What it does

Shows when the game turns from decisions into chores.

Ask

How many orders does a late turn need, and how many matter?

Trouble

Late turns can become many minutes of visiting cities, moving units and filling build queues.

Sources

1. Soren Johnson, GD Column 17: Water Finds a Crack, Undervaluing TimeThis micro-management is actually a somewhat interesting sub-game, but clearly not how the designers want the players to be spending their time as it completely bogs down the game.
2. 2K Games, Sid Meier's Civilization IV Manual, Afterwords by Soren JohnsonConversely, what didn’t people like about Civ? Too much micro-management was high on the list.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Micromanagement load" (micromanagement) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/4x-strategy/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

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