Corn ... I need CORN

[Shamough]

I can't get V1.05 to drop CORN FARMS where I tell it to. In fact I can't get it to reliably drop CORN FARMs at all. I have an EVENT that is supposed to drop 10 CORN FARMS 4/3/3 ... I'm lucky if I get 3. Their target areas are clear.

Any help out there?

Shamough/Hans

[Gumboots]

Is corn on the list of allowed industries for that area?

[Shamough]

There are some CORN FARMS in the territory.

I just tried to drop in some COTTON FARMS and they too would only give me a few in one location of a 4/3/3. Same location as the CORN FARM before I modified the EVENT. ???

Oh well I'll use Shep Farms as they drop like there is no tomorrow.

[Stoker]

When ordered to place an industry, the AI selects a random location within the specified field (x,y). If the industry (corn farm in this case) will not place there due to contour or obstruction (building) it will pass and go to the next item slated to be placed. In the cases you are talking about it sounds like 3 of ten are hitting. If you want more than this (and it is physically possible) then increase the amount. I guess there is always the possibility that the stars will align aand you will end up with more industries than you wanted, but such is the way things go with random placement.

[OilCan]

Stoker is correct: if the terrain is not almost level, then corn farms will not appear, whether placed by event or by seeding. Also, if a building (i.e. house or another farm) is in the way, a corn farm will not appear. You may want to test the terrain of your desired area in the editor mode by 'floating' a corn farm across the terrain and seeing where it can or cannot be placed. You may also want to test to see if ten corn farms can easily fit into your 'circle' of placement for the farms.

I have also found that event placed industry will disappear over time unless it is bought. This is mostly due to the building density of the region. The point is, if you are counting on all ten corn farms remaining on the map over a long period of time, don't be surprised when some start to disappear.

[OilCan]

I just realized that you have 3 circles of placement for the farms, not one large area. You may want to test the terrain in all three as well as whether the corn farms can fit into the circles.

I'll add that I compensate for the disappearance of event placed industry/farms by adding 1-2 new ones every 3-4 years. I have in some maps created barren regions the size of my placement 'circle' to keep houses from appearing and blocking the industry/farms.

Just my

[Stoker]

The other thing to consider that I did not touch on is that even if the area designated for placement were completely flat and obstruction free, once the first industry has been placed it is not. If the random placement of the second industry to be placed lands where it touches the first, it will not place. As more are placed, the odds that this will happen with each consecutive industry to be placed increases.

[Shamough]

Farms overlap all the time ... it's their buildings that can't overlap.

I'm going to use Sheep Farms and Textile Mills and change the warehouse to demanding Clothing.

[Stoker]

That is not correct, and even if it were what I stated about the randomly placed industry overlap protocol is still 100% valid. All buildings in RT3 have a bounding box that defines their footprint. In the case of farms it is larger than the actual buildings, yet smaller than the entire fields.

[Just Crazy Jim]

In my own experiments with add BuildingType at X,Y effects, a building with a tiny footprint (like the oil well and coal mine) never fails to propagate onto the map, even on very rugged terrain, sometimes in places that you wouldn't believe possible. But, as others have noted, farms for corn, grain, sugar, cotton, rubber as well as fruit orchards, have a very large footprint and require nearly flat or very smooth low inclined terrain. Sheep and Cattle ranches have modest footprints, so they will work about anywhere that isn't the side of El Capitan.

In the 1.0 game engine, the behavior of this was very different. It would drop anything anywhere and wreck the terrain, sometimes closing off narrow valleys. More than once, I have had a logging camp or dairy farm spawn while playing Crossing the Alps and wreck my little world. After Coast-to-Coast, not so much. Placing anything onto the map manually shows you how skittish all the buildings have become. I imagine this has a strong effect on using Add Building at X,Y.

All that being said, if the terrain is flat enough, I have had not any problems plopping 3 to 4 of any farm at an X,Y with a 15 radius. From what I have seen, the game will attempt only one time to meet your demand, if the radius you chose is exactly right for the perfect placement of 4 farms, the first one that drops onto the map will invariably overlap the placements of the remainder, resulting 1 farm instead of 4. So increase the radius and hope the event engine doesn't decide to drop the farm on a river or some already existing building. Probably, if it errors on placing the first one, it aborts the rest of the effect. At least, based on my own results, that's what I suspect is happening. YMMV

Once you have the farms (or whatever) on the map, the problem is now keeping them there. That one corner of the economic cell thing eats everything, unless the player buys it quickly.

[Cash on Wheels]

Corn farms are a real ***** in this game when it comes to seeding. If corn does not want to spawn in nebraska, tough luck. But it will NOT be left out of downtown Miami when it comes time to seed In my built senerios!
If the land cells are not ppppperfectly flat don't even bother.