Crop growing based on location

[Lightproton]

Dear Capitalism Community

Hope you are all fine and safe!

When playing the WGBP combo strategy (Wine, Grape, Beverages, and Perfume) just recently [1], it came to my mind, that it is possible to grow grapes anywhere. It is not limited to certain city locations or locations in a city map, which is obviously not the case in our real world . If I memorize it correctly, it was different in Capitalism Plus (?) - back in the old times , where specific crops could only be grown efficiently in certain climate zones and environments with a high soil fertility.

It is probably a point which has been discussed before or is implemented in a mod for Capitalism Lab? Especially, if there is no competitor in wines and perfume, the WGBP strategy feels to me quite straight forward. What is your view on it?

Environmental aspects would bring in interesting impacts

* Crops could only be possible to be effectively grown on fertile land
* Crops could only be possible to be effectively grown in the suitable climate zone (depending on the city location)
* It could mean, that in certain scenarios, based on the cities locations, some crops would not be possible to be grown effectively in a farm, but always have to be imported in Seaports
* Seaports could provide crops which cannot be effectively grown in a scenario to not limit the choice of products
* This game mechanism could be reflected in a game option (Crops environment simulation High-Low or similar)

Curious to read your feedback! Happy to discuss! Thank you!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfnMvAtbJV8

[Stylesjl]

I do very much like this idea. It does however sound like it would be complex to implement - probably even a new DLC idea.

But still the basic idea I'm thinking of is:

- Each map is assigned a random 'Climate',that determines if certain crops can be grown or not (or perhaps all crops could be grown but the cost would vary).
- Maybe soil variations within cities themselves? Could pose an interesting economic dilemma in terms of land usage for agricultural/non-agricultural uses not to mention different prices for farmland. Certain variables could be added - Soil Quality, Rainfall, Elevation. Kind of like how farms in Tropico work.
- Each city map could have different variations for the seasons of the crops as well.
- The climate could be influenced by the city's position on the World Map.

It's worth thinking about.

[David]

Good suggestions. I recall that there were discussions about the same topic in the Suggestions a long while ago. It would be helpful if someone could find those posts and consolidate the ideas.

It seems to me that the game will need to introduce new tools to help the player to find the right types of crop to grow if these new features are added to the game.

[cantdownloadit]

may also require new types of farms, like the greenhouse farms to ensure you can always produce all products.

[David]

For the sake of discussion:

From the gameplay perspective, why do you think adding these features will make the game more fun to play?

Any concerns about too much micromanagement?

If the AI executives will eventually do all the tedious micromanagement, will it be worthwhile for the dev team to implement it when the player's actual involvement will be limited?

[cantdownloadit]

i think for gameplay reasons, anything should be growable on any map, though I'm not averse to the game having "favourable locations" where the crop yield may be higher than average.

[Lightproton]

[...]
From the gameplay perspective, why do you think adding these features will make the game more fun to play?

Any concerns about too much micromanagement?

If the AI executives will eventually do all the tedious micromanagement, will it be worthwhile for the dev team to implement it when the player's actual involvement will be limited?

Hi David! In my view, the basic idea is to add a strategic planning aspect to crop growing. The game mechanism would be similar to natural resources which are limited and with a quality higher or lower in specific cities. For crop growing, fertile soil and advantageous climate conditions would also be limited to specific cities. In terms of gameplay, as example, it would mean that the user simply would not place a coconut or rubber plant farm anywhere, but search for a favorable location such as a city in a tropical region. Or grapes would be grown close to rivers in temperate climate. It would be similar to that a mine needs to be placed on a corresponding reserve and also considering quality of the reserve.

As result, a corporation could gain a competitive advantage from securing such favorable locations early over imitators are late-entrants to the crop growing industry. It would also require to even better strategically plan supply chains as transport costs vs. crop growing efficiency must be balanced out.

Micromanagement is definitely a factor to be assessed. The game mechanism should not be too complex and it should be allowed to grow crops in less favorable locations, too, however, probably with lower output or quality.

Quickly searching for the topic in old postings, I found those two threads [1], [2]. Sorry, don't have the time right now to consolidate & summarize. Maybe later

[1] viewtopic.php?t=7020
[2] viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1151