Cities with low food (BTS)

[BirraImperial]

Is it me or my cities are now starving in BTS? I always build lots of farms around them and they still are low on food and sometimes even starve! I've played only a game in warlord level so I don't really know if this is a bug or something. I try to reassign the workers' tasks in the city screen but still, they starve. I don't want to tear down my cottages and mines. This didn't happen in Warlords. Any ideas?

 

[zergl]

Your cities might be unhealthy.

And posting a savegame would help finding the cause.

 

[vodlaian]

I noticed that in my games I've had to do far more trading for food than usual, I figure it was just unluckiness. As it is right now, if my food trades are cut, I'm screwed..

 

[Willem]

BtS has made changes to Unhealthiness and Unhappiness. Both are more likely to happen now.

 

[a_civilian]

I noticed that in my games I've had to do far more trading for food than usual, I figure it was just unluckiness. As it is right now, if my food trades are cut, I'm screwed..

If you mean health, factories and power plants now give a lot more unhealthiness than before. Factories now give 5 (1 for factory, 2 for coal, 2 for oil) and coal plants 4 (2 for power, 2 for power with coal). (Previously factories gave 1 and coal plants 2.)

 

[sumit1207]

Public Transport should offset the Factory, though. But there's also new unhealthiness from Industrial Parks and water poisoning.

 

[a_civilian]

Unless you're in environmentalism, public transportation only offsets the unhealthiness you gain by connecting your oil source (you get both with the same technology). That still leaves you four healthiness points behind Warlords/base.

 

[armathas]

Yah, water poisoning is a real pain.
Couldn't figure out what was making my big cities suddenly start starving..checked it out and holy crap..32 unhealthiness. Ruthless.

 

[BirraImperial]

Here is a save of my game. I do notice more unhealthiness and also a lot of angry citizens, which might explain this situation, but in Warlords this never happened to me.

 

[zergl]

Here is a save of my game. I do notice more unhealthiness and also a lot of angry citizens, which might explain this situation, but in Warlords this never happened to me.

If you mean health, factories and power plants now give a lot more unhealthiness than before. Factories now give 5 (1 for factory, 2 for coal, 2 for oil) and coal plants 4 (2 for power, 2 for power with coal). (Previously factories gave 1 and coal plants 2.)

And after having a look at the save, I guess that's the reason. I assume your cities were at +/- 0 Health before you started building factories, etc. and now they're unhealthy for the obvious reasons.

 

[SonicX]

Bleh, a smart city planner won't build factories in the city center, but in the towns surrounding the city.

 

[afa2000]

I just checked your save game. I would run environmentalism/hereditary rule or build a few temples to offset the unhealthiness/unhappiness. Put also one spy inside each city you have, so you thwart enemy spies trying to poison your water.

Each = -1 food
Each = -2 food

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I've noticed that health is a lot harder to maintain in BTS than in vanillia or Warlords. It may just be my noobishness, but that's been my experiance

 

[SenhorDaGuerra]

I had that in late game with lots of improvements making more but no problem, up popped a great merchant and Cereal Mills resolved this problem. my economy was strong enough for me to have it in a few cities. Along with Mining inc (or whatever its called) in my production cities.

But yea, i just think they wanted environmentalism to have a bigger role in the game what with preserves and national parks etc. so they just introduced more to the late game.

 

[Colossian]

Here is a save of my game. I do notice more unhealthiness and also a lot of angry citizens, which might explain this situation, but in Warlords this never happened to me.

I didnt open your file but I guess you were suffering from Spies. Thats why you never saw it in Warlords.

 

[Vatras]

Most of my large cities (size 18-20) dwindled away and balanced out around size 12 in the later game, which seems to be the effect of the green faces attached to some improvements.
I had spies in place for defense, but as it happened in all cities and at approximately the same pace I think it was not an enemy action. What makes me wonder, though, is why they did not grow up again later on, when I was running environmentalism and had the recycling tech?

 

[zergl]

I didnt open your file but I guess you were suffering from Spies. Thats why you never saw it in Warlords.

You should've opened the file since your guess is 100% wrong.

I double checked just to make sure and none of his worst health cities had poisoned water supply. The health problem is all homemade.

EDIT/PS: Same with the unhappiness.

 

[BirraImperial]

I just checked your save game. I would run environmentalism/hereditary rule or build a few temples to offset the unhealthiness/unhappiness. Put also one spy inside each city you have, so you thwart enemy spies trying to poison your water.

Each = -1 food
Each = -2 food

I was thinking about running environmentalism, but wouldn't that hurt my corporations? I still have to figure out the new concepts from BTS, so I really don't fully understand how they work. I had a few cities (like Mainz) poisoned by spies, but that was ages ago. Mainz went from size 11 to size 6 in a few turns!! I think my problem is that I really give more focus to production / gold than healthiness/ happiness. Guess I'm a real politician now, hehehe

 

[CivDude86]

It will hurt your treasury if you have a lot of corporations (+25% cost) but the effects remain the same.

 

[afa2000]

I was thinking about running environmentalism, but wouldn't that hurt my corporations? I still have to figure out the new concepts from BTS, so I really don't fully understand how they work. I had a few cities (like Mainz) poisoned by spies, but that was ages ago. Mainz went from size 11 to size 6 in a few turns!! I think my problem is that I really give more focus to production / gold than healthiness/ happiness. Guess I'm a real politician now, hehehe

Some points you need to change at your game:

- Make cottages at every grassland or tile next to a river. I noticed you didnt make any. Cottages are the key for economy and science, also are essential when running universal suffrage.

- Dont bother too much with growth ( unless you are running an Specialized Economy at that city ), so healthiness and happiness wont be an issue. Get smaller, but richer and more productive cities. For production cities, I like the "3 food tiles ( farms ) for each 4 production ( or commerce ) tiles" rule. Of course it depends on if you already have food or production resources.

- Corporations are cool, but not worth IMO. I would rather take some enemy shrine ( lets say, 60-100 gold per turn at huge map ) free of maintenance, or make troops and raze some enemy cities . Maintenance increase with inflation, so in late game corps start to become very expensive.

- Build temples at your unhappy cities, I noticed you didnt do that. Spread as many different religions as you can in all cities, more religions = more temples. Or just switch to HR, like I said.

- Dont build industrial park, airport, coal plant in every city. Check the healthiness cap first.

- Delete old units like that macemen at Aachen or horse archer at Ulm. Crap units just increasing your maintenance. I would upgrade the longbowmen ( because of promotions ) though.

- You said you care more about production/gold than healthiness/happiness. More means less food = less workable tiles = less production and gold. Also, it means less growth = less potential score.

I hope it helps.