How many farms?

[Zontar]

I've been playing about 1 day.   I have 8 farms, 760 sq miles, 77,960 people and I'm still running short on food.  How many farms do I need?  Will I be spending all of my money on land and farms forever?

[Mikey]

9 minutes ago, Zontar said:

I've been playing about 1 day.   I have 8 farms, 760 sq miles, 77,960 people and I'm still running short on food.  How many farms do I need?  Will I be spending all of my money on land and farms forever?

I believe no ammount of farms will currently support your nation. Most of the games alliances are currently at war, with many nuclear weapons being launched. This leads to a temporary spike in global radiation, which cuts down on food production. I imagine food production, if above 0, is very low in all continents. Expect that to continue until a month (two?) after the war ends. I don't remember exactly how long the effects take to decay.

In general though, food is quite cheap (around 100/unit in peacetime, albeit more expensive in wartime). It is generally better for you to focus on producing more valuable resources as a new nation and sell those on the market to make most of your money, and buying food with the proceeds. Depending on your infra levels, selling valuable raw resources (like iron or bauxite) may be more feasible than producing refined resources (like steel, gas, or aluminum) which would require your cities to be powered, and require you to buy raw resources to fuel them. Idk I'm not an econ guy though.

I would recommend finding an alliance, which can provide you with some aid to stabilize your alliance and some advice on the best practices of nation building. An alliance can also help protect you from the raiders that will inevitably come your way when your beige expires.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Mikey

[Micchan]

Buy food on the market, don't make farms

Farms are worth only when you have +2500 land and a good number of cities

Do the objectives to gain some money and make new cities since you only have one

Cities need to be powered to produce some resources and money, you always need power in all your cities

Don't go over 1000 land and 800 infra at least until you reach city 5

[Dio Brando]

Farm production directly depends on land and radiation. As a new nation, it simply isn't cost effective to do what you're doing, since the opportunity cost for using slots on farms (and the prerequisite land/farm project) is that you're missing out on easy money in form of raws (coal, oil, iron, bauxite). Add radiation on top:

You can see quite clearly that you wouldn't be able to produce food regardless. This is not the norm, for the record. As Mikey pointed out, it's due to the global war currently being fought. Focus on getting into an alliance. They'll show you the ropes of the game so mistakes like these can be prevented. For your trouble, I've sent you some food. Have fun with the game.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Dio Brando

[Zontar]

Thanks for the advice.  I was beginning to worry that my minions, er, subjects would revolt.

P.S. Thanks for the food!  Yum yum!

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by Zontar

[Sir Scarfalot]

On 7/1/2019 at 5:41 PM, Zontar said:

Thanks for the advice.  I was beginning to worry that my minions, er, subjects would revolt.

P.S. Thanks for the food!  Yum yum!

 

The don't revolt; it's physically impossible for your nation's populace to ever oppose you.

As in, I currently have an approval rating of -890%, and that doesn't even make sense. But they're still not rioting or anything