Calculation of resource usage (Uncomplex version)

[Nathan I]

Okay, in this topic I will calculate all usages for the all resources: coal, iron, oil, uranium, food and refined ones: steel, lead, munitions and aluminium.

 

The resources which I talk about is unrefined ones: coal, iron, oil, uranium and food.

 

The basic 2 resources you will get is coal and food (or oil/coal in North America and other continents which don't support coal). Because of this both 2 coal/oil have advantages and disadvantages. Advantage in oil is that it can be easily used to oil power plants, which is cleaner, letting more infrastructure at cost of population density and disease rate.

 

Okay, then if you build a coal mine (2 is enough) and a power plant (1 is enough, 2 is over enough since you will need 1 coal plant per 500 infrastructure), they will give you coal and power. Except of course will give reduced rate due to usage of the coal by the power plant. If we use basic economics to demonstrate this:

0.1/turn = 1.2/day usage of coal to the power plant and:

0.5/turn = 6.0/day mine of the coal: so you end having 4.80 coal at the end of the day (which is enough), or lower if you have 2 power plants which you should multiply:

 

2x0.1=0.2x12(turns in a day) = 2.4 coal usage, but you still have 3.6 coal at the end of the day and the maximum third:

3x0.1=0.3x12 = 3.6 coal usage, which is slightly more than you get coal. So if you have 2 coal mines and three power plants, you better get another one ASAP.

 

Now there's a exception. If you have 2 cities with all 3 coal plants each, they will don't use the city's ''production''. They will all use from the stockpile and use resources which is produced by another city. So for example, if City A produces 3 coal mines and has 3 coal plants, and City B has 3 coal plants and no coal production, it will not be inactive. It will still use from the City A, which in math, looks like this:

 

In turns:

0.3 (City A) + 0.3 (City = 0.6 x 12 = 7.2 coal (enough for 3 coal mines)

 

In days (both coal plants):

 

7.2 + 7.2 = 14.4 coal used per day (enough for 3 of course)

 

And with more cities, you add more usage for 3 power plants. Now let's look at City A/2 coal plants and City B/1 coal plants. It's same except you reduce the usage of Country B.

 

This same applies to power and refined resources. For example steel works the same way, except you of course need the another building. But what about food?

 

Food farms is affected by the land area. So if you have 1,000 square miles with 8 farms, it's lot more effective than with 800 square miles. Now here is things get slightly harder: the production of food per square mile and the usage of the military affected by it. It's affected that you get 0.5 food per square mile. Which if you calculate your country's square miles and 0.5, you get your production rate. In my nation, as 777 square miles (unlucky), if I multiply by 0.5, I get about 388.5 food/day. The next step is usage of your military. In this case, I have 3,000 soldiers, so in peacetime I would only use about 4 food per day? Is that hypothetical? Well, there are more factors which use food which I will don't mislead into this comment, maybe tomorrow. And in wartime it would cost 6 food per day. So effectively, wartime adds 0.5 more money and food than in peacetime. I hope you understand mathematics in this post, if you don't understand something feel free to ask me. It's really appreciated to let newbies understand the game.

 

Sincerely,

            Nathan

Edited September 18, 2014 by Nathan I

[Skyler215]

Thanks for this guide.. I'm new and it's good putting some kind of information like this..

[Grillick]

This guide is almost entirely wrong. Don't listen to it.

[Alex]

Looking at your food calculations, I'm not sure they're correct. You shouldn't be looking at your nation's total land area to determine how much food you're making. The formula for food production is:

 

(City Land Area / 300) * Farms 

 

That is, of course, the farms in that city. Here's a little spreadsheet with some more data for examples:

 

 

This is all per city, and per turn.

[Nathan I]

Let me explain. Food is determined by the following factors:

 

- The usage of your military

- The seasons (summer bonus, winter loss)

- The amount of square miles/production

- Population usage

 

And many more, please feel free to ask if something has problems and I will correct it.

This guide is almost entirely wrong. Don't listen to it.

 

Please explain.

[Alex]

Let me explain. Food is determined by the following factors:

 

- The usage of your military

- The seasons (summer bonus, winter loss)

- The amount of square miles/production

- Population usage

 

And many more, please feel free to ask if something has problems and I will correct it.

 

Please explain.

 

Correct, there are factors like hungry citizens and soldiers that eat your food, but for purely production this is accurate:

 

[Nathan I]

Correct, there are factors like hungry citizens and soldiers that eat your food, but for purely production this is accurate:

 

However the problem is how much food you get from farms, for example if you have 3 farms per 750 square miles, which generates only 10 per turn? With late-games units such as aircraft, missiles or even nukes, unless you trade, you will have a hard problem.

[Ayayay]

 With late-games units such as aircraft, missiles or even nukes

Those don't effect food.

Edited September 25, 2014 by underlordgc

[Nathan I]

But what about infantry? Or infantry-tank strategy, but all units consume something.

[Alex]

Soldiers eat food, Tanks, Aircraft, and Ships use gasoline and munitions (only when you fight with them). Missiles and Nukes cost resources to build, but nothing to use.

 

Food production is only affected by two factors: The amount of land you have in your city, and the number of farms you have in your city. Food production can vary from city to city. Again, the table for food production is shown here:

 

 

 

 

However the problem is how much food you get from farms, for example if you have 3 farms per 750 square miles, which generates only 10 per turn? With late-games units such as aircraft, missiles or even nukes, unless you trade, you will have a hard problem.

 

Looking at the table, if you go to 3 farms and 750 sq. miles of land, that's 7.5 units of food you're producing per turn (in that city).

[Nathan I]

Very ineffective, especially with 1-city players.

[Alex]

Very ineffective, especially with 1-city players.

 

Having 3 farms and producing 7.5 food per turn?

 

If you're a small one city nation (we'll estimate you've got 500 infra) you've got a population of around 50,000. Those people eat about 4.166666 food per day. You make 7.5 food per turn, or 90 food per day. That's a net profit of ~85 food per day. Even if you had a standing army of 6,000 soldiers, that's only .66 food per turn or an additional 8 food per day. That puts you at a net surplus of ~77 food per day. Food sells at ~$100/unit with a little bit of fluctuation. Let's say you're not stockpiling food -- you're selling your 77 food surplus every day.

 

That's (77*100) or $7,700 you're making from your 3 farms. Of course, farms cost $1,000 to build, and $300 a day to operate. So if you subtract the $3,000 (3 * $1,000) you spent to build the farms, and the $900 (3 * $300) you're spending per day in upkeep, you've got a net profit of $3,800 the first day, and then after that (initial $3,000 paid off) you're making $6,800/day, or ~$2,226.66 per farm. 

 

It may not be the most profitable path a nation will take, but because of the cheap price of food many bigger nations swap out farms for other improvements. The more people that import food, the higher the prices will go, and the more people that see how cheap food is the less people will export it. There's an equilibrium point where supply = demand, but of course that's for the free market to decide.

 

Long story short -- exporting food might not be the most profitable venture, but you certainly won't lose money.

[Dwynn]

Soldiers eat food, Tanks, Aircraft, and Ships use gasoline and munitions (only when you fight with them). Missiles and Nukes cost resources to build, but nothing to use.

 

Food production is only affected by two factors: The amount of land you have in your city, and the number of farms you have in your city. Food production can vary from city to city. Again, the table for food production is shown here:

 

 

 

Looking at the table, if you go to 3 farms and 750 sq. miles of land, that's 7.5 units of food you're producing per turn (in that city).

 

The bolded part isn't true, the season affects food production as well.

[Alex]

That's true, I did overlook seasonal changes. However, 50% of the time it'll be at normal production (Spring&Fall).