Where's my production going?

[Narmorce]

My apologies if this has been discussed before - I've tried to search the forum but couldn't find a similar thread.

A few weeks ago I posted on the Paradox forums about issues I was having with meeting my population's demands. For the past five game years I have been placing maximum orders for every food, common and luxury good available in the various trade zones around the world, and I am still only meeting between a half and two thirds of my food demand. That's with all my food structures on the board and almost all with railroads.

I've had a very careful look at what is happening on my F4 screen, and I'd like a bit of help to understand where my excess production is going. For example, I produced 514 units of Cattle last turn, bought another 139 and garnered 14 from craftsmen: a total of 667. My cattle 'expenses' were 174, divided between national and colonial market sales and conversions. So there are two questions - why am I only selling 155 units when I have allocated 80% to domestic and colonial markets (and the domestic market now wants 1570 food goods to satisfy demand) and where is the 350 odd units of excess cattle going, since my stockpile isn't growing and I'm not selling any.

I have similar issues with all my food groups with the sole exception of rice, and on several of my common goods such as tobacco and coffee. If I am not selling it where is the extra 20% going?

On another note, since I installed 1.03d I've not been able to place any tradeposts, even where I have merchants. Does anybody have an explanation for this?

[Jim-NC]

Can you post a save game? We would need to see it to give you some help.

[Narmorce]

Thanks Jim, but how do I do that? Is it my HST or my TRN file you need?

[Jim-NC]

Use the procedure in the WIKI:

loading saved games

[Narmorce]

The file was a tad big for loading it directly on the forum, but I've put it on Mediafire. You'll probably work out I'm not the most internet savvy person out here. What's next?

[Egg Bub]

You can always attach the backups and the .TRN/.ORD files in separate zipped folders.

[Jim-NC]

Zip the files (if you haven't already). I would try uploading each turn onto the forum. That way we could download each to help you.

[Narmorce]

Ok, hope this works.

[Narmorce]

I appreciate that most people are busy, and if you don't have time to check my game I understand, but does anyone have any ideas of what may be happening. I can't understand how the F4 screen can say I am producing 243 units of tea and yet I'm only selling 12 on my domestic market, have no international sales, no stockpiling in other trade areas and no stockpiling of my own. Given the enormous problems I'm having meeting domestic demand across all three goods and the resulting economic crisis I'm unwilling to keep playing until I can identify the issue.

Cheers.

[loki100]

ok, I have had a quick look - 'send in the troops' + deploy MP/Cav to the provinces in revolt or near to it - you have to stamp that out somehow and given where you are, military means are your best option

shut down a load of stuff to free up capital - oil is one eg but have a look at things that are just making huge losses. Stop converting gems/gold to cash, you are awash in state money so there is no need and that is reducing the luxury goods available to your population. Then start upgrading all the factories that produce things you need, you seem to have a lot of these and you should be able to generate the volumes of PC to sort it out. Beyond that, others wth far more understanding may be able to help - but I'd suggest break your problems down to discrete questions and then post those .

[Jim-NC]

Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, I forgot about this thread. Good thing you bumped it. Below is a report of what you produced during the turn labeled backup 1. This shows that your f4 screen is not showing you what is actually happening. Your production is not going well. As near as I can figure, you are having coal problems. It appears that you need your entire structures expense at the beginning of the turn. If you don't have what you need at the beginning of the turn, your factories/farms shut down when you run out of the item. This can be seen from the fact that your screen shows that you will produce around 255 cereals, but you actually produced 0. Your sugar produced all 117 it could, but the sugar fields don't require coal. The same thing with your Rice (it produced 79 of a possible 79). Your fruits produced 21 units (vs. a possible of 165).

When I shut everything down, and only build coal for 1 turn, I got 560ish coal, then I processed another turn with only cereal and non coal production, and cereals are produced. I was able to produce 169 cereals, but then appeared to run out of chemicals. The coal only produced 365 before running out of mechanical parts on the 2nd turn. As a side note, only 8 sugar were produced as it requires Chemicals.

Line 385: SelectFaction, selected: Great Britain
Line 386: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Steel is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 387: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Coal is 553 Evaluating 553 >= 0 : False
Line 388: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Supply is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 389: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Ammunition is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 390: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Rubber is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 391: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Iron is 37 Evaluating 37 >= 0 : False
Line 392: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Minerals is 39 Evaluating 39 >= 0 : False
Line 393: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Nitrates is 1 Evaluating 1 >= 0 : False
Line 394: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Cereals is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 395: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Rice is 79 Evaluating 79 >= 0 : False
Line 396: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Fish is 23 Evaluating 23 >= 0 : False
Line 397: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Tropical Fruits is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 398: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Cattle is 29 Evaluating 29 >= 0 : False
Line 399: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Fruits is 21 Evaluating 21 >= 0 : False
Line 400: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Sugar is 117 Evaluating 117 >= 0 : False
Line 401: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Cotton/Wool is 53 Evaluating 53 >= 0 : False
Line 402: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Tea is 8 Evaluating 8 >= 0 : False
Line 403: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Coffee is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 404: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Wood is 24 Evaluating 24 >= 0 : False
Line 405: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Dyes is 113 Evaluating 113 >= 0 : False
Line 406: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Tobacco is 8 Evaluating 8 >= 0 : False
Line 407: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Petroleum is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 408: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Rum is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 409: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Wines is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 410: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Chemicals is 7 Evaluating 7 >= 0 : False
Line 411: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Manufactured Goods is 26 Evaluating 26 >= 0 : False
Line 412: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Textile is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 413: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Mechanical Parts is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 414: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Electrical Parts is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 415: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Silk is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 416: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Opium is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 417: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Luxury Goods is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 418: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Gold is 14 Evaluating 14 >= 0 : False
Line 419: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Gems is 18 Evaluating 18 >= 0 : False
Line 420: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Automobile is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False
Line 421: EvalStrucProduction: Great Britain production of Aviation is 0 Evaluating 0 >= 0 : False

I am going to say that the important information is that you need your inputs for your farms/factories to produce, and new production goes into stockpile, not into running existing farms/factories.

As to why you don't sell enough to your people, you are hitting the wall of not having enough variety to sell to them. They can only purchase so much of each commodity, so if they can only satisfy 30% of their demand with fish say, at 1,000 requested per turn, you can only sell them 300, no matter how many you have on hand. Even if you have 1,000 fish, and are trying to sell them 800 per turn, they will only buy 300.

Considering your predicament, close as many factories as you can. Make sure you crush those strikes so you can produce. Maximize your coal amount (so you have enough to run your factories). You also need mechanical parts and chemicals to get your food. Build a base to get them up to where you need to be. Buy as much as you can for those, and pay extra as you need. In the meantime, import as much as you can without destroying the world's economy (remember, everyone else needs to buy those same items, or they will have strikes and such, and not be able to buy from you in the future). Follow loki100's advise on stopping conversion, and upping happiness.

[Narmorce]

Thanks for the advice. I'll implement the changes you recommend and let you know how they go. It might be a couple of weeks before I can get back to it though - I've a pretty tight real life schedule coming up.

[Sir Garnet]

Jim, one of the changes announced as included some updates back was mixing up the order so, for example, manufactured goods made could be used as inputs in further production the same processing turn. This works since falling a little short in Mfg Goods on hand at turn start due did not impair production.

Maybe it does not apply to raw materials?

Certainly it is important to review the structure input totals and try to ensure ahead of time that the inputs are available at the start of the turn.

[Jim-NC]

I did not complete a full analysis on this. I noted that he was able to produce some of certain goods, but not all. I can tell you that he produced, but not which structures or in what order or why A worked and B didn't. The report shows that he produced 117 sugar for example, I don't know why he produced sugar, but no cereals. I would think that if possible the engine would spread out the materials to the biggest variety of factories/farms, but it didn't. He had enough factories to produce more sugar, so not all farms got what they needed that turn. I would think that if it could, the engine would start stealing from the just produced materials, but again, it didn't appear to work like that, as the total amount of coal produced for the turn showed up as starting stockpile for the next turn (553 went to the stockpile, none was used for running shut down industries). This happened even though all cereal farms were shut down due to a lack of coal.

[Narmorce]

I've been able to fit some time into playing the game, and more or less done the above. I shut down all my industry with the exception of coal, chemicals and the foods, and then began restarting new factories with a very careful eye on surpluses. At the moment I am producing a slight surplus of fish and beef, but underproducing the others and I'm still not quite meeting the target (though I got agonisingly close at one point, coming within about 30). Unfortunately the Midlands went back on strike and I had to shut down most of my industry again.

I have to confess that while I can understand requiring several different types of goods to satisfy the demand for luxury and common items, I don't quite see the logic of extending it to food. By all means a good variety of food should improve satisfaction, but a lack of variety shouldn't drive it all the way down to zero - people aren't going to riot purely because the children are complaining they've had fish every day this week (and remember, this is the English we are talking about )

Thanks for the help. I'm going to have to build some more cavalry units and station them in the more restless provinces.

[Jim-NC]

Unfortunately, you have run into contentment problems on top of the industrial problems. It makes the game challenging. Get your population more luxury goods (they help contentment the best).