Circular Farms Mod

[HabLeUrG]

This is my request for more realism in farms, so my request is to place circular farms when you make a IA zone, or probably  plopables, Id like many types of farms and "colors" and some circular water tanks, look at some RL pictures


Hope someone can take this request... thanks!   

[Gaston]

HabLeUrG,
     This is a really interesting idea.   Where is it a picture of?


---Gaston

[HabLeUrG]

that image is from Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture

"Satellite image of circular crop fields characteristic of center pivot irrigation in Haskell County, Kansas in late June 2001".

[Colyn]

I cannot see how this can be achieved unless it is a plop ... the game fields grows randomly and no way can we control them to form the circles.

[HabLeUrG]

you right, sound a good idea to plop some, now im thinking to BAT some plop farms but the problem is how will be placed in to a farm..., what you think  ?

[FromTheAshes]

I've never seen circular farms in rl Well, if they are round in americe, thats fine. But I don't think that looks realistic for europeans as I am ^^

[HabLeUrG]

yeah in America there are many circular farms (also in Mexico too) didn't know about that in Europe 

[joelevan]

Actually Ukraine and parts of Russia use them often and I have seen the in other parts of Europe (Germany and Norway) where grain crops are raised (therefore Ukraine's wide use). I grew up on a farm in the USA and my wife grew up on a farm in Ukraine. The crops in the field have a round shape due to the type of irrigation used. If there is no river or other major source of water nearby to divert water into irrigation ditches then then a well must be drilled and a pipe (the 'draw' pipe) fitted down into the well. The draw pipe them fits onto a modified lateral irrigation system and moves around in a circle using the well as a pivot point. The problem with pivot irrigation system is (as anyone who knows geometry can tell you) is that is doesn't fit nicely in a square. So although a square field is planted only the 'circle' is nice and green. Most farmers will plant the water intensive things in the circle and the plant less needy (and less profitable) stuff in the corners. This will cause the circles to be VERY pronounced from satellite photos.

I did a search...here is the entry from Wikipedia. I do have to comment about the entry on lateral irrigation. On our fields in Illinios we had irrigation ditches that we filled with water from the Spoon River. An 'arm' hung over into the ditch to pull out the water and irrigate the crops. The wheels were on automatic motors that moved the system back and forwards over the field by itself. It would do one pass southbound over 12 hours of time and the one pass back (northbound) over the next 12 hours. It literally inched along. In Ukraine where EVERYTHING is done by hand the lateral is just not practical. The people who work on the farms are not reliable enough to be trusted to hook up a hose, let it run, then unhook a machine, move the irrigation, reattach the hose, then repeat. So the pivot system is the preferred system there.

Anyways...more then you wanted to know, but...

From Wikipedia...

"Center pivot irrigation

Center pivot irrigation is a form of sprinkler irrigation consisting of several segments of pipe (usually galvanized steel or aluminum) joined together and supported by trusses, mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers positioned along its length. The system moves in a circular pattern and is fed with water from the pivot point at the center of the arc. These systems are common in parts of the United States where terrain is flat.

Most center pivot systems now have drops hanging from a u-shaped pipe called a gooseneck attached at the top of the pipe with sprinkler heads that are positioned a few feet (at most) above the crop, thus limiting evaporative losses. Drops can also be used with drag hoses or bubbler's that deposit the water directly on the ground between crops. The crops are planted in a circle to conform to the center pivot. This type of system is known as LEPA (Low Energy Precision Application). Originally, most center pivots were water powered. These were replaced by hydraulic systems (T-L Irrigation) and electric motor driven systems (Lindsay, Reinke, Valley, Zimmatic). Most systems today are driven by an electric motor mounted low on each span. This drives a reduction gearbox and transverse driveshafts transmit power to another reduction gearbox mounted behind each wheel. Precision controls, some with GPS location and remote computer monitoring, are now available.

Lateral move (Side roll, Wheel line) irrigation

A series of pipes, each with a wheel of about 1.5 m diameter permanently affixed to its midpoint and sprinklers along its length, are coupled together at one edge of a field. Water is supplied at one end using a large hose. After sufficient water has been applied, the hose is removed and the remaining assembly rotated either by hand or with a purpose-built mechanism, so that the sprinklers move 10m across the field. The hose is reconnected. The process is repeated until the opposite edge of the field is reached. This system is less expensive to install than a center pivot, but much more labor intensive to operate, and it is limited in the amount of water it can carry. Most systems utilize 4 or 5 inch diameter aluminum pipe. One feature of a lateral move system is that it consists of sections that can be easily disconnected. They are most often used for small or oddly-shaped fields, such as those found in hilly or mountainous regions, or in regions where labor is inexpensive."

[Gaston]

Yeah you can see this type of irrigation used all over the U.S.   (At least in the mid -west.  )    It is pretty common really.   


---Gaston

[Frankie]

Yes, Central Pivot Irrigation. A few months ago I attempted such a project. However; It did not go well. It is impossible to grow such a lot, however a large plopable is possible. Oh and, CPI is common in the USA, Saudi Arabia, and a few other places...Kansas containing the most, which contributes to the draining of that huge Midwestern aquifer.

[ACEfanatic02]

There's no need for a lot.

Zone a square of I-Ag.  (Odd numbered sizes work best for the next step.)  Place a police kiosk dead center in the field.  Turn on the police data view, and adjust the coverage size to fit your need.  Using the circle for a guide, dezone the unneeded farm fields, destroy the kiosk, and rezone the central tile.

Volia, instant circular farm.

-ACE

[Diggis]

Nice thinking.

[mightygoose]

can you use zone packeting with agriculture.... if you could surely someone could make some like 30x30 circular farms.....

[BarbyW]

What do you mean by "zone packeting", mightygoose?

[mightygoose]

in the same way as other industries you hold down the ctrl key and instead of open zoning you zone specific packets so only anchor lots can form.

[Zaphod]

There's no need for a lot.

Zone a square of I-Ag.  (Odd numbered sizes work best for the next step.)  Place a police kiosk dead center in the field.  Turn on the police data view, and adjust the coverage size to fit your need.  Using the circle for a guide, dezone the unneeded farm fields, destroy the kiosk, and rezone the central tile.

Volia, instant circular farm.

-ACE

Thats been done in CJ's before

it doesnt look that great except in region view because of the jaggy edges of the square pieces

Anyways, how does 2ch/Yuhisa's japanese rice paddies work?

[BarbyW]

in the same way as other industries you hold down the ctrl key and instead of open zoning you zone specific packets so only anchor lots can form.

No it doesn't work like that for farms as all farms have to have fields and so you can't specify exactly what will grow in a fixed zone as the farm lot may be a fixed size but the fields must grow to fill the zone.

[Gaston]

You can still zone for agriculture in wierd (cicular, terrain fitting, etc.) shapes, but sometimes the farms will not fill the area properly.   Especially if you zone a big shape.    I tried some large kidney shaped farms for fun and ended up with square farms sitting on big kidney shaped zones.        Be careful not to make um too big.   I'm not sure what TOO big is.   Just experiment some and see what'll grow.    Unless someone here knows how big you can grow one farm.


---Gaston

[BarbyW]

You have to distinguish between the farm and the fields. No matter what size farm lot is made it has to have fields associated with it. If you had farms growing without fields the you were missing them - ie there were custom fields that you were missing.

[mightygoose]

well if you had the fields as plain dirt... ther is normally gaps between the circles... if you had a 30x30 farm lot then zoned 31x31 you coud fit 2 roads horizontal and 2 roads vertical on the grid and fit four farms in nicely... having a dirt border down two edges of each farm...