Keeping a Demand for Agriculture

[projectadam]

I am currently working on a region that for the time being is going to be the majority agriculture. I can remember in the past though that at a certain point the demand for agriculture completely drops off. I believe that this might have to do with the Sim's education level but am not for sure. Does anyone know how to keep a high demand for agriculture say for about 100 - 150 years of game playing time?

[FrankU]

As far as I know you should not put any kind of education in this city. So your sims get dumber and dumber until they know nothing anymore....

I must admit that I detest this feature. I'd like my citizents to be smart. Especially if I use high tech stage 5 or 6 farms. In RL today's farmers are smarter than many urban citizens. The education system of SC4 is not very realistic in that respect and it might be a nice feature for a next version of CAM to implement education levels for farms in the higher stages.
So that you need a certain education level for, let's say, stage 3 and higher to appear.

This would give you the opportunity to build functioning farms around a high tech city. Something that is very common in most western countries.

[RippleJet]

There are three ways of killing agricultural demand:

1. Reducing the workforce drives for I-R
2. Reducing the I-R desirability factors
3. Hitting the I-R CAP


1. I-R Workforce Drives

This is the natural way that the game was designed to phase out I-R.
The more educated your population becomes, the less farmers they want to be.

• With Rush Hour the I-R drives (demand for occupation) become zero as soon as your city's EQ surpasses 50.
• With CAM 1.0 the I-R drives are extended somewhat higher (even up to 150 for R§),
  but are clearly reduced as soon as your city's EQ surpasses 50.

Note! If your EQ has risen too high, no desirability factors can be used to increase I-R demand.
In other words, not even a radical demand ordinance would help...


2. I-R Desirability

There are several factors that determine the RCI desirabilty in game.
I've tried to list them here in order of how quickly they reduce I-R desirabilty:

Radiation	±00 if no radiation	-2000 if a lot of radiation
Traffic	+50 if no traffic	-50 if a lot of traffic
Garbage	+50 if no garbage	-50 if a lot of garbage
Air Pollution	+50 if no pollution	-50 if a lot of pollution
Freight Trips	+15 if short freight trips	-15 if long freight trips
Crime	+10 if no crime	-10 if a lot of crime
Land Value	+10 if low land value	±00 if high land value

The following factors have no influence on I-R desirability:

• Park Effect
• Landmark Effect
• School Effect
• Health Effect
• Water Pollution

3. I-R CAPs

The initial I-R CAP is set at 30,000.
However, what counts against this CAP is not the farming jobs in your city, it's the sum of the following:

• R§
• R§§
• R§§§
• CO§§
• CO§§§
• CS§§
• CS§§§
• I-D
• I-M
• I-HT

In other words all RCI types, except I-R and CS§.
As soon as the sum of all those RCI types comes close to 30,000, your I-R demand will disappear.

Currently there is only one building providing I-R CAP relief, the Census Repository Vault.

Note! If you've hit the I-R CAP, the only way to increase I-R demand is to provide I-R CAP relief.
In other words, not even a radical demand ordinance would help...

[Andreas]

In other words all RCI types, except I-R and CS§§§.

I think you mean CS§.

[RippleJet]

I think you mean CS§.

Of course I did!
Corrected, thanks to you, Andreas!

[wes.janson]

Awesome. I was just going to ask this question.

Currently there is only one building providing I-R CAP relief, the Census Repository Vault.

Shameless plug? 

[RippleJet]

Shameless plug? 

Most certainly!

[projectadam]

Thanks RippleJet for a most excellent analysis 

It does seem like it sucks that education wipes out farming but speaking from the United States historical side of things, when farming was really expanding the education levels were horrid compared to that of today. Today, farming has become an extremely technological focused business and maybe with updates and tweaks to the game we will get closer to a true representation in the game.

Another problem that would need to be addressed though is SC4 really does not pay any attention to time. I think it was SC2000 that evolved over time and more things were available as you played the game. In SC4 there is no way of telling whether the start of the game is in the 1800s or today.

Thanks again for all of the replies

           
                               

                       

[FrankU]

Thanks, Ripplejet,

I'd be very glad if there was a way to build my regions with smart farmers, so that I can surround my cities with functioning farms. The only way I know now to make farmland around cities is by plopping every tile..... Nice to do, I have total control, but it's an awful lot of work and it doesn't really feel like I am playing the game anymore.

Might it be possible to implement some higher education into CAM for higher stage farms? That would be very nice.
Or is it impossible to edit the values you named in your post?

[RippleJet]

Might it be possible to implement some higher education into CAM for higher stage farms? That would be very nice.

Maybe...
Cough... cough... Rural CAM 2.0 ...

[FrankU]

Yes, indeed....
No need to hurry!

[projectadam]

Maybe...
Cough... cough... Rural CAM 2.0 ...

Did I overlook something on the LEX? What is this Rural CAM 2.0? Something out or something coming out?

[bwatterud]

Something that may or may not possibly be under development. 

[ramseyazad]

It kind of sucks that there's no way to increase I-R demand, only lots of ways to kill it.  I have been looking for a post just like RJ's at the beginning here forever!