Potatoes are less food efficient than carrots. They need to produce 3 per patch like carrots and wheat

[Hillbilly_Dave]

A single potato can be turned into 4 food, yes, but since carrots grow 3 per plot and potatoes only grow 1 per plot and take longer to grow, the potatoes produce less food over the long term. I was running some numbers to see just how much more efficient wheat is purely on a food per patch basis, and realized that the potatoes will actually feed fewer beavers than carrots.

Carrots grow 3 per patch and the beavers can just eat them immediately after harvesting. 3 food per patch every 4 days.
Potatoes grow 1 per patch but need to be grilled. After grilling 1 potato creates 4 grilled potato portions. 4 food per patch every 6 days.
Wheat grows 3 per patch, which is milled into 3 flour, and each flour is baked into 5 bread loaves, for a total of 15 food per patch. every 10 days.

Assuming no growth loss due to draught and the crops can be replanted right after harvesting and all the processing can be done at the same pace, over a 60 day period (the first number commonly divisible by all 3 crop grow times), a single carrot patch will yield 45 food, a single potato patch will yield 40 food, and a single wheat patch will produce 90 food.

I know each food type provides its own unique buff, but since potatoes require an extra worker to make ready for eating, they should be more efficient for feeding mouths over the long term than carrots, wouldn't you agree?

A quick tweak to potato production would remedy this. First, like carrots and wheat, potatoes should grow 3 per patch. Second, to not reduce the significantly higher efficiency of wheat to justify its science and production costs, drop the grilled potatoes per potato from 4 to 2. This will then result in 6 grilled potatoes every 6 days, which will put it at 60 grilled potatoes over 60 day, which is more efficient than carrots at 45 but still considerably less efficient than wheat at 90.

[Dravkwn]

Crop planting and harvest account for a fairly sized time factor. Carrot and Potato planting and harvest times are the same. Only the grow times vary. If you consider the time the beavers are busy harvest and planting then you end up with 33% more potatoes for the same time spent. Seems like you've excluded this factor.

[Hillbilly_Dave]

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

Crop planting and harvest account for a fairly sized time factor. Carrot and Potato planting and harvest times are the same. Only the grow times vary. If you consider the time the beavers are busy harvest and planting then you end up with 33% more potatoes for the same time spent. Seems like you've excluded this factor.

If the planting and harvesting times of carrots and potatoes are identical then the only difference is the grow time, which just takes us back to my initial assertion that potatoes will feed fewer beavers than carrots will.

[Dravkwn]

Originally posted by Hillbilly_Dave:

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

Crop planting and harvest account for a fairly sized time factor. Carrot and Potato planting and harvest times are the same. Only the grow times vary. If you consider the time the beavers are busy harvest and planting then you end up with 33% more potatoes for the same time spent. Seems like you've excluded this factor.

If the planting and harvesting times of carrots and potatoes are identical then the only difference is the grow time, which just takes us back to my initial assertion that potatoes will feed fewer beavers than carrots will.

Yeah... no.
16 hour day a beaver can maintain roughly 8 plants. So that's 24 carrots a day or 32 grilled potatoes a day or 120 bread.

[Bobucles]

Indeed. Potatos may be less efficient per land tile, but they are more efficient per beaver worker. At least, this is assuming that planting and harvesting are the same across all plant types.

[Flutters]

In my current village, I have roughly equal amounts of land dedicated to carrots and potatoes, but I am always fully stocked on potatoes while carrots disappear near instantly. All my beavers have all their nutrition scores met (small wheat field for bread, also always fully stocked), so I believe that it may just be that a higher nutrition score can be satisfied for longer, meaning the beavers need more carrots to keep their nutrition 1 up.

[Hillbilly_Dave]

Originally posted by Flutters:

In my current village, I have roughly equal amounts of land dedicated to carrots and potatoes, but I am always fully stocked on potatoes while carrots disappear near instantly. All my beavers have all their nutrition scores met (small wheat field for bread, also always fully stocked), so I believe that it may just be that a higher nutrition score can be satisfied for longer, meaning the beavers need more carrots to keep their nutrition 1 up.

That could well be the case. Thanks for your input.

[Bobucles]

I almost forgot that potato farming also demands baking and forestry labor, which slows it down a bit. Carrots only require a simple harvest. It is very well possible that potatoes are the weakest source of calories in the game, but the strength buff more than makes up for it.

[Prometheus]

The potato carrying capacity buff is freaking huge. It makes builders able to carry 2 logs instead of just 1. They could be one per harvest and I would still do it.

[allocater]

I always prioritize shipping potatoes to building districts. Pretty much doubles construction speed.

[Not a Bard]

Yeah, since the three foods have separate nutritional values, they don't need to be balanced with each other. They give a unique buff to beavers so are worth growing even if they were definitively worse than carrots purely as a source of food.