Bad location for ranches

[SWK]

I put down a number of ranches, and at the time, it was in the green. Now, it's almost in the red.

What happened?

[Abalister]

New structures got built around it? It's the same for me. I put them far from town now, surrounded by natural trees and they seem to stay green.

[BoNeZ]

Since the last patch no matter where i put a ranch the ground turns red, last patch seems to have broken the ranches.

[Pure Hostility]

It was always like this.

Ranches degrade surroundings with time.
It takes like 2-3 years, before they are not really profitable anymore in that location.
Upgrade them to Factories later on (Cold War) and supply them with grain, you no longer have to rely on their location.

[Doh]

ranches do not like anything built around them. some have an upgrade you can use that makes the ground deteriorate less. i mostly hold off till i get factory farms.

[Ensign]

I started a game earlier today around 1pm with the latest patch, i just stopped a few moments ago around 8:40pm. I started in the colonial age. These two ranches have been here since the beginning and are still in yellow. Ive built around them like crazy too close to the end of the colonial era as i like to place country houses right up agaisnt ranches as they look nice (ive since upgraded alot of them) and they are doing just fine. I never had a worker shortage since i made sure to expand carefully. I never fired any workers either so these ranches have been running from colonial-modern, from 1pm-8pm and they are doing fine, providing food and exporting lots.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272589321

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272589336

They seem to have ample supplies stored and ready for shipping too. I dont have a teamster problem.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272589352

I spread my teamsters wherever there is anything to export. As you can see here traffic is clear to transport these goods.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272589360

Yet the ranches still have ample supplies. Mabey im missing something here but my ranches are just fine. They dont behave like T4 ranches where they need grazing grounds. It seems the penned up area is thier grounds, so go nuts and surround it in buildings. My ranches just arent degrading in the red for some reason. Mabey im missing something thats keeping me from replicating your problem?

[Finkle and Einhorn]

It's Llama ranches that care about their surroundings (read the description). Other ranch types behave like plantations.

[Ensign]

Originally posted by Finkle and Einhorn:

It's Llama ranches that care about their surroundings (read the description). Other ranch types behave like plantations.

My last picture (behind the tall pharmasutical building) has a llama ranch i had put there near the early world wars era which you will see by the lifetime income it has.

Yet again its yellow. Its doing fine sandwhiched between buildings and the only reason there is no building behind it is becuase its uneven terrain. Unusable space.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=272621920

Its description doesnt say anything about them needing space though, its just another humorous description about lamas being staples of tropican beauty. Neither do any of the OP's posts. He said he placed "a number of ranches" so i assume its all kinds. I have nearly all kinds as well since nearly the start of my game and all of them are yellow with good stockpiles.

[SWK]

Okay, through painstaking experimentation i have finally found out how the location bonus works for ranches. I only worked with the cattle ranch, so i am not perfectly sure this is the same for the other ranches.

One: I discovered that the game is kind of finicky and weird about what buildings it cares are nearby a ranch. I didn't test every building, but i know it doesn't care about roads, metros, shacks, residental buildings, liberty buildings, hospitals, churches, high schools, mines, logging camps, food buildings, entertainment buildings, or government buildings including barracks. It only cares how close the next nearest ranch is.

http://i.imgur.com/MWslxji.jpg

Two: Ranches always lose a portion of their location bonus, but it will level out at some point and then never go down provided another ranch isn't too close.

Three: Too close is a less than 13 square gap between one ranch and another ranch.

http://i.imgur.com/bQNiQTu.jpg

When i put the ranch in the greenest place i could find, it would level out at 11 location bonus and stay there as long as the gap between it and the next ranch was 13 squares large. When i put a ranch in a less than ideal location it might level out lower.

Also, i discovered that the ground will recover if you destroy the ranch and leave it alone for long enough, and the closer the ranches are the faster their location bonus will go to hell.

[Ensign]

Now that is an educated answer to this problem! NIce work SWK.
I went back to check it out and your correct, the closness of my ranches (the one in all the ss's ive been posting) at ranges from -22 to -31. Seems that is indeed the problem. Not red and wont seem to go into the red but that explains why its yellow and not green (apart from natural degredation ofcourse).

For what its worth it doesnt seem that this impacts the flow of resources as much as it probably should though. Now that i see the numbers it seems my ranches could be vastly more productive and efficienct. However it is to be noted that just as i mentioned in previous posts, my ranches still seem to be doing ok for themselves producing enough if not more than enough product. In the late game ranches seem less important for thier resources. So save yourself all that corn and ignore factory farms.

My people are well fed and they are being fed by 2 fishwarfs, one corn plantation and all these meat/milk ranches, the chocolate factory was just set up and upgraded to accept milk andn doing just fine, i havent upgraded my cannery to can meat yet since im having trouble unloading all this fish from two warfs and 1 pinapple plantation but im sure the ranch could handle the load. So it seems its acceptable to take a hit and pair ranches in two's if not three's. They wont be as productive but it seems they dont need to be to achieve what you want from them.

Good the know the real reason for your degredation problem. Now the T5 community will have a good idea on how much is too much ranch. 1 ranch with 13 spaces from another is ideal but 2-3 ranches right up next to eachother is acceptable before everything goes to hell.

[(Rúna)]

some great information here people, this needs puting in a wiki! I was noticing a degredation of my ranches area in my colonial era gaming last night. I was placing them in 2 side by side, surrounding by a couple of plantations and teamsters.

I shall now experiment with a plantation-ranch-plantation-plantation-ranch-plantation configuration.... if theres enough space! :)

[Jaytee]

The detailed answer above is very much appreciated, but the question remains, why is designed like this?? Multiple animals can be raised on the same farm quite fine, nevermind being on a diferent farm altogether. This is another design I am not impressed with.

[fireonfire]

Does anyone know why on brand new map the entire grid of useable space is "yellow" for llamas? There is green grid, but its always in the inaccessible places high up on a plateau...

It makes the idea of building llama ranches seem less efficient. I always wind up building them last, usually after I've built a textile mill and need the wool in order for it to function.

This next question is probably off-topic for this thread but its related to my llama question: is there a reason that the textile mill can only make a piece of cloth if it has both wool AND cotton? I've got clothes that are 100% cotton....