Is "Not Enough Raw Materials" a sign of worker shortage?

[Smokerbait]

Recently, my Agricultural Industry just can't get delivery of any goods. I get the "Not Enough Raw Materials" icons popping up like crazy, but ONLY in my Agricultural industry.

Some notes:

- Both Agricultural Industry areas are close to highways with good access.
- Both area have access to a cargo train depot.
- One area has access to a cargo harbor.
- There are no major traffic problems.
- General Industry had two incidents of "Not Enough Raw Materials" but definitely isn't experiencing an epidemic.
- My General Industry area farthest away from the highway as you can get hasn't had any problems at all.
- Forestry Industry had three buildings experience"Not Enough Workers" at the start of this time, but once those were resolved nothing more occured.


Now, what I DO know is that this started basically after I placed several shelters and some disaster protection buildings, which caused a lot of housing and office areas to upgrade. And I get that higher-level houses have higher educated people who don't want to work on the farm. But I don't know if "Not Enough Raw Materials" is a consequence of that.

Does anyone know? Thanks in advance.

[Balboa7499]

The not enough raw materials mean there is just that... No raw materials, oil, ore, fertile land.
I personally use a mod so I can change the fertile land, ore and oil on the fly in game. Go to the button in the top right corner that shows all your overlays and look at your resource overlay.

It sounds like you built all the farm land on an area that doesn't have fertile land.

If there wasn't enough works or the workers were over educated it would say just that.

[MarkJohnson]

When I get not enough raw materials, it usually means I'm at my traffic limit, so iot won't spawn the lowest vehicles, i.e. specialized raw goods.

Try the CSL Show More Limits mod and make sure your "Active Vehicles" are well under 16k that is the limit.

If it is near the limit, you need to watch your import/export and make sure they are low. There should be zero (or very near zero) goods being imported or exported. Since you have specialized industry, your oil, ore, agriculture, and forestry should be low as well. If you have all 4 of them anyway.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531738447&searchtext=csl+show+more+limits

[Sendos]

Not enough raw materials - you've got specialized industries, namely ore and oil, exhausting their resource veins. Once they do that, they turn into refinery-type buildings which require imports. In this case, check your traffic between where your industry is and where the main highways are. If there's a backlog, there's your problem.

[Smokerbait]

Originally posted by 7499275:

The not enough raw materials mean there is just that... No raw materials, oil, ore, fertile land.
I personally use a mod so I can change the fertile land, ore and oil on the fly in game. Go to the button in the top right corner that shows all your overlays and look at your resource overlay.

It sounds like you built all the farm land on an area that doesn't have fertile land.

If there wasn't enough works or the workers were over educated it would say just that.

Except there is, although not all of it is, of course. I do have some building for production. Also, fertile land doesn't diminish like oil and ore, right? It hasn't for me. I have many Agricultural buildings built over land marked fertile yellow. Also, my city was working fine for dozens of years without this happening.

I've taken the proactive step of demolishing a large portion of my Agricultural buildings that aren't on yellow land, and consolidating the rest. I'm sure my citizens will be happier. Most, if not all, of the employees on those farms were overeducated. I'll build them more offices.

Originally posted by rmjohnson144:

When I get not enough raw materials, it usually means I'm at my traffic limit, so iot won't spawn the lowest vehicles, i.e. specialized raw goods.

Try the CSL Show More Limits mod and make sure your "Active Vehicles" are well under 16k that is the limit.

If it is near the limit, you need to watch your import/export and make sure they are low. There should be zero (or very near zero) goods being imported or exported. Since you have specialized industry, your oil, ore, agriculture, and forestry should be low as well. If you have all 4 of them anyway.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531738447&searchtext=csl+show+more+limits

I downloaded the mod, and apparently I'm only half way to the limit.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=826979051

Actually disappointing as this sounded like a very plausible cause.

Originally posted by Paul:

Not enough raw materials - you've got specialized industries, namely ore and oil, exhausting their resource veins. Once they do that, they turn into refinery-type buildings which require imports. In this case, check your traffic between where your industry is and where the main highways are. If there's a backlog, there's your problem.

I'm talking about Agriculture (other industry is Forestry, but I've had no problem with that one, since it only exports). Also, as I said in my post, there are no traffic problems. I double checked, and did not see anything that would cause this. Both problem areas are on opposite ends of the city, yet experiencing the same thing. They are both next to a highway, and both have cargo train access.


Thanks for the suggestions, all, but for now it still remains a mystery.

[Josh]

You can't build Agriculture (Farmland) on ground that isn't fertile, much like you wouldn't build Oil or Ore extraction on land that does not have Oil or Ore.........

[MarkJohnson]

If not enough raw material, then it may be distance related. Cims need to get from point A to point B in a timely manner or bad things happen.

Check your industry to see what raw material is being shorted. It only takes one red light or one slowdown to make them miss their deadline.

I was getting it from my industry driving from one end of a tile to the other. approx 1km. and it would time out and force an import. Not sure of the timeout for an import though.

[Smokerbait]

Thanks for the input, rmjohnson144. But more and more it's looking likely that this is just Bug # 4,098,345,129,007,341,776 that is slowly driving me away from this game.

Seriously. SimCity 5 is beginning to look good to me now! That shouldn't happen!

Through some playtesting, I removed all of my Agricultural Industry. And the problem simply shifted to my General Industry. I haven't seen an incoming cargo ship at all lately.

I cannot stress how much everything was running FINE! No problems at all. Then this happens, with the only thing changing was me placing down some shelters which boosted a lot of buildings to max level. I see no traffic problems. No reasons why it was so sudden.

Going to reload one of my old saves from early November and just see what happens, I guess.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Smokerbait:

Thanks for the input, rmjohnson144. But more and more it's looking likely that this is just Bug # 4,098,345,129,007,341,776 that is slowly driving me away from this game.

Technically there are no bugs in the game. It may not behave the way you want it to, but that doesn't make it a bug.

Seriously. SimCity 5 is beginning to look good to me now! That shouldn't happen!

In my eyes, Simcity 2013 is the best city builder hands down. It just sux having one one tile to build on. Well, the million bugs is annoying, but fairly easy to workaround. Too bad EA killed it instead of doing it right.

Through some playtesting, I removed all of my Agricultural Industry. And the problem simply shifted to my General Industry. I haven't seen an incoming cargo ship at all lately.

Yes, your city is at the max I'm sure. Not sure what workshop you use, but they typically exacerbate the issue as well.

Just dezoning things won't just fix it. You need to find the issue. Usually long trips. This is an agent based simulator and cims need to get from point A to point B in a timely manner or bad things happen.

I cannot stress how much everything was running FINE! No problems at all. Then this happens, with the only thing changing was me placing down some shelters which boosted a lot of buildings to max level. I see no traffic problems. No reasons why it was so sudden.

placing shelters and boosting your buildings level is exactly what killed it. When they level up they increase the agent limits. You were so close it was a miracle you haven't had this issue already.

Going to reload one of my old saves from early November and just see what happens, I guess.

It should be fine. But you need to get your agent limits down before you continue or it will just happen again. Make sure you districts/areas and self-sufficient. I use large districts and make sure the workers to jobs ratio is near equal.

But don't be surprised if it won't grow any more. This game is designed for 9-tiles only. Past that the engine doesn't behave the same and will obviously have issues. I assume you are past 25-tiles full?

If you want to share your save, we can take a look at it and maybe offer advice.