Hydroponic farms vs. food processing facilities

[HunterAlpha1]

Is there any point to FPFs? Farms produce twice as much food.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

No point in building hydroponic farms unless you have a major food deficit, districts are better and the building that gives a percentage boost to farmer output is very much worth it on agri-worlds.

[Nightmyre]

FPF gives you a boost to *all* of your farmers, on top of creating farmer jobs itself. There's a similar building for energy and minerals.

But yeah - never build hydroponics farms. You should pretty much always be able to get by with the districts.

[Razor Feather]

FPFs give more output if you already have somewhere in the range of 10-20 farmers on a planet. They also increase per pop food production, thus increasing efficiency and requiring less pops for the same output.

Hydroponics farms are useful mainly if you are building a ton of habitats, to the point where all agricultural districts available to you are still insufficient, and are not building a ring world for whatever reason.

[Nightmyre]

Originally posted by Razor Feather:

FPFs give more output if you already have somewhere in the range of 10-20 farmers on a planet. They also increase per pop food production, thus increasing efficiency and requiring less pops for the same output.

Again - FPF and the other requivalents *also* provide jobs. As an example, Hydroponics farms produces two farmer jobs, while FPF provides 15% boost to your farmers *and* one farmer job. The upgraded FPF (food processing centers) provides 25% boost to your farmers *and* two farmer jobs, making it strictly better than a hydroponics farm.

[Razor Feather]

Originally posted by Nightmyre:

Originally posted by Razor Feather:

FPFs give more output if you already have somewhere in the range of 10-20 farmers on a planet. They also increase per pop food production, thus increasing efficiency and requiring less pops for the same output.

Again - FPF and the other requivalents *also* provide jobs. As an example, Hydroponics farms produces two farmer jobs, while FPF provides 15% boost to your farmers *and* one farmer job. The upgraded FPF (food processing centers) provides 25% boost to your farmers *and* two farmer jobs, making it strictly better than a hydroponics farm.

The upgraded form also costs a strategic resource to upkeep, which is significant and makes it likely a poor choice to build with no other farm jobs on the planet, particularly since I believe the food output bonus is additive with tech, and thus not nearly as large as it would seem past the early game, though I could be wrong about that one. It is certainly usually better, but its not strictly better.

[fefnir3284]

well this thread is SO out of date. hydroponics gives you THREE jobs, not two, and FPF does NOT give you a 15% farmer buff but a simple +1 food (when a worker gives 11 on their own).

so 1 hydro gives you +66 food, while gives you +1 farmer (total, not per district) and +1 food per farmer. so wouldnt you need 22 farming districts for the fpf to exceed the hydro?

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by fefnir3284:

well this thread is SO out of date.

then why the hell you resurrected it?
that discussion was SO MANY patches ago

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Originally posted by fefnir3284:

well this thread is SO out of date. hydroponics gives you THREE jobs, not two, and FPF does NOT give you a 15% farmer buff but a simple +1 food (when a worker gives 11 on their own).

so 1 hydro gives you +66 food, while gives you +1 farmer (total, not per district) and +1 food per farmer. so wouldnt you need 22 farming districts for the fpf to exceed the hydro?

5 and a half years ago it wasn't out of date. Why did you even dig this up?

[Kufesska]

maan, i wish there was moderator to close that necropost

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by fefnir3284:

well this thread is SO out of date. hydroponics gives you THREE jobs, not two, and FPF does NOT give you a 15% farmer buff but a simple +1 food (when a worker gives 11 on their own).

so 1 hydro gives you +66 food, while gives you +1 farmer (total, not per district) and +1 food per farmer. so wouldnt you need 22 farming districts for the fpf to exceed the hydro?

One farmer gives a base output of 6 food (5 if your primary species is robotic). The 11 that you're viewing is only after all your modifiers to worker resource output, pop resource output, resources from jobs, and so on, have been taken into account. That +1 Food from Farmers from Food Processing Facilities is added to the base value before modifiers, not the final value after them, so in your case it would increase the final output of every Farmer by closer to 2 Food than 1. The upgraded version, double that.

[Astrallight]

Originally posted by fefnir3284:

well this thread is SO out of date. hydroponics gives you THREE jobs, not two, and FPF does NOT give you a 15% farmer buff but a simple +1 food (when a worker gives 11 on their own).

so 1 hydro gives you +66 food, while gives you +1 farmer (total, not per district) and +1 food per farmer. so wouldnt you need 22 farming districts for the fpf to exceed the hydro?

My guy probably plays necroids with this zombie thread.

[Ryika]

Originally posted by fefnir3284:

so wouldnt you need 22 farming districts for the fpf to exceed the hydro?

No, and that's a fundamentally nonsensical line of reasoning. The point of the Food Processing Planet is not job generation, it's increasing per-pop efficiency.

[Kalemenos]

Each resource has a building that works like an "amplifier" (except crystals, gas, and motes). I see the FPF as simply an augmenter for whatever food production is going on on that planet, as it gives a sort of bonus.

Energy: Energy Grid +1 ene/worker pop, Energy Nexus +2 ene
Food: FPF +1 food/w.p., the next level (I forget its name) +2
Minerals: Min. Purif. Plant and its upgrade.
Alloy: Alloy Nano Plants (the upgrade from the Alloy Foundry, which gives no bonus)
Cons. goods: Civilian Repli Complexes (the upgrade of the Civilian Industries, which gives no bonus).
Unity and Research have their own amplifier buildings.

Early game I might use any of these buildings just to get the baseline resource. But by mid-game, I have those buildings only on those planets-et-al. dedicated to that resource.

Example: I have an Arcology planet designated "Ecumenopolis Foundry"
One pop produces 14.1 alloy, and by the year 2400 I have 56 foundry pops. Each one produces:
Base +3
The building Alloy Nano Plant +2
Bonus from Ecumenopolis: +20%
And a bunch of other bonuses from synth, leader, empire bonuses, and whatnot. But just by having that "amplifier building" (Nano Plant), those 56 pops produce another 112 ally/month which they otherwise would not make if that building wasn't there. So the FPF will have a similar effect for food. But by mid/late game, if you can manage it, try to get food from vassals and deals and whatnot.

[mss73055]

The thread is old, but the issue has not been addressed.

Bio-Processing does not offer a conversion rate of food to energy and vespene. Generation is done on a per job base and not based on produced. So the majority of the food will be *sold* against bottom 0.16 rate.

This is the Soviet approach, let's learn from Brazil to do better :D

The Bio Reactor should convert % of the planet's production. Better reactor better rates.

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by mss73055:

The thread is old, but the issue has not been addressed.

Bio-Processing does not offer a conversion rate of food to energy and vespene. Generation is done on a per job base and not based on produced. So the majority of the food will be *sold* against bottom 0.16 rate.

This is the Soviet approach, let's learn from Brazil to do better :D

The Bio Reactor should convert % of the planet's production. Better reactor better rates.

You're the first in the thread to mention a bio-reactor. The issue was addressed, you're adding a new one here.