0% Efficiency on Plantations

[lukmac2007]

I have fully staffed max budget plantations of every type on fertile land with every job slot full but the efficiency is at 0% on all of them. Anyone know what's going on?

[very_average_guy]

The game has a feature called "soil degradation". Over time the quality of the soil degrades to simulate how nitrates are depleted in the earth after excessive farming. You can also experience soil degradation from ranches. Unlike plantations, ranches doesn't seem to be affected by soil degradation, so it ruins it for plantations while keeping its own effectiveness the same.

There's an overlay showing soil degradation that you can examine.

[Whirl]

I'm not sure but I think if you move a plantation the degradation will reverse itself.

[dbw86]

when you first place a plantation, the default work mode is mono culture, which -as a single plantation- will produce the most resources... BUT it comes with the penalty of soil degradation, which means over time the efficiency of it goes down and down eventually to zero, and soil degradation does not go away ever, unless you demolish the building over it and wait for years upon years to repair itself.
The better choice to use is usually multi culture work mode... while it comes with the penalty of -40% efficiency, it has no soil degradation - and if you lump a few other types of plantations around it all on multiculture work mode as well, then the -40% penalty can actually be turned around into a positive bonus, making it even better than mono culture.
Often I will build 10 plantations crammed together overlapping (yes there is a penalty for too close) 5 on one side, a gap of 6 squares, and 5 on the other... roads in front of them all makes a gap of 4 squares left... toss in a couple cattle ranches with the upgrade on them to enhance plantations... since there are only 9 plantation *types* make 2 of them sugar, since sugar can buff every other plantation near it up to having 2 sugar plantations. do that and every plantation will probably be over 100% efficiency despite the penalties to location and specific poor soil locals

[dbw86]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402597057
as an example of my plantation setup
max budget per plantation, agriculture subsidies edict, temple of heaven heist... and majority of my plantations... all but one... are over 200% efficeincy

[Pytha]

Originally posted by dbw86:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402597057
as an example of my plantation setup
max budget per plantation, agriculture subsidies edict, temple of heaven heist... and majority of my plantations... all but one... are over 200% efficeincy

It's normal if a ranch dont add any bonus to my plantation efficiency ? i did exactly the same than you, and after 30mn, im already at -53% efficiency.. They updated it ?

[TEKK3N]

Originally posted by Kabuki:

The game has a feature called "soil degradation". Over time the quality of the soil degrades to simulate how nitrates are depleted in the earth after excessive farming. You can also experience soil degradation from ranches. Unlike plantations, ranches doesn't seem to be affected by soil degradation, so it ruins it for plantations while keeping its own effectiveness the same.

There's an overlay showing soil degradation that you can examine.

Actually Ranches degrades over time (regardless if you have pasture prohibition on or not) leading to low Manure production and therefore Soil Degradation as the spreaders don't have manure to spread.
I don't know if it is a bug or it is meant to be that way, but that killed the game for me.
Waste of money. Shame I cannot refund it.