Private econ doesn't build scavenging or commercial zones

[Elver]

These may or may not be bugs. You can start a game with private Scavenging (and you used to be able to get them as scrap cards), but once the game begins there will never be any more private Scavenging built. Similarly, there's no private Commercial Zones built, seemingly ever. The latter seems like it might be intentional because they're a regular (non-scrap) card like Militia Houses, but it still seems odd.

I also don't think I've ever seen new private Hunting built, even by hunter cultures.

[Don_Kiyote]

I doubt scavenging is meant to be part of the private economy operations, design wise. That would be bad, considering the special and unique benefits of the asset. If it happened in my game, I would have to stop it. Only one reason is that is where my artefacts come from, and only there. There is only one 'Ruins' tile in my entire territory, and the others on the planet have majors sitting on top of them. Without that single tile, there would be no regime.

Conversely, starting with one makes good sense.

You answered your own question about Commercial Zones, and I don't see a problem there either. Hunting facilities I have never heard of in this game

Having said that, the Private Economy does appear to have some odd behaviour in my game. Mostly by sitting on its money quite often, and listing the same, first Agricultural facility as "Next" for forever. Is my perception of 'odd' as easily explained from another player's perspective as OP's?

[Heahengel]

Dome farms take huge amounts of workers to run. How much excess population do those cities have? Maybe they won't build it until they have enough excess workers to run it. I've frequently had cities stop building private assets because of insufficient population.

Take that with a grain of salt, though. I'm still figuring things out and making a lot of mistakes.

[Catasteroid]

Communities are generated either with a hunting, farming, scavenging or mining asset, the percentage of which type is displayed in the apocalypse section of planet generation IIRC, the hunting and scavenging community assets are unique in that they only have a single level and they are (again IIRC) never chosen to be built by cities post-generation. Commercial zones are an asset associated with a faction reward stratagem and again are never built by cities so both not being built is intended behavior as far as I'm aware.

Having said that, the Private Economy does appear to have some odd behaviour in my game. Mostly by sitting on its money quite often, and listing the same, first Agricultural facility as "Next" for forever. Is my perception of 'odd' as easily explained from another player's perspective as OP's?

The private agricultural assets are a flat 1000 credits each level (whereas most are 500/1000/1500 for levels 1/2/3 respectively) and the third and final level of the asset takes three turns to build and requires a hefty 35000 private workers to operate, cities will always prioritise building food production assets when private food levels are at a net loss per turn so if the community only generates a tiny amount of private funds and never gets those 1000 credits together from private funds and the public investment budget they're going to get stuck aiming to builf farms.

[Don_Kiyote]

...if the community only generates a tiny amount of private funds and never gets those 1000 credits together from private funds and the public investment budget they're going to get stuck aiming to builf farms.

No, its not insufficient funds, which would make sense. I can sometimes see thousands in the Private Investment pot of a zone, around 8000 in the one zone, but no facilities have begun yet.

This opaqueness is fine for me, though. The unpredictability makes for a good part of the game. Im at turn 144, and the private economy has a proper role in the two biggest zones. Population limitations sound like a probable culprit for the third zone, where I would have otherwise expected to see something happen.

Both Labour, abundant and unattached, and Capital are needed.

[Cassini]

...if the community only generates a tiny amount of private funds and never gets those 1000 credits together from private funds and the public investment budget they're going to get stuck aiming to builf farms.

No, its not insufficient funds, which would make sense. I can sometimes see thousands in the Private Investment pot of a zone, around 8000 in the one zone, but no facilities have begun yet.

This is a problem I see often (v1.11b) I'll establish a new zone, get the government structures going (QOL), pump in colonist and workers, get 100 credits per round invested, even play the private investment card... and NOTHING. The zone will go round after round having over 11,000 available population, over 1000 credits sitting in the private AND investment 'accounts', and the program won't build a thing. Eventually, the program will build an agricultural asset - but the development of the zone is in 'stasis' until the program decides to build that first agricultural asset.

This is something that I wish would be corrected by having zone orders including a 'building queue' for private asset construction.

Have the option under zone orders to establish a queue of say 5 to 7 private assets which will be constructed once the funds are either available in the private or investment 'accounts' (program checks one for funds, then checks the other). If sufficient funds and population are available - PRESTO, asset is constructed and next item in queue is up for construction. If no item is in the queue, then the program makes the call.

This would end the long delays in a zone getting that first agricultural asset constructed, then building assets that don't match with the need of the larger 'empire' goals.

There also needs to be a 'range' option in zone orders to LIMIT THE RANGE at which private assets may be built from the city hex. This could be set at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or unlimited range as part of zone orders.

Having the program start construction on a mine at 12 hex range right next to a border with non-aligned forces is a giant PAIN. If the player sets the range option at 0 hexes, then the program would be limited to constructing assets in the city hex ONLY. Public assets could still be built 'wherever', but this 'limiter' on private asset construction would really be useful in border zones and zones with extremely large areas where the player doesn't want to incur admin strain penalties.

[Soar_Slitherine]

The private economy refusing to build that first farm is just a population issue. It not getting built when free population > the worker requirement seems to be a common cause of confusion, but the private economy simply requires a small additional population buffer on top of the building's requirement.

I doubt scavenging is meant to be part of the private economy operations, design wise. That would be bad, considering the special and unique benefits of the asset. If it happened in my game, I would have to stop it. Only one reason is that is where my artefacts come from, and only there. There is only one 'Ruins' tile in my entire territory, and the others on the planet have majors sitting on top of them. Without that single tile, there would be no regime.

What makes you think you can't get artifacts from private scavenging? Note that you only get artifacts from tiles that have an archeological find (pyramid on the map, may be discovered by random chance or by scavenging in the tile) in the first place.

[Cassini]

The private economy refusing to build that first farm is just a population issue. It not getting built when free population > the worker requirement seems to be a common cause of confusion, but the private economy simply requires a small additional population buffer on top of the building's requirement.

Would you care to enlighten us as to what exactly the requirement is?

Does the program require a 20% surplus population??? a 50% surplus population (compared to asset requirements)?

I've' had new zones where I've pumped in the required population for either a domed or open air farm and had the required credits sitting in BOTH the private account and the investment account for round after round and NOTHING happens. Then one round out of the blue an agricultural asset pops up and zone development progresses as expected. All this time, no other private assets are being built - the zone is in 'stasis' as far as development is concerned.

[Cassini]

After some experimentation with three zones where I had the issue of construction of private farming assets not beginning....

It looks like at least 3000 population over and above the amount required for full functioning of the asset is required for the program to actually initiate construction. So... 13,500 'free' population in a zone should get construction to happen every time (at least it did in the 3 zones I had that had 10,500+ free population but less than 13,500). Each of these 3 zones had over 1000 credits sitting in the private funds account ready to go.

[Don_Kiyote]

I doubt scavenging is meant to be part of the private economy operations, design wise. That would be bad...

I retract this statement. That was a long time ago. Its fine. When there is an abundance of scav sites, it will help, and when there is only one or two you can privatize the asset.

What makes you think you can't get artifacts from private scavenging?

..especially if the regime still gets the artifacts.

archeological find

I wasn't sure how the Archology part- the locating of those "ruins' hexes which have an artifact yield- was working. At one point, I played the "Archeology Push" card, and was sorely disappointed. It didn't tell me much, and the Archeology Overview tab doesn't tell you anything about how the process is progressing.

It helps to know that any artifact yield present will be discovered when a scavenging asset is constructed in the tile; then at least if not before, if I have that right.

It also seems fair to assume that, like prospecting, all finds will eventually be uncovered, and situations where you have few 'Ruins' hexes in your also territory mean whatever is there will be discovered fairly quickly. Also like prospecting, if you pass several dozen turns with just a few Ruins hexes all fully scouted long ago, and then capture one or two new ruins hexes, then those new sites will pop their discoveries almost right away, if there are any.

[Soar_Slitherine]

Ah, didn't notice this was thread necromancy from 2021.

I wasn't sure how the Archology part- the locating of those "ruins' hexes which have an artifact yield- was working. At one point, I played the "Archeology Push" card, and was sorely disappointed. It didn't tell me much, and the Archeology Overview tab doesn't tell you anything about how the process is progressing.

It helps to know that any artifact yield present will be discovered when a scavenging asset is constructed in the tile; then at least if not before, if I have that right.

It also seems fair to assume that, like prospecting, all finds will eventually be uncovered, and situations where you have few 'Ruins' hexes in your also territory mean whatever is there will be discovered fairly quickly. Also like prospecting, if you pass several dozen turns with just a few Ruins hexes all fully scouted long ago, and then capture one or two new ruins hexes, then those new sites will pop their discoveries almost right away, if there are any.

Archeology Push reveals one existing hidden archeological site within the targeted zone, if there are any. The base chance of a hidden site being discovered is 2.5% per site per turn, and there is a bonus for having scavenging/recycling active in the hex, if I remember the manual correctly.

I think archeology was originally intended to work more like prospecting, as there is/was an archeology council task in the manual, but the design was revised at some point.

[Vic]

@cassini,

If you have a save game showing this in-stasis effect of a private zone not starting private farm construction... please do send it to vic@vrdesigns.net

best wishes,
Vic