A couple basic questions about farming...

[ElPresidente]

A friend and I have not been able to locate the official strategy guide and were wondering about a couple of things in Tropico:

1) Should farms be centered in a good growing area, or off to the side?  Does the farm building automatically harvest in the squares it overlays or are they lost to production?  I know it's true mines should be offset to the resource squares...

2) Does food variety count for Food Happiness?  I keep hearing conflicting views on this; just eating seems to be enough to get them to 68, doing the Food Edict seems to bring it close to 99.

3) Does having farms near to Ranches help?

4) What are the harvest cycle times for the each of the crops?  I know we should be able to observe this...but it's so easy to miss in play.

Any insight into the questions here would REALLY be appreciated!:-*

[MadamPresident]

Hello.

1. They should be off to one side, they do not harvest the land under them, same as the mines.


2. Yes, food vareity counts towards this. Keep in mind fish and meat is also food here.

3. Ranches need lots of space, don't put them near farms.

4. We only know approximately. Corn is fastest, tobacco and pineapples fairly fast, sugar and coffee are slow.

Hope that helps.

M'Prez

[Coconut Kid]

1. They should be off to one side, they do not harvest the land under them, same as the mines.

Well, sort of. The building footprint is out of production, but the area which may be planted is all around it. A band five tiles wide.

3. Ranches need lots of space, don't put them near farms.

With the added 'invisible' fence, the size of the Ranch is eight tiles from the building.