How do I get faster sea ration production?

[kingofny]

I have three SR factories but the Frigate takes 40 rations!  Is there ANY way to speed this up so this powerful ship isn't waiting in port for years?!?!?!?

[Pinstar]

Extra corn farms, and have the factory near your docks. As a last resort if you have lots of cash, buy sea rations from the black market, they're cheap compared to the others

[Kaltes]

Yes, sadly you can do what I do, and rely on the black market for rations. Unfortunately the black market prices keep going up and up with no end in sight, which I think is stupid.

They should be high prices, and maybe fluctuate a little, but paying over 100 gold per sea ration eventually?? yeah right that isnt the black market, it is the 'we punish you for doing business with us' market.

[kingofny]

I also could kidnap skilled cooks, but the bottleneck occurs largely because there are only two haulers at each dock!!  What were the programmers thinking, that two are enough to fetch muskets, cannon, cutlasses AND food?!!?

[Fred Bob]

Oh, mighty King o' NY! Try some undead haulers fer yer docks an' dat goes fer de Sea Ration Factories (SRF) also! Fred Bob be a noticin' in one game dat buildin' a brewery a little too early staved de flow o' corn tew de SRF's. Although de brewery be not staffed yet, the de bulk o' de corn went there instead o' de SRF's!

[Mack the Knife]

the black market prices keep going up and up with no end in sight, which I think is stupid

no, it's not stupid, it's accurate.  as in the real world, the more you depend on them, the more they gouge you.  it is a stop gap measure, it's not intended to be an easy way out for shortfalls in other areas.  

[Olle_Petersson]

They should be high prices, and maybe fluctuate a little, but paying over 100 gold per sea ration eventually?

If you keep buying, yes! (The rule of supply and demand; raise the price until you barely manage to sell everything.)
If you don't buy on the market for a while the price should drop a bit, but I don't know if it really does.

Cheers
Olle

[Olle_Petersson]

... two are enough to fetch muskets, cannon, cutlasses AND food?!!?

So how many weapons do you lose on an average mission?

With every other (or more) haul to the dock being food you should do fine, provided you have plenty enough SRFs.

Cheers
Olle

[IamBah]

Hey, i just got this and started playing....how do you use the black market? i built one, but didn't see anywhere to purchase items off of it. Thx.

[Nena]

Click on the ship you want to stock, then click the little black mask at the bottom of the ship info screen.  Be careful what you buy, because it will let you spend more than you have and take you negative.

[IamBah]

Thx...and yeah, being in negative there isn't fun.

[hook]

Extra corn farms, and have the factory near your docks. As a last resort if you have lots of cash, buy sea rations from the black market, they're cheap compared to the others

Actually... I have found that it is better to put the sea ration factories closest to the corn farms... paired with a skeleton hauler this provides fast and consistent supply for the sea ration production.

That, in turn, means there are always rations available when the dock haulers come by... and so they get a maximum load to carry back. Also... the dock haulers have more time to get things done, as ships are out of port for long periods of time.

[Kaltes]

If the black market prices went back down after you didnt use them for a while, then yes I would like the black market system. Seriously though, that doesnt happen.

The black market is cheap at first, but the price increases endlessly and permanently. This is in no way realistic. The black market needs to command a high price for its goods in general, but not to ENDLESSLY and PERMANENTLY raise prices.

If either the prices slowly dropped over time, or a reasonable cap was put on the prices so they could never rise beyond some point (maybe between 2-10 times the starting prices) so that the black market wouldnt effectively price itself out of business. One really great way to deal with it, would be to reduce the prices over time depending on the skill levels of the merchants who work for you.

I just dont like the fact that the building becomes useless if you actually make use of it every now and then over a period of time. I understand that it works like hiring educated foreign workers in tropico 1, but you didnt have to build a building to do that, so it isnt like you needed to waste resources and a 3x3 footprint just to get an ability that later on you would never use.

Any one of a few small changes could make the black market a fun feature that has a purpose in all stages of the game, not just the beginning.

[Avon]

I think that there should be a cap, and that the price should come down over a shortish period.

It should reflect the black market. If there is demand then the price may rise some, but there is always a limit to how far it can go.

[Jolly Rodger]

the black market prices keep going up and up with no end in sight, which I think is stupid

no, it's not stupid, it's accurate.  as in the real world, the more you depend on them, the more they gouge you.  it is a stop gap measure, it's not intended to be an easy way out for shortfalls in other areas.  

It seems to me that if you use them it should indeed go up, but if you stop using them for a long enough period the prices should come back down again.  Afterall, if your totally dependant on them, then yes, they will keep gouging you everytime you  make a purchase, but if you dont purchase from them for a length of time, the prices should come down since your no longer really dependant on them.

Thats the way I look at it.

[Charlemagne]

On the black market, earlier posters are correct we intended it as a stopgap measure for the beginning of the game. So, yes, we are aware that the prices get too high if you keep using it.

Getting enough sea rations for the large ships is mainly a matter of island organization as hook said earlier. Multiple ration factories may, of course, be necessary. But the main thing is planning the chain from farm, to factory, to dock.

Skeleton haulers at the docks are very very useful once you get the larger ships built. Alos keep the ration factories near the corn and make sure you are making sufficient corn on the island so that haulers from the factories are not waiting for the new crops to come in. Whenever they go to a farm there should be corn waiting. If not build another farm.

[beeman5]

In my first island I had this problem too, but on my new island it has been solved.

Build corn farms for each building that needs it. Now I have like 160 rations waiting at the SRF  

So for each building that needs corn, build a corn farm. The same goes with the papayas and bananas.

[Jebus]

The same goes with the papayas and bananas

Speaking of papayas and bananas, does the bakery need both of them to produce pasteries, or can it produce pasteries from just papayas or just bananas?

[Mack the Knife]

one of each.  bottom of page 36

[kingofny]

So for each building that needs corn, build a corn farm. The same goes with the papayas and bananas

Wow, how many SRF's, breweries and slop shacks do you have???

I have 2 bakeries, 2 banana farms and 2 papaya farms, plus about half a dozen smugglers dives who serve those fruits directly - and I still have a backlog of fruit.  The bakeries have at least one skilled cook in each.

The problem lies in that with one hauler for each building and that they can take a relatively small amount per haul.  The farms produce enough but the hauler can't haul it away fast enough.

[beeman5]

I just have 1 SRF. I have 3 Smuggler's Dives, 4 Papaya and 4 Banana Farms with 1 Bakery. I then have 3 or 4 Chuck Tents and like 5-7 Corn Farms.

It is very nice actually  

[Coconut Kid]

On the black market, earlier posters are correct we intended it as a stopgap measure for the beginning of the game. So, yes, we are aware that the prices get too high if you keep using it. [Duh! Too high prices = overuse of a stopgap!]

Getting enough sea rations [to the dock] for the large ships is mainly a matter of island organization as hook said earlier. Multiple ration factories may, of course, be necessary. But the main thing is planning the chain from farm, to factory, to dock.

Skeleton haulers at the docks are very very useful once you get the larger ships built. Also keep the ration factories near the corn and make sure you are making sufficient corn on the island so that haulers from the factories are not waiting for the new crops to come in. Whenever they go to a farm there should be corn waiting. If not build another farm.

Typically, the thread wobbled around the real question. Additionally the poster didn't look at his real problem. It was rations at the dock -- not necessarily production.

The developer revealed some, but was more focused on simply clarifying what should have been obvious. What he should\could have stated is how the dock haulers are dispatched.

They are tasked with maintaining a set level of stock of all of the different goods needed to provision any ship that ties-up. So they respond to a matrix of immediate dock needs and various sources output of goods available at the time they are dispatched to pickup and return goods.

The point is, the player can't focus on just one item because SFAIK he can't directly set priorites among the goods. I think the game ideal is to have each dock fully stocked with all goods when a ship ties-up so that the player can concentrate on selecting the crew.

In some ways it is an early game issue -- that is, a problem before all the essential factories are in production.