What's going wrong with my factories?

[unmerged(116276)]

Something very odd is happening. I have been expanding my steel factory, closing down my ammunition factory and small arms factory to make the workers avaliable. Anyway, I wanted to promote a grain farmer in Stockholm to a craftsman, and here's where things start going wrong...




We have 18 POP's in the factory in this (10 craftsmen and 8 clerks).




Here, I am promoting the grain farmer to be a craftsman.




And one day later 5 of my POP's have run off and completely vanished from the game! They have actually vanished- there's no option to "add" them back in the steel factory. They are gone!

I have tried reloading the autosave and doing this again, with the same result. I've also tried promoting the grain farmer at different dates, with the same result (so basically the grain farmer promotion seems to be what's causing this).

The question is- why? I cannot for the life of me think of a logcial explanation for this one.

 

[unmerged(70421)]

how big were the pops? they might have merged

 

[OHgamer]

were a lot of the POPs in the factory under 10K in size.

If so, when you convert a POP in a province from one work category to another, any "Fragment POPs" under 10K size will be automatically merged into larger POP grouping of the same culture, religion and workforce in that Province.

my guess is that you had 5 fragment POPs in the province from which you converted that farmer to craftsman, and they merged. Look at who is working in the factories and you will probably see larger POPs working than just before, all the small <10K pops have been merged into POPs of ~15 to 20K.

Hardcoded feature, nothing can be done about it other than not converting any POP in a province if you have a lot of fragment pops whose production you depend on in factories living in the same province.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

Oh right, that makes sense. I learn more about this game every day. There were indeed many POP's below 10k there.

 

[Meanmanturbo]

Oh right, that makes sense. I learn more about this game every day. There were indeed many POP's below 10k there.

All clerk and craftsmen POPs in sweden in startup are smal. To master sweden you need a black belt in POP-Fu But 80 % literacy is extreamly nice, heh, you can also quite easily generate 1,70 Rp a month by 1840....

 

[unmerged(116276)]

Well, I managed to form Scandanavia, and am currently 4th in the world, behind Germany, Britain and the USA. Alas there is little scope for building an army and stomping all over Russia to get Finland. I have concluded I probably should have built an army before the Crimean war, and went after my land then. It's probably too late now.

Got a very rich country though! Making a nice amount of money each day and I've expanded the railroads to maximum levels, and am miles ahead in technology too.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

OK, another question which relates to this game, but which I don't want to start another thread for...

What determines whether countries join alliances or not? I'm all set to attack Russia (haven't declared war yet). My badboy is 0. My relations with Germany are +196. Yet they don't want to join my alliance! I'm currently a Great Power at rank 4 (Germany is rank 1).

The only thing I can think of is Germany has claimed on two of my Danish territories. Does the AI not join alliances with those who hold onto territory it considers to be rightfully its?

I need someone to distract Russia while I snatch Finland you see...

 

[OHgamer]

sometimes different forms of govt can cause issues - if you are a Con-Mon and Germany isn't it may be less likely to form an alliance.

the core issue may be an additional problem.

You could always try to form an alliance with Britain

Or you could turn your energies to colonization rather than trying to pry Finland from the Bear's embrace

 

[unmerged(116276)]

I have no naval base near Africa, so colonisation is out of the question unfortunately. Germany did eventually ally me though, but it took a lot of attempts. Alas when we invaded Russia they signed a peace deal, which took me out of the war as well! I got one province from that war! Ohwell, I only lost a couple of thousand men (I sat on the sidelines hoping Germany and Russia would beat each other up then I could swoop down and take Finland).

I have concluded the only reasonable time to take Finland is in the Crimean war. If you don't attack when they're getting hit by Britain/France you'll never get the same chance. Even better, you don't have to join the alliance with Britain and France, just attack seperately, so you can sign a seperate peace by yourself to get the territories you want.

I don't think I'll be rank 1 in this game somehow. I'm holding steady at rank 4, but Germany and Britain have so much prestige.

 

[OHgamer]

note that if you build a naval base of high enough level, it does not have to be in Africa to initiate colonization. IIRC a level 3 or level 4 in Europe should allow you to colonize in West Africa.

One could also befriend say Britain or Portugal and purchase an island colony like say Cape Verde or St Helena

 

[unmerged(116276)]

I thought it was only location of the naval base that mattered, not the level (too much of the HoI2 still in me I think, where the size of the naval base means very little, but where it is located means everything).

I've been sat here for the past 30 years then doing not much except research/industry, when all this time I could have been building my industry!

Time to start a new game I think, and put my new found experience and knowledge into practise (UK has already taken most of Africa, we're in 1896 now).

Perhaps I could try engaging Germany in a colonial war though, their navy shouldn't be that great. If I can get a foothold there+transport loads of troops to Africa, I could then attack the UK's colonies and try and give myself a place in the sun, so to speak.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

Hmm another question. Sorry to keep asking like this guys, it's just there's quite a lot of depth to this game! :rofl:

I had assumed I was one of the most, if not the most advanced nation technologically in the world. Simple reason that I had a high literacy at the start which meant I had lots of research points. I currently have 250 research points spare. I have been reseraching something every day since the game start.

Yet when I "open negotiations" with any other Great Power, and look at what techs they have researched- all of them have researched far further down the tech line than I have! I simply do not understand how this is possible. I have a literacy value of 100%, more research points than I'll ever use and have been researching frantically all the time.

Russia starts with lower literacy. So does Prussia/Germany and France. I've never loaded up as Britain or the USA, but I'm pretty sure 80% starting literacy is the highest in the world. So this begs the question- how is it that my enemies have outteched me? I've had to buy techs off Germany at 30000 money each tech to try and get back up to speed, but they are so far ahead it's almost impossible, and it's not like I have unlimited money supplies.

Also, at the start of the game I had very few POP's. When I inherited Denmark I got some more, but...when my capitalists build factories in my provinces, workers seem to just magically appear in them. The state including Malmo now has 7 factories, working at full efficiency with maximum POP's employed, yet those POP's were never there at the games start. And it's not like they came from the RGO's- all my POP's working at the RGO's got converted into craftsmen and clerks long ago.

I never noticed this happening in a nation where I played as a state capitalist (i..e building my own factories). Do factories built by capitalists get some free workers from no where? It isn't immigration as 1) I have a really low plurality+no full citizenship party in power. I've highlighted the factories where the workers are, and most of them seem to come from Denmark. But Denmark has no spare POP's either! It is rather puzzling to say the least.

 

[TiggyFiggy]

Maybe they were tech trading with each other? Higher Literacy and RP points don't actually make research go faster, but a shortage will slow it down.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

I suppose. My point was that I was researching as fast as I possibly could have been. Must've been some pretty serious tech trading- everyone is miles ahead of me!

 

[Meanmanturbo]

I suppose. My point was that I was researching as fast as I possibly could have been. Must've been some pretty serious tech trading- everyone is miles ahead of me!

Yup, the AI trades VERY much, and the AI almost never offer techs so you have to spend the RPs. If you make RPs faster then you can use them they are wasted unles you trade for new techs.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

Yeah, I had lots of research points, and in the end did manage to catch up with them (in like 1928 lol). It was the cash that I had to spend that was a pain! Even with an alliance with Germany and +200 relations, they still wanted at least 35k money per tech!

I finished the game in fourth place in the end, miles ahead of 5th place (Japan) but way behind third place (USA). Germany took second place, and the UK got the top spot.

Going to start another game tonight. This time, actually take part in the Crimean War, then colonise, colonise, colonise!

 

[Orm]

Going to start another game tonight. This time, actually take part in the Crimean War, then colonise, colonise, colonise!

Sweden/Scandinavia can own pretty much all of Africa. A tip is to look out for uncivs closer to Africa that go bancrupt, invade and build your naval base there. Abu Dhabi is one of the usual suspects in this respect, and will also be somewhat useful later as the provinces start to produce oil.

 

[RELee]

Another small thing to remember. It won't make you a technological powerhouse versus the AI, but it can help a bit.

From VickyWiki

Countries come with a National Value. This represents the sentiment of the majority of the population, regardless of their political actions. This is the way the game reflects certain cultural determinants, such as the British and American aversions to despotism, or the German and Russian desires for a strong, central government. This is not to say that National Value does not change, but it tends to do so more through revolution than through political reforms. National Values come in three flavors: Order, Liberty, and Equality. Countries that value order will have more efficient crime fighting and military research. Societies upholding liberty will speed up non-military research, and societies valuing Equality will make social spending more effective at reducing militancy.

Concentrate your research in those areas where you can get 'em a bit cheaper, then trade for the others. It can work okay. Just be sure to remember that you can't trade your culture techs with anybody anymore. Use to be you could concentrate on researching the culture techs to get the prestige bonuses, and then trade those techs for the other techs that you ignored. They broke that little gem with 1.4 I believe.

 

[unmerged(116276)]

Zanzibar might be a good target for a naval base come to think of it. Morocco could be a could target to. Cheers for the tip about the research.

So I know for next game...towards the end of my last game a number of new products could be used (telephones, tanks, aeroplanes to name a few). Is it possible to build aeroplanes towards the end of this game? I could only ever build infantry or ships, though I did have 300 aeroplanes in my stockpile, and i believe the Germans had some primitive aircraft in WW1 they used to bomb British cities (Zepplins? I'm not too sure, I'm no expert on WW1 history, though I see to remember they were basically giant baloons).

 

[Meanmanturbo]

Zanzibar might be a good target for a naval base come to think of it. Morocco could be a could target to. Cheers for the tip about the research.

So I know for next game...towards the end of my last game a number of new products could be used (telephones, tanks, aeroplanes to name a few). Is it possible to build aeroplanes towards the end of this game? I could only ever build infantry or ships, though I did have 300 aeroplanes in my stockpile, and i believe the Germans had some primitive aircraft in WW1 they used to bomb British cities (Zepplins? I'm not too sure, I'm no expert on WW1 history, though I see to remember they were basically giant baloons).

Opening move with Sweden, dow Madagascar and Anex...dont even bother with two step since its only three provs and you will have plenty of time to lose the paltry BB...though the prestige hit might be trouble in vanilla Rev