Plantation Profits
[startclear] [postad]In Tropico 5 plantation, or farm profit is based on effectiveness. Effectiveness is modified by 4 factors
- Location: If you place the farm on a dark green spot then it’s location bonus is increased with up to +45.
- Fields: If you place building overlapping with fields then the location will be penalized.
- Workers: For each missing worker the effectiveness will be penalized
- Upgrades: Some upgrades provide additional effectiveness
Summary: you generally want a fully staffed farm on a dark green spot with all fields unobstructed.
[stopclear]Disclaimer
The following graphs are based on plantations with an effectiveness of exactly 100. Usually a proper placed plantation will have 140+ effectiveness. Therefore generally you can expect more income for each crop type.
Agricultural Plantation profits
Tropicans need food right? Let’s see how El Presidente’s farms are comparing:
Obviously Corn is the most cost efficient way to produce food. With 8 workers producing 400 corn. You can double this with the $2000 Selective Breeding upgrade. But would you like to eat corn every day? Neither do your tropicans… From the Bananas and Pineapples alternatives the Pineapples will provide best best profit.
Plantation moneymaking
Who said plantations are only a source of food? I bet it was Penultimo. Anyway, they are an important source of income, especially early game!
Basically this graph should tell you that your first plantation should be a cotton plantation. If you have enough “dark green” spots then build another one. When you run out of optimal spots just switch to Cocoa or Coffee.
Importance of high effectiveness
Profit increases more quickly than expected. Let’s take a look at a 250 cotton producing farm at different effectiveness levels:
Cotton 250 x 1300 unit price / 1000 units – 50 budget = 275 profit.
Cotton 362,5 x 1300 unit price / 1000 units – 50 budget = 421,25 profit.
If we compare 275 with 421,25 we notice a 53% increase in profit from a 45% increase in effectiveness. This can be explained by the budget being unchanged while the income increases. Hence the costs are spread over more products.
That is it for now! Want to know other stuff? Feel free to ask in the comments!
