                                Concept : Food

NAME
   Food - How much people eat at the update

Level: Expert

In  Empire, as in the "real" world, everyone must eat to survive, (see SPECIAL
NOTE below for the exception).  All of these  numbers  below  are  subject  to
change.   Execute  the "version" command to get some of this information.  Ask
the deity for the rest.

Each civilian or military eats 0.0005 units of food per time unit, (i.e. 0.024
units of food a "day" in non-Blitz Empire).

The ability of a sector to grow food is indicated by its "fertility".  Fertil-
ity values range from 0 to 100.

Food can be grown in any kind of sector although agribusinesses  are  able  to
grow more food with fewer workers.

Every sector produces a base level of food according to the following:

  The amount of food that the sector can grow in one time unit is:

     fertility * 0.002

  The amount of food that can be harvested in one time unit is:

     (civilians + military / 5) * 0.002

  i.e.  one  civilian can harvest four times the amount that he/she eats while
  one military can harvest 4/5 of the amount that she/he eats.

  Note that this means that although a sector with a fertility of 40 can  grow
  enough food to support 160 people at least 10 of them must be civilians.  In
  fact, any combination of civilians and military that meets the following two
  criteria will be self-sufficient:

     civilians + military <= 4 * fertility (amount that grows)

     military <= 15 * civilians (amount that gets harvested)

In  an agribusiness an additional amount of food can be grown.  That amount is
calculated by the following:

  An efficiency factor (effact) takes into account the state of repair of  the
  agribusiness  itself  (sector efficiency, effic) and the technology level of
  your farmers (the national technology level, tlev):

     effact = (effic * (tlev + 10)) / (100 * (tlev + 20))

  The amount of additional food that the sector produces in one time unit is:

     (civilians + military / 5) * effact * fertility / 1000.

  Thus, a 100% agribusiness with a fertility of 50 and an educational level of
  10  has an efficiency factor is 2/3; one civilian can harvest 0.033 units of
  food per time unit beyond the food normally produced in that  sector.   This
  extra  amount  is enough to support 33-three other people while one military
  can harvest 0.0066, enough to feed 13 other people.

  The amount of food cultivated by 10 civilians in 10 time  units  in  a  100%
  agribusiness are:

              |  EDUCATION LEVEL  |
              |  0  |  10  |  100 |
        ------+-----+------+------+
        F  10 | 0.5 | 0.67 | 0.92 |
        E  ---+-----+------+------+
        R  50 | 2.5 | 3.33 | 4.58 |
        T  ---+-----+------+------+
        . 100 | 5.0 | 6.67 | 9.17 |
        ------+-----+------+------+

  SPECIAL  NOTE: Residents of a sanctuary need no food to survive; thus no one
  ever starves in a sanctuary.

On a ship the following applies:

  The amount of food that can be produced on a fishing boat in one  time  unit
  is:

     (civil * etus * fertil) / 10000;

  However, if the NEWFISH option is in use, the limit is:

     (civil * etus * fertil) / 1000;

  The  amount  of food that can be produced on any other ship in one time unit
  is:

     0

Note that if a ship doesn't have enough food, it will try to draw it from sup-
ply sources (see info supply). If it still hasn't enough food, it will attempt
to grab unneeded food from any land units it is carrying.

Land units eat food as well, an amount based on the total number  of  military
in  the  unit  (this is the efficiency times the number of mil needed to build
the unit). If a land unit doesn't have enough food, it will  try  to  draw  it
from supply sources (see info supply). If it still doesn't have enough, and it
is on a ship, it will attempt to get food from the ship.

The presence of food also affects the birthrate in Empire; if there is no food
in  a  sector  no  babies  will be born.  A baby consumes 0.3 units of food in
growing to adulthood.  However, babies are only allowed to eat half  the  food
in  a  sector.  Thus if a sector could produce 25 new civilians but only has 2
spare units of food, (after the current  population  has  eaten),  only  three
babies will be born and one unit of food will be left.

SEE ALSO
   Innards, Populace, Update

