Infrastructure
Infrastructure simulates the expense of moving goods over land and establishing the essential groundwork for large-scale industrialization.
To industrialize a region, it’s not just about constructing heavy industries and having available workers. Players must also guarantee adequate infrastructure to sustain these industries.
This ties into various mechanics like market access, military logistics, migration, and more.
Infrastructure and market access on the state overview screen.
Infrastructure Sources
Infrastructure is provided and modified by numerous sources.
State Traits:
States in the game possess varying levels of infrastructure, influenced by the technology level of the owning country and its incorporation status. Geography is represented by state traits, which significantly impact infrastructure. These traits offer bonuses or penalties based on geographical features like rivers, affecting resource production or modifying infrastructure. For instance, states with rivers receive a substantial infrastructure boost, making them ideal for early industrialization.
Short-Term Strategies:
Short-term solutions, like implementing road maintenance decrees to prevent road decay, exist. However, these alone are insufficient for extensive industrialization.
Railways:
The size of a nation’s railway network is paramount in the game. Railways produce transportation, a commodity sold to the populace, and serve as the primary infrastructure source. Railways must connect to the market capital or an exit port leading to it to be useful. Consequently, a railway’s infrastructure contribution is limited by the best adjacent railway linking it to the market capital.
Railways entail costs, requiring both workers and resources like coal and engines. Advancements like diesel trains and electricity improve railway efficiency, reducing the required infrastructure levels to support buildings.
Infrastructure Usage
Infrastructure usage in a state depends on its building types and levels. Urban and specialized buildings use more infrastructure per level. For instance, heavy industry buildings like chemical industries use much more infrastructure compared to basic farm buildings.
Subsistence farms and urban centers don’t consume infrastructure. Subsistence farms mainly produce for domestic use, while urban centers balance the infrastructure they provide with what they require.
Market Access
Market access relies on two state values: infrastructure and infrastructure usage. When infrastructure exceeds or equals usage, market access remains at 100%. However, if usage surpasses available infrastructure, market access decreases proportionally. For example, if a state’s infrastructure is 45 and usage is 90, its market access drops to 50%.
Low market access prevents full integration of the local market into the national one, causing price imbalances due to local over or undersupply of goods. For instance, if an iron mining state loses market access, iron prices rise due to undersupply elsewhere, while they drop locally due to oversupply.
Adequate market access is crucial for producing complex goods, enabling sourcing of input goods from other states and reaching a large enough population capable of affording them.
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