Water Management
Water is one of the most important factors in Agrocracy that affects plant growth. In this devlog, the water management system will be discussed.
Finding Water and Wells
Every land sits on top of a groundwater table at some depth: shallow, medium, or deep. You don't know which until you run a Geological Survey. One survey per land, permanent result.
That depth determines what kind of well you can build.
You need a well in order to have an operational irrigation system.
Shallow Well - cheap, but only reliable on shallow groundwater.
Deep Well - expensive, but guaranteed to hit water on any land. No gamble, just cost.
One functional well per land. That's the bottleneck.
This isn't how real hydrogeology works, but for the purposes of a game it creates a meaningful decision: gamble cheap or invest safe.
Soil Moisture and Water Balance
The game tracks water in the soil turn by turn. Each field has a moisture level in millimeters, capped by field capacity - how much water the soil can hold.
Drainage is a land-wide infrastructure upgrade that increases field capacity by 30%. Cheap, passive, always worth installing early.
Every turn moisture is calculated:
New Moisture = Current + Rain Infiltration + Irrigation - Evapotranspiration
Infiltration - not all rain reaches the roots. Loamy soil absorbs most of the rainfall. Sandy soil catches less than half. The rest runs off.
Evapotranspiration - water lost to air and plant activity. Scales with temperature, sunlight, and crop type. A cucumber field in July loses double what wheat loses.
Irrigation - your controlled water input from one of four systems.
How Water Affects Growth
Moisture is one of the five growth factors (alongside temperature, sunlight, day length, and soil quality).
Too dry - growth stagnates, then plants wilt. Sustained drought kills crops.
Optimal range - full growth, slight bonus at the sweet spot around 50-60% of field capacity.
Too wet - roots suffocate. Growth and health drop. Heavy rain on poorly drained soil creates this.
Combined with Liebig's Law (the worst factor limits everything), a single dry turn can undo weeks of otherwise perfect conditions.
Irrigation Systems
All systems require a working well. They can coexist on the same land.
System | Water/turn | Cost | Upkeep | Scope | Survives harvest? | Cereals | Vegetables | Fruits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pivot | 70 mm | expensive | high | land pool, toggled | yes | yes | no | no |
SDI | 45 mm | moderate | moderate | land-wide, toggled | yes | yes | yes | no |
Drip | 35 mm | cheap per ha | moderate | crop | no | no | yes | yes |
Sprinkler | 25 mm | cheap per use | low | manual, one-time | N/A | yes | yes | yes |