Population Troubles

Do you try to stay at 100% morale?

You need morale boosters and reasonable taxes to keep your population growing.

Think of population growing in steps. It grows until it reaches a sort of plateau then you boost morale so it grows to a new plateau. (It reaches a plateau because the extra population makes morale decline.)

The population growth just makes it faster to get to the new plateau or population limit. It does not increase the maximum possible population.

I probably haven't put this very well but perhaps: "you know what I mean".

Also population grows depending on how much population you hace a planet with 40 people will grow at a much slower rate then a population of 400. To stay on even ground always try to colonize planets with around 300-400 people this will keep your growth up and not bog you down with planets that grow at a slow rate. Also if you are growing slowy just to some population movement and take people from populos planets and move them to planets with few people.

~SDC~

Blurgh - advice on this thread is hard to take.
population increase = (roughly) current population * (1+ pop growth multipier) * multiplier for morale
You get 1.03 for morale 54-99 and 1.06 for morale 100. So morale 100 = greater pop growth.

NB: Morale is greatly affected by the pop-for-pq effect (people like wide open spaces and resent overcrowding), hence the better your PQ, the higher pop you can support at reasonable morale. Hence, contrary to everyones initial thoughts on this subject, I do NOT advocate widespread building of morale improvers - they are too expensive - Increase PQ. (ie, since your are probably already getting soil, also take habitat.)

Comment: the ONLY thing you can effect which directly affect pop-actually-on-the-planet is the tax rate.
The ONLY things you can effect with effect pop-growth are morale and the pop growth multiplier (some techs refer)
Lots of things effect morale.

Last words: as I said in the latest version of the manual (ver 0.99.010), take starting bonuses to help with whatever your play methodology leaves lacking - in your case, take a pop growth multiplier.
[Message Edited]

Yeah, I wasn't aware of what a huge difference in pop. growth a 100 morale makes. Since learning about this I've kept my morale much higher than before and been relatively successful.

~SDC~

I have a question about population. What is it good for? I read that pq is the only factor that affects the amount of money a planet generates. And, just because a planet can potentially produce more doesn't mean it will, does it? I mean, if I am at 30% spending and increase the potential production, I am still restricted by the 30%, correct? Also, the research labs give +25% research. Does this extra research cost any money?

Thanks

Rob

The 30% spending means you're using 30% of your production capacity (not spending 30% of your income).

Research and production bonuses are somewhat complicated. My understanding is this:
If it's a research bonus from a starbase on a research resource: 2/3rds of the bonus is given to you as "free" production (you don't have to pay for it as normal), you have to pay for the other 1/3rd.
If it's a starbase production bonus or a production/research bonus from a planetary improvement: 1/3rd is free, 2/3rds have to be paid for.
If it's a bonus you're getting from a government or race pick, none of it is free.

I don't know what happens with the empire-wide bonuses from techs.

Also, there's a point where the sector-wide starbase bonuses to production get "heavily" penalized... but that and most of this is in the undocumented features bit on economics in the encyclopedia on this site, which I probably should have pointed you at instead of rambling on

Oh, population has an effect on the production of a planet (the taxes too, right?) ... just look at your first planet's production and stuff, then launch 90% of the population in a colony ship, and look at the numbers again.

Population increases production and taxes both, but PQ caps out taxes very quickly--to the point that, actually, it's PQ that determines taxes. PQ limits production, too, but the cap is so high (10x PQ) that population is really the limiting factor.

That's why trade is so important--because the industrial cap is 10X PQ but the economy cap is only 4X. You have to find some way to fund that last 6X.

#7/#8/#9 - right on! Also: true to say PQ more important that pop for revenue AT THE START OF THE GAME. By the late game, POP is far more important. (But of course the amount of pop is closely related to PQ...)

BTW, don't bother with the encylopedia thing on the 'undocumented economics' - its absorbed into ver 0.99.010 of the manual with lots of expansion.

Frogboy had to retrain me to not talk or think about "potential production" - no such beast in GalCiv. If you are on 30%, with spending even, we get 30% of the cash-generated on the planet (in billions of credits), divide it evenly, and then in each bucket of spending multiply by relevent bonuses etc to come up with the total production (in industrial units), and also calculate the total cost for that production (in billions of credits). Then we add up the total costs, and add it to the expenses for the planet.

[So all cash from trade and tribute goes in the galactic bucket to pay for planets spending more than they raise. It doesn't affect production on the planet receiving the trade, for example.]

Hmm - I'm gonna steal some words from this thread for the next manual rev...

~SDC~