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Post by abysmal on May 12, 2015 14:50:06 GMT -5
When checking the Colonies' Population, I like that it is red when I'm about to get another point in population, but can we get a thing that tells us when it is green when we can expect more population? This is a feature that when playing Civ 4 I used quite a bit.
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Post by Cory Trese on May 12, 2015 14:51:36 GMT -5
Maybe! How would it work / what would it do?
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Post by abysmal on May 12, 2015 15:06:54 GMT -5
Well, I think it's obvious that when the population bar is red, you are about to get a point of Population.
What I propose is that in the Population bar, or next to it, a number shows that indicates how many turns it could be at the most before we can see population go up; on the other hand it could be a percentage that shows the odds of population increasing on a per turn basis.
If you tap on the Population bar, the next screen (I propose) tells you what conditions are influencing this so that if you need population to spread or slow on a colony, you can sort of take action respectively.
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Post by anrdaemon on May 12, 2015 15:24:15 GMT -5
The population bar is red when it is x-1/x population.
So far, it seems to population arrives randomly, I could get a streak of population growth on a freshly colonized world, that put the building queue back by tens of turns.
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Post by tenbsmith on May 12, 2015 15:35:46 GMT -5
Hmmm, some indicator of when population growth would happen would make it easier to manage.
OTOH, I thought the random nature of population growth was an intentional design element to make the game more challenging. And, that random population growth was due primarily to emigrating star traders just showing up at a planet unannounced and settling there.
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Post by anrdaemon on May 12, 2015 19:53:59 GMT -5
If anything it changes is making a game more frustrating.
An effect you can't control, can't predict and unable to contain or othervise manipulate - it is just plain bad design.
In other games, the population growth is either finite or transferable, in one way or another. The cost of such action are different, but the point is, you have more options at your disposal, than to helplessly watch the process.
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Post by fallen on May 12, 2015 20:55:53 GMT -5
anrdaemon - thanks! It's great how much positive energy you can bring to a discussion  tenbsmith - one of the main sources of population growth is the unpredictable arrival of new Star Traders who are coming to the call of your civ's beacon. abysmal - just confirming that the coloration on the Population bar is a warning sign of "need more housing." It changes from green (safe margin) to orange (warning) to red (overflow!) as your population / housing fluctuates.
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Post by abysmal on May 13, 2015 5:50:57 GMT -5
Ah... Then my request is simply to add an indicator of when to expect population increase. Being the all-knowing Leader, we need to know about when population will increase.
Sent from my 0PCV1 using proboards
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Post by tenbsmith on May 13, 2015 9:56:33 GMT -5
Most 4x games provide more predictable/controllable population growth, so the random population growth element in ST4X can frustrate players and feel almost punitive (I've seen other posts on this topic). This is especially true when the player doesn't understand the reason for unexpected growth--emigrating Star Traders.
I think both frustration and lack of understanding of the reason for unexpected growth could be addressed by providing a notification on the Turn Events screen 1-3 turns prior to population growth. It might read something like this:
"A convoy of Star Traders emigrating from the galactic core will arrive at [system name] in [X] turns, leading to an increase population."
It also makes sense that the "convoy" of emigres would be detected a turn or two before making landfall.
Another wish list thing in the area of population might be new research-able tech that would allow you to move population from one system to another. This might take the form of a one-time emigration event (similar to spice festival). It might be expensive and cost a bunch of CP because its not easy to convince large numbers of people to emigrate. It might be restricted to only emigrating to the same house/clan/syndicate. It might affect or be affected by morale.
It seems Abysmal's request for a notification might not be that difficult to implement. My suggestions seems more difficult and more likely to affect overall game balance.
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Post by fallen on May 13, 2015 11:23:08 GMT -5
tenbsmith - thanks for the feedback. We will work on improving the turn event messages to help share the realities of population growth. We have treaties that could help manage / push population on our long-term roadmap, so we look forward to seeing those.
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Post by tenbsmith on May 13, 2015 14:28:17 GMT -5
I'll be curious to hear more about the treaty idea when it's convenient for y'all. I wonder if it would allow you to decrease population on in one specific system.
I'm imagining a project that builds a one-use "Emigration" ship. The Emigration ship subtracts population from the system on which it's built. It can only land on a colonized system where population is increased by the same amount subtracted from the colony of origin. The emigration ship doesn't provide any infrastructure on the landing colony. After landing it disappears, like a colony ship.
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Post by fallen on May 13, 2015 14:44:30 GMT -5
I'll be curious to hear more about the treaty idea when it's convenient for y'all. I wonder if it would allow you to decrease population on in one specific system. I'm imagining a project that builds a one-use "Emigration" ship. The Emigration ship subtracts population from the system on which it's built. It can only land on a colonized system where population is increased by the same amount subtracted from the colony of origin. The emigration ship doesn't provide any infrastructure on the landing colony. After landing it disappears, like a colony ship. The treaty will help you balance population among systems, pushing for equilibrium. Ships moving population around is something I think we are very unlikely to add. It is not the type of empire management that fits into the system & political systems of 4X Empires. A political treaty is more in line with the game's system. |
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Post by tenbsmith on May 13, 2015 14:49:00 GMT -5
Sounds good, stick with your vision. You don't want to just blindly follow all the conventional 4X mechanisms, using treaties to manage population would be different and interesting.
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sheff
Star Hero
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 503 
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Post by sheff on May 14, 2015 0:03:06 GMT -5
I'll be curious to hear more about the treaty idea when it's convenient for y'all. I wonder if it would allow you to decrease population on in one specific system. I'm imagining a project that builds a one-use "Emigration" ship. The Emigration ship subtracts population from the system on which it's built. It can only land on a colonized system where population is increased by the same amount subtracted from the colony of origin. The emigration ship doesn't provide any infrastructure on the landing colony. After landing it disappears, like a colony ship. The treaty will help you balance population among systems, pushing for equilibrium. Ships moving population around is something I think we are very unlikely to add. It is not the type of empire management that fits into the system & political systems of 4X Empires. A political treaty is more in line with the game's system. That would make sense. An emigrant ship would only work within a faction anyway. Hard to see one faction shipping out a bunch of people, "Hey there buddy, could you just take these perfectly innocent rival citizens into your society? They'll be no trouble, scout's honor". Even within a faction though, each factions internal politics are different. It wouldn't match the universe's characters very well. Maybe as a faction specific ability though... |
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Post by CdrPlatypus on May 14, 2015 2:06:56 GMT -5
How about a sex ed and free condoms event to slow population growth?
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