Suggestion - SLOW POPULATION GROWTH

..The reasoning for this being. To slow down the pace of the game, lessen the morale/pop growth issue, make population growth modifiers more valueble and less of a burden, and to make invasions more costly.

What say you?

Have you tried increasing the tax rate or avoiding planetary improvements that increase population growth rate? I haven't had any problems with population growth yet.

~SDC~

I disagree. I don't think the game needs to be slowed. I haven't had trouble with the morale/pop growth issue. I don't find pop growth modifiers to be undervalued. And I think invasions are already quite costly.

- Ash

~SDC~

I disagree too. It's easily manageable as is.

~SDC~

"easily managable" by dumping people in space?!?

While I never had to do that, I did have a fleet of 25 billion soldiers in statis around my border planets.

M

""easily managable" by dumping people in space?!?"

I can't comment, as I haven't had to do that yet. Every game I've played has been over before that's become a concern. Now, I've been playing on Small galaxies, so it's quite possible my games are too short for the population to hit critical mass.

That said, I'm still not going to complain about a problem I haven't had.

- Ash

~SDC~

easilymanageable(tm) by settling planets that you can improve sufficiently to manage the pop. By taxing fairly. By social improvements. yes, by drafting a few (billion) soldiers for stand-by. By expanding into other aliens territory. By staying out of debt. By making sure you're not the target of successful destabilization.

Do you seriously need more than that?

Overpopulation has historically been a precipitator of conquest, and it is a problem that every successful empire has had to deal with.

Find a way to slow your growth or go conquer some planets!

Sounds like a band aid for the real issue. The game is supposed to be anti-micromanagement, but you end up having to micromanage something trivial as overpopulation.

I think a better solution would be to setup 'spaceliner routes' with a new type of ship, just like you setup trade routes. And have these ships automaticaly balance the population between the two systems they travel between.

~SDC~

How is it a "bandaid" for anything? The game presents you with an obstacle to overcome: overpopulation causing the average citizen to suffer. The game provides numerous tools to help you do that, and numerous ways to help you use those tools without micromanaging (governors, etc.). Seems like good design work, to me.

- Ash

~SDC~

Well I wanted to have at least one game with everything mostly done (to see what is avaible in the game and make some tests). So I am at 90 % in achieving Military / Cultural / Scientific conquest in one game.

The facts are I am the owner of something like 55 planets (average planet quality is something like 28) and most of them are completly crowded. I am not using any colony ship or transport. This said, the average morale is 80 % and I have a 80 % approval rating under Star Federation government with 26 % tax rate, spending something like 7,000 bc per turn and still winning some cash).

So all this to show you that the game IS balanced and if you are facing some difficulties due to population growth there IS a solution, even a non-military one : less taxes balanced with more trades combined with starbases with trading modules, increase research (or trade / buy them) to reach +X morale bonuses or structures that gives such bonus, and so on ...

The population issue is hard to deal with, like when you are defenseless because you focused on the social / research aspects and some decide to start a war against you. But in both case you can make it through.

~SDC~

"The facts are I am the owner of something like 55 planets (average planet quality is something like 28) and most of them are completly crowded. I am not using any colony ship or transport. This said, the average morale is 80 % and I have a 80 % approval rating under Star Federation government with 26 % tax rate, spending something like 7,000 bc per turn and still winning some cash)."

Very interesting. You're the first person I've heard actually say that overpop DOESN'T become a problem. Interesting. Thanks.

- Ash

~SDC~

How on earth are you doing this? I have a problem with severe UNDERpopulation in every game I play. I've never once been above last place in population.

Let's trade strategies or something! lol

"How on earth are you doing this? I have a problem with severe UNDERpopulation in every game I play."

High quality planets + high morale. In other words, get the planet quality upgrades ASAP, and then keep your morale high.

- Ash

~SDC~

Bugger population growth, how do I stop the Drengins?

"Bugger population growth, how do I stop the Drengins?"

I need ships. Lots of ships.

I haven't really had too much of a problem with them, actually. My last game, on Bright, saw the Drengins suffer a serious beating at the hands of the Torians.

- Ash

~SDC~

Hmm, I already made this suggestion a few days ago. Pity I didn't get the immense response that this REPOST did.

I've played several games on Gigantic - some before the game was official as a beta tester and I never had a problem with morale except on isolated planets I got sloppy with. Just go for morale improvements, habitability improvements, and adjust your tax rate as necessary. If your tax rate can't go low enough to manage your morale, you've mismanaged your economy.

Grifman

Maybe there should be a "Trojans" social project that'll slow population growth.

~SDC~

I've had over 1trillion people in my empire. It's *difficult* to keep morale high at that point, but it is possible. You need heaps of morale improving buildings, as well as a couple of morale improving resources being heavily mined.

That said, morale is a little bit overdone, in my opinion. There needs to be a couple more legitimate ways to deal with it than just building stacks and stacks of morale improving buildings.

~SDC~

That's strange, I usually go for the Population+ bonuses whenever I can.

Are you guys using propaganda - if you aren't, you're missing a good tool for controlling morale.

Grifman

yeah, but after awhile you're at 100% propaganda and it's still decreasing. then the only choice is to ship people off.

~SDC~

And if you run outa money and can't afford propaganda your morale is gunna take a hit, possibly causing the planet to revolt. So you might as well not bother with propaganda unless you accidently dropped too many colonists on a sub class 15 world.

~SDC~

I normally don't waste money on moral-social improvements on higher class planets, so I just let them grow until their moral drops beneath 50, then they stop growing, easy and saves money