Colonizing too rapidly ...

Elowan · #1 September 14th, 2002, 06:47 PM

Is that possible? By that I mean - is it possible to deplete your 'parent' planet's population to a level so as to adversely affect production and/or research rates if you send out a 'sh-tload' of colony ships too quickly?

Has anyone done a test to determine the percentage population ratio to change in the rate of production/research?

The same question also pertains to transporting pop to newly established colonies. It seems to me that it would be possible to shoot one's self in the foot here.

[ September 14, 2002, 17:48: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Gandalph · #2 September 14th, 2002, 06:59 PM

If you look for "Pop Modifier" in settings.txt, you will see the default percentage modifiers based on populaiton level.

Arkcon · #3 September 14th, 2002, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Elowan:
Is that possible? By that I mean - is it possible to deplete your 'parent' planet's population to a level so as to adversely affect production and/or research rates if you send out a 'sh-tload' of colony ships too quickly?

Has anyone done a test to determine the percentage population ratio to change in the rate of production/research?

The same question also pertains to transporting pop to newly established colonies. It seems to me that it would be possible to shoot one's self in the foot here.

#1 - colonizing - that doesn't happen too often, wars start, borders get defined, etc. Early on colonizers don't hold much population. Think about it, you've tweaked the design and your const. bonus to let you build a colonizer a turn (or 2 or 3). If you beat the population down, you'll notice it takes longer to build. And you'll stop building them there.

#2 - transports - that happens often, if you use the minister or leave a transport on automatic. You dont want to spread yourself too thin. But your first major research planet, intel planet, or a shipyard planet close to your border all need a performance boost. But your homeworld's production is important in the early game too. I would never empty it of population to the point that it didn't have (at least)a small bonus. Unless I found a larger, better world. Your mileage may vary.

[ September 14, 2002, 18:02: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Ragnarok · #4 September 14th, 2002, 08:01 PM

It is possible to deplete the population on your home world. I've found if you build a colony ship on like a LC hull, and put more then 1 cargo container. Then you slowly start losing population on your home planet. If, however, you only use 1 cargo pod then you shouldn't lose population. I was putting out colony ships every turn at one of my home worlds once and each one had 1 cargo pod on it and the population never really suffered that much. So it depends on if you have a bunch of cargo pods or are useing transports alot.

Elowan · #5 September 14th, 2002, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arkcon:
But your first major research planet, intel planet, or a shipyard planet ...

This comment intrugues me - I've been building all normal atmosphere planets with a mix of resource and research facilities. The only time I've used 'all research' is on (rare) low resource planets.

Tell me what your philsophy is, plz.

Elowan · #6 September 14th, 2002, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
So it depends on if you have a bunch of cargo pods or are useing transports alot.

That's the problem - I transport pop using a stuffed small transport (300kt) which holds a lot of pop.

[ September 14, 2002, 19:23: Message edited by: Elowan ]

Arkcon · #7 September 14th, 2002, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Elowan:

quote:
Originally posted by Arkcon:
But your first major research planet, intel planet, or a shipyard planet ...

This comment intrugues me - I've been building all normal atmosphere planets with a mix of resource and research facilities. The only time I've used 'all research' is on (rare) low resource planets.

Tell me what your philsophy is, plz.

Hmmm ... well, if a breathable planet is below 90 % in all resources, then do you really build rescource extractors. I don't. Probably should, if I was running low, but I just build fewer ships. Or take someone else's planet.

I like to try to get at least 9 research or intel facilities on one planet when I build the computer complex 1 it can actually provide a benefit.

You can see the way the AI builds facilities on small planets, few resource facilities then one research or intel. There's something to be said for not putting all your eggs in one basket, so spreading out facilities is also a good idea. But then there's less benefit from Computers, at least early on.

Arkcon · #8 September 14th, 2002, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Elowan:

quote:
Originally posted by Ragnarok:
So it depends on if you have a bunch of cargo pods or are useing transports alot.

That's the problem - I transport pop using a stuffed small transport (300kt) which holds a lot of pop.

In SJ's homecoming scenario, you can see his method. A frigate, with cargo bays, the School Bus class. Set that on automaticly schuffling population around, not the Large Transport with Cargo III's

Suicide Junkie · #9 September 15th, 2002, 05:29 AM

Are you sure?

My Bus class ships are usually small transports with cargo I's. They are typically leftovers from the first year of play, and only upgraded with reduced maintenance components as tech improves.

When playing that Scenario, I built beastly Large transports with max cargo, and managed to pull out only about 4 billion of my population (out of a maxxed-out system full of breathables, IIRC) in the three years allotted.

I should try to make another scenario similar to that one in Gold P&N v3.1 sometime...

Skulky · #10 September 15th, 2002, 05:38 AM

I thought i was able to pull out all of them (except 1 m per place to max production) i still haven't won yet though.

EDIT: I have an idea for doing a scenario. I have a game that is a medium galaxy but where the empire has expanded through the whole place except for 2 neutrals that are cut off with warp cutters, also one more in common space, i was thinking of building up the big empire (which has like 3 ring worlds and a sphere already) and then seeing if the little guys can take it down

Also have the big one be really dumb, like write the stupidest AI scripting ever that utilizes brute force and tries to mimic a dying empire (I would have to get some help with this). So yeah, im just working on it now, kinda expanding the big one.

An alternate idea would be to use a super large galaxy and have the super empire in the middle (probably use cluster or semi-cluster) and then do a Foundation and Empire (mod too, where Empire gets massive everything but is also super inefficent and then Foundation gets ****ty *** worlds but also gets more efficient everything) and then add in Gaia of course! and the 2nd Foundation (range 20 mind controllers! and the computer would be called like mind stopper dealio)

[ September 15, 2002, 04:44: Message edited by: Skulky ]