Pupulation in Wartime- Post here, Better one :)

from Stardock Forums
While billions upons billions of precious taxpayers are hauled off to fight, and be killed by, mobs of smelly arabs, oops, I mean aliens, just so their leader(that would be me) can use the planet's resources sounds cool, there is one tiny problem. POPULATION. As I went into a limited expansion phase to punish some of my neighbors, my population went down quite a bit, and the amount at the new planets isn't inspiring much, either. Please, I have Aphrodisiac, but are there any other ways to boost population?
Is it based soloely on morale, or are there other factors involved? So would a 100 morale planet with a really high tax rate be any less, shall we say, fertile (or eager to register), than one that has low morale and low taxes. I have a vague understanding of the differences between REAL growth (babies) and REPORTED growth, but in this two I have a question. Do more people report because their morale is high, or because of the tax levels.

Finally, for all you veterans out there(I'm something of a noob myself-difficulty:challenging), how do you conquer huge swaths of the galazy without destroying your population, and/or the planets you counquer with all those difty mass drivers and tidal waves? How do you launch a population boom? This last statement, I think, pretty much sums up my whole question.

Thank You
(and I'd love it if Frogboy replied cause I think he's the coolest ;)) :)
322 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
A given planet's population size is based on its class and morale. Planet Quality and Morale bonuses increase the population's size; Aphrodisiac just increases the rate at which it grows. Also, don't worry about morale unless it goes under 50% (a common newbie misconception is that any morale under 100% is bad, when the manual says otherwise). Taxes and morale are inversely proportional (supply-side economics).

Have you tried using cultural influence to subvert enemy (and ally) populations? It takes a little more time than conquering, but you don't have to sacrifice your population. A common (and some say "cheesy") tactic for making conquest easier is to send each transport into the system one at a time and use those tactics to reduce the population. The thing is, you have to LOSE with those tactics, and then invade with Traditional Warfare (damage to planet quality and improvements only occur if the invasion with the tactic succeds).
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Citizen Nyghtfyr on 5/9/2003 at 12:45:45 PM quipped,

/QUOTE ON

You're not going to win any cultural victories calling arabs smelly.

/QUOTE OFF

So true. LOL!!

Elrikk



~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually, I've won quite a few wars when my enemies' planets defected to my side, causing them to sue for peace (or one case where I took the last planet).
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
This reminds me of a bug that I keep forgetting to
mention.

If you use tidal disrupters/massdrivers etc, the
negative effects of these things are not felt if you
lose the combat. Now that I think about it, maybe this
isnt a bug, as you could destroy a system pretty
easily with just one pop.

Anyway, ive noticed if I lose with massdrivers
and then win with traditional, the planet suffers
no negative side effects. A pretty cheesy tactic,
maybe they could apply the negative effects of the
attack type when you lose based on the ratio of
population killed. If you kill off 50% of the
population, then 50% of the negative effects are
applied.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
How do you get planets to convert to your side?
End of quote


You need Influence, lots of it. It comes from stars, your population and contact with the major races. Yellow stars give off 10, purple give 20, and all others give off none (this is before population). I think the population is based on how many billion people are in the system, rounded up. You add up that and add in the influence modifiers from buildings, your empire's Influence rating and how many major races you have met (how can you influence people you've never met?). That's just the influence rating of one system.

Now it gets more complicated. For sectors you have stars in or next to, the influence rating there is five times the influence of your stars in the sector (after starbase influence bonus) plus the influence of all the stars in adjacent sectors (with their starbase bonuses). For all other sectors, you take the influence of the closest sector with a star you control, and apply a modifier to it based on how many sectors away it is (or the average of that and the nearest starbase if smaller). You can see the influence ratings of any sector by looking at it on the galaxy map and clicking the button of a diamond and four triangles next to the sector number.

Once you've got the highest influence of a sector with an enemy system, you're half-way there. As the gap between your influence and theirs widens, the system has to make resistance rolls. The bigger the difference in influence, the harder the rolls. Once it fails one roll, it gets a skull and crossbones marker. If it fails two rolls after that, it defects to your side. If one of your systems gets a skull marker, increase your influence until you reach the difference point where it goes away (approx. 200 points difference).