Mechanics Behind Population Growth

[Vhorthex]

Greetings fellow armchair... warlocks,

I'm trying to figure out what are the key factors that impact population in warlock.

The manual has nothing about this. Wonder if there are some supuru number crunchers out there that figure it out yet?

Thanks,

[Gaizokubanou]

I'm sure that it's fixed growth (as in first increase is always 4 turns, second is always 6, etc. and I just made those two numbers up btw) with modifiers available through spell casting and curses.

[TeKilla]

*push* info about this would be very helpful.
what i kinda figured out (not sure if it really works like this): when your city has city borders (wether friend or foe) on all adjacent hexes to its own borders its population growth stagnates (i have +33 population growth on one city)
another question about population: when a city gets sacked, how much population / how much levels does the city loose?

[Fillmore]

If your overall food production is negative then it will severely impact population growth for all cities; having negative food for just the city but overll positive food for the empire does not seem to adversely affect growth. Also, having positive food does not seem to help.

Keep in mind that you can mouse-over the growth info and it will give you a breakdown of the modifiers (base growth and starvation are the only modifiers I have seen so far).

[Sammual]

I would also like this info.

[extremities]

There is a base growth, which is # of new resident per turn. When the population goes up by 1000, the city size increases. The base growth is different for different city sizes--generally, the larger the city, the lower the base growth will be. Very large cities have negative base growth, and can only be achieved/sustained by modifiers. Growth can be modified negatively by starvation (ie, negative food for the empire as a whole), but not by surplus food. Note that it is only modified by the numbers for the whole empire, not the individual city. It can also be modified positively by spells: one available to all that increases it by 40/turn, at least one other from divine favor that increases by 60/turn IIRC. I don't know of any other factors, but there might be a few so keep looking.

[Talq]

There is a base growth, which is # of new resident per turn. When the population goes up by 1000, the city size increases. The base growth is different for different city sizes--generally, the larger the city, the lower the base growth will be. Very large cities have negative base growth, and can only be achieved/sustained by modifiers. Growth can be modified negatively by starvation (ie, negative food for the empire as a whole), but not by surplus food. Note that it is only modified by the numbers for the whole empire, not the individual city. It can also be modified positively by spells: one available to all that increases it by 40/turn, at least one other from divine favor that increases by 60/turn IIRC. I don't know of any other factors, but there might be a few so keep looking.

That's most of it. 'Natural' (or base) population growth is some form of decay function, as population increases, it decreases. Also different race than your capital reduces population growth by 50/turn

Also having forts or magic forts destroyed reduces population (I haven't had it done to me, but from it happening to the AI it falls by about 1000), and the city being captured reduces population by about a third (again this is from what happens to AI cities).

[The Apprentice]

I didn't know about the Fort situation- I'll watch out for it now. Oddly enough, I have conquered cities and NOT had the population decrease. Other times, the city population has been halved (from 8 to 4 in one instance). The culture radius has always stayed the same for me, however.

[Pu239]

Natural growth is 215 - (current population * .015). extremities mentioned maintaining growth through positive modifiers. The only one I've seen so far is the spell Prosperity which adds 40 to growth. What other growth boosters have you guys encountered?

[Bored Peon]

Having a city that is not your starting race is an automatic -50% growth.

Something does change the variance of growth city to city and not just the size. Food production does not seme to change anything, but I think the improvements (ie farm, granary, mill, etc) might have a set increase?

I also think whether the city itself has positive or negative food production seems to make a diference. Last game I played I kept cities in the positive food and they seemed to grow faster than the city I paid no attention to food production when building.

[The Apprentice]

If you have Agralea's (sp?) favor, you can research a divine population spell booster. I don't recall the name off hand, but the spell is both more effective and cheaper than Prosperity.

[Bored Peon]

Another thing, I have not figured out how to do this. One of the games I played I saw an AI city with FOUR prosperity buffs on it. How this was done I have no idea. Only thing I can think of is if an allied AI casted it as well?

[The Apprentice]

Are you saying that because the spell icons for the buffs were identical? In the initial release version, all city buffs had the same spell icon (Manaspring, Prosperity, Harvest Blessing all had the frond thing). After the patch, some new icons were added. If it was pre-patch, the AI probably didn't have identical buffs cast on the city.

[Dagda]

I can't put into words how much I hate fixed growth. Dumbing down things to make it simple is one thing; dumbing down that things that negatively affect gameplay is another thing entirely and is in no way fun.

[Pax Empyrean]

Having a city that is not your starting race is an automatic -50% growth.

It's -50 people per turn, not -50%.

[Talq]

Natural growth is 215 - (current population * .015). extremities mentioned maintaining growth through positive modifiers. The only one I've seen so far is the spell Prosperity which adds 40 to growth. What other growth boosters have you guys encountered?

So it is - nicely done.

As others have mentioned Blessing of life (Agrela divine spell) adds +65.

[TeKilla]

Natural growth is 215 - (current population * .015). extremities mentioned maintaining growth through positive modifiers. The only one I've seen so far is the spell Prosperity which adds 40 to growth. What other growth boosters have you guys encountered?

that would mean that the natural growth of a city with 1434 inhabitants is zero.
my level 9 city with 9263 inhabitants has a natural growth of 76.1
215 - 0.15*x = 76.1
=> x = 926
i think that you forgot a zero?
with 215 - (current population * 0.015) it works

[gliomarto]

that would mean that the natural growth of a city with 1434 inhabitants is zero.
my level 9 city with 9263 inhabitants has a natural growth of 76.1
215 - 0.15*x = 76.1
=> x = 926
i think that you forgot a zero?
with 215 - (current population * 0.015) it works

.015=0.015!=0.15

[TeKilla]

lol i read it 3 times coz i was thinking: maybe i read it wrong. still always read 0.15 and not .015, lol. sorry xD

[Grubnessul]

Are you saying that because the spell icons for the buffs were identical? In the initial release version, all city buffs had the same spell icon (Manaspring, Prosperity, Harvest Blessing all had the frond thing). After the patch, some new icons were added. If it was pre-patch, the AI probably didn't have identical buffs cast on the city.

Where can you see what buffs a city has?