[MIGRATION] A complete overhaul

[MichaelJanuary]

In the past, we had pops physically migrating between planets. Currently we have a modifier to pop growth.

I much prefer the former model, where pops migrated based on their circumstance.

A - MIGRATING POPS
1. Unemployed or very unhappy pops flag themselves as 'considering migration'.
2. After 3 to 6 months, if no job materializes, or happiness doesnt improve, the pop flags themselves as 'actively seeking migration'. Only if more pops than lower limit for planet, or migration allowed policy.
3. The pop will only migrate if an active opportunity presents itself, see immigration.
4. When a pop migrates, all other pops on the planet have their migration status reset.
5. Players can encourage or discourage migration through policies and decisions.
6. Well managed planets will therefore see lower migration than poorly managed planets (crime, stability, hab).

B - IMMIGRATION and MIGRATION OPPORTUNITIES
1. A planet can actively create a migration opportunity by having open jobs, and a migration allowed policy.
2. The cost of migration can be drawn from the sector budget or stockpile.
3. Thus immigration will be limited by available jobs and budget.
4. Players can encourage migration to specific planets by decisions (consumer goods, food, credits) or even opening the planet to immigration regardless of available jobs. (Decision to creates x temp jobs, which expire after 12 to 24 months).

C - MONTHLY ALGORITHM
1. If migration opportunities > 0 and migrating pops > 0
2. Select all migrating pops, sorted in descending order of planet stability, pop happiness.
3. For each pop in Migrating list
- - - select the best opportunity (policy + job + jobtype + housing + decisions + hab) weighted appropriately.
- - - move the pop to destination planet, and close the opportunity.
- - - Remove all other pops from source planet from the migration list.
- - - Reset migration status for remaining pops on the source planet.


This way, only 1 pop can migrate at a time, with unstable planets having first bite at the cherry, and an a 3-6 month cooldown on migration for each planet. By only migrating one unhappy pop at a time, the remaining pops happiness has a chance to sort itself out over time, especially if due to overcrowding or lack of amenities or crime.

This should generally take care of basic population management, as long as there are free jobs and available budget, without accidentally draining a planet. There will be enough time to respond to issues where planets are seeing undue levels of migration.

This will NOT obviate the occasional need for forced resettlement.


EDIT: Special cases.
1. Robots, Droids may not have happiness, but could be subject to forced resettlement.
2. Livestock, trophies, grid amalgamated would probably not have migration rights, but could be subject to forced resettlement.
3. The threshold for "unhappiness" could probably be related to ethics, difficulty level, planet decisions, policies, etc.
4. The cost for forced resettlement (especially of citizens in a free society) could be increased.

 

[Tamwin5]

One small change: Pops should only migrate to places with an open job and open housing.

 

[Tamwin5]

I also think that automatic migration shouldn't cost anything.

 

[Martydi]

I like this. Although I don't think migration should draw from our resources (pops aren't being moved by the empire, they are moving on their own). Then finally stupid pops would migrate to the juicy new ecumenopolis, with 150 free housing, over 30 empty jobs and massive building potential, instead of living on a planet with abysmally low habitability for them, massive unemployment and a housing deficit, complaining to the government all the time.

 

[DukeLeto42]

Pops should also start migrating once the Crisis starts approaching. Available jobs and housing or not, when a Crisis fleet is two systems away and there is neither a starbase in the way nor a fleet in the area, smart pops should try to get out of dodge ASAP.

 

[Tamwin5]

Pops should also start migrating once the Crisis starts approaching. Available jobs and housing or not, when a Crisis fleet is two systems away and there is neither a starbase in the way nor a fleet in the area, smart pops should try to get out of dodge ASAP.

To make it easier to determine/program, I'd make if a Crisis fleet is in system, but make the tick chance very high. Should also probably be an exclusion for fortress worlds.

 

[MichaelJanuary]

Regarding costs and migration, sure this can be optional, or linked to species rights, ethics, etc.

Regarding crises and migration, this could probably be done by having a threat meter impact happiness in a system. Pops in a system that is on close to an enemy border, has no bastion, no defending fleets, no defensive armies, should probably be writing their local senator, boarding up their windows, or trying to get the hell out of dodge.

 

[Gentlesir Gibbles]

Uncertain if necro ( forum gives warning + thread looks somewhat older; at same time this fella has it linked; newer forum member so let me know the general sentiment)

Anyhow, point is I was curious if you might be interested in expanding your thoughts for specific scenarios.

-How would the system react to player forced resettlements? Is there chance that your desired jobslot worker (that you just relocated) suddenly gets pulled away to some colony that thinks it needs to use it?

- What if you pop spec a new colony for increased amenities, but the system decides to use the pop(s) for something else? What controls are in place to give various government ethics different controls to mitigate these kinds of issues?

- I understand different jobs tend to have different weights, and likewise hear that jobs such as soldier jobs tend to be considered lower priority, what would prevent the new system from suddenly trickling down your naval cap; especially amidst a more challenging war?

Interesting idea, and I very much like the idea that pop spawning remains relative to reproduction/assembly rates. Helpful expansion on a somewhat simplified system at the moment.

 

[MichaelJanuary]

Personally I dont mind the necro.

The main thrust is that pops should be allowed to move to where they are happy (state policy allowing). A growth modifier doesnt change the fact that a pop is unhappy due to hab on this planet and could be happier on another planet.

The secondary issue is that the player controls over job prioritisation is enabled at the wrong level of granularity. As a god emperor, I shouldnt be required to enable/disable individual buildings. Arguably fiddling with job priorities on individual planets is okay, but it would have been better to have empire/state level policies, or planet wide decisions.

Typical policies and decisions would include ...
- disallow migration to/from this planet
- maximize <resource >production on this planet
- prioritize <selected job> in migration decisions

The auto pop migration mod has a lot of these features built in, so it's certainly possible. The mod has other issues though, so while I have used it in the past, I tend to avoid it now. Some of the issues may be related to the lack of certain features or variables in Stellaris which would help control migration. For e.g. it's very difficult to account for servants, grid amalgamated, etc., and it's also very difficult to test for job viability. So the mod might migrate unemployed slaves to a planet with empty research jobs they cant take (if i recall correctly).

 

[hfel]

Would love to see this, but I suspect Paradox went the current route as an easy way to cut down game lag.