Anyone know why armies sometimes leave pops behind and other times don't?

[Fenris_SE]

Just curious mostly, but whenever I take over a planet the first thing I do is check to see if any of my main species pops are there. Especially when playing empires like a devouring swarm one, since eating all the pops will naturally abandon the planet.

Just seems like a random chance to me. Sometimes there are 2 or 3 of my pops on the planet after an invasion and other times none at all. Planet habitability, free housing, and open jobs make no difference on the newly conquered world.

So, just wondering if it really is just random or if there is some trigger I'm not seeing.

 

[ImaTomato]

It's not random it's the Land Appropriation Policy if it is allowed some pops from your other planets will be automatically resettled.

 

[Bitzo]

Look in your policy menu, there should be a setting called 'Land Appropriation'. If allowed, it will replace a few of a conquered world's Pops with any of yours that have Full Citizenship while turning the originals into refugees that end up elsewhere.

 

[Fenris_SE]

Ok, so it was just me overlooking it for "normal" empires.

But this also happens when playing a devouring swarm which does not get the Land Appropriation option in policies. Sometimes they create new pops, other times not. It's not a huge deal, I just manually move one. Just wondering what caused it.

 

[Ryika]

Land appropriation will only happen if the conquered planet has...

        OR = {
            num_pops > 10
            AND = {
                num_pops > 3
                free_housing < 1
            }
        }

...more than 10 pops, or more than 3 pops and... ...no housing available? I have no idea why that second condition exists, but I guess it means that you can bomb a planet into oblivion before taking it if you want to appropriate a planet with 10 or fewer pops.

 

[TheMoe]

Ok, so it was just me overlooking it for "normal" empires.

But this also happens when playing a devouring swarm which does not get the Land Appropriation option in policies. Sometimes they create new pops, other times not. It's not a huge deal, I just manually move one. Just wondering what caused it.

Gestalt consciousnesses such as a hive mind or an Determined Exterminator still don't have that option (Land Appropriation), though I sincerely hoped that would be one of the issues addressed by the new group of programmers trying to improve the game. Basically, if you play Gestalt then you have no control over how many pops or if any pops are transferred from some of your worlds once you conquer an enemy planet. What I observe is that no pops are transferred if using an army to conquer a developing race (kind that allow benefit from an observation post) and between 3-6 pops are transferred when conquering a star-faring enemy. Good luck!

This has been my experience for the last few years and the last game I finished a few days ago. I did start that game prior to the new patch, so there's a chance that Land Appropriation is now available for all empires and my pre-patch game messed things up. There are many veterans on this forum who could chime in if I'm incorrect.

 

[Losttruppen]

I hate this policy, especially now that resettlement costs influence. It comes online after your first established contact so you can't set it at the beginning. It has some weird rules where it won't send pops to or from low pop colonies I think. I usually see 3 pops transfer over and jump up to ruler/specialist caste so they are out of commission for ~5-10 years if you don't plan to use that world.

 

[Azhcristokos]

But this also happens when playing a devouring swarm which does not get the Land Appropriation option in policies. Sometimes they create new pops, other times not. It's not a huge deal, I just manually move one. Just wondering what caused it.

For a devouring swarm, you will lose some conquered pops quickly as they flee to other empires. But if it's happening immediately (like, in the first moment) after conquest, then that's odd.