So I'm playing an egalitarian/xenophile empire that relies quite a bit on migration for pop growth. The immigration growth bonuses are fine (if not OP), but there is strange behaviour regarding which pops grow. Here is a "time-lapse" of my empire and the distribution of pops.
2254: 113 original species pops (no migration treaties have been signed)
2259: 130 total pops, 126 original species pops (just after 1st migration treaty is signed)
2269: 174 total pops, 133 original species pops
2312: 566 total pops, 182 original species pops
2337: 873 total pops, 178 original species pops
2363: 1356 total pops, 172 original species pops
So basically while my overall population has grown by nearly 800 pops in the last 50 years, I have lost 10 pops from my original species. Perhaps they've all just migrated to other empires, but if we look at the galaxy species numbers, we get the following:
2254: 113 pops
2259: 126 pops
2269: 141 pops
2313: 259 pops
2337: 254 pops
2363: 250 pops
Now this goes back to the whole under-represented species getting growth priority but quite frankly the result is immersion breaking. You're telling me that my rapid breeders / communal / charismatic pops just decided to stop having babies sometime around 2313? Moreover, the species that I first signed migration treaties with have basically stopped growing as well since one of the empires I have a migration treaty with must have taken xeno-compatibility and now a bunch of different half-breeds are immigrating to my empire. These half-breeds, since there are so few of them, overwhelmingly make up the majority of pops currently growing On my 22 planets, 18 of 22 are growing half-breeds. The other four are growing pure species pops that are similarly sparse. The species with the most pops that is growing in my empire are the "Vengral" fungus people which make up 16/1356 of my population - just over 1 percent.
I'm fine with under-represented species getting growth priority, and it works from a game balance perspective, but this system that more or less pushes your empire to be equally represented by every single species is terrible for immersion. Here is my proposed solution that doesn't add any sort of new pop mechanics into the game:
Every eligible species has an equal probability of being the next pop to grow.
It's really that simple. If you have 5 eligible pops, the probability any one of the five will be selected is 20%. Your society will drift to looking more multi-cultural (ie the percentage of xenos will rise over time), but you won't get these ridiculous situations where certain pops cease growing or even decline. Building on that idea a bit, you could modify the probabilities based on habitability and traits (slow/rapid breeders).
2254: 113 original species pops (no migration treaties have been signed)
2259: 130 total pops, 126 original species pops (just after 1st migration treaty is signed)
2269: 174 total pops, 133 original species pops
2312: 566 total pops, 182 original species pops
2337: 873 total pops, 178 original species pops
2363: 1356 total pops, 172 original species pops
So basically while my overall population has grown by nearly 800 pops in the last 50 years, I have lost 10 pops from my original species. Perhaps they've all just migrated to other empires, but if we look at the galaxy species numbers, we get the following:
2254: 113 pops
2259: 126 pops
2269: 141 pops
2313: 259 pops
2337: 254 pops
2363: 250 pops
Now this goes back to the whole under-represented species getting growth priority but quite frankly the result is immersion breaking. You're telling me that my rapid breeders / communal / charismatic pops just decided to stop having babies sometime around 2313? Moreover, the species that I first signed migration treaties with have basically stopped growing as well since one of the empires I have a migration treaty with must have taken xeno-compatibility and now a bunch of different half-breeds are immigrating to my empire. These half-breeds, since there are so few of them, overwhelmingly make up the majority of pops currently growing On my 22 planets, 18 of 22 are growing half-breeds. The other four are growing pure species pops that are similarly sparse. The species with the most pops that is growing in my empire are the "Vengral" fungus people which make up 16/1356 of my population - just over 1 percent.
I'm fine with under-represented species getting growth priority, and it works from a game balance perspective, but this system that more or less pushes your empire to be equally represented by every single species is terrible for immersion. Here is my proposed solution that doesn't add any sort of new pop mechanics into the game:
Every eligible species has an equal probability of being the next pop to grow.
It's really that simple. If you have 5 eligible pops, the probability any one of the five will be selected is 20%. Your society will drift to looking more multi-cultural (ie the percentage of xenos will rise over time), but you won't get these ridiculous situations where certain pops cease growing or even decline. Building on that idea a bit, you could modify the probabilities based on habitability and traits (slow/rapid breeders).
