[MOD] More Buildable Pops

[Naeven]

A Simple mod that lets you plan your Pop growth on planets, by allowing you to queue up the normal growth for the cost of food to the specific tiles you want that pop on. (just like Robots)
Allowing you to much easier micromanage multiple species on the same planet.

Pop Control will also remove queued buildable pops as well as normal growth, instead I've added a new free trait "Birth Controlled" that can be selected from start or gene modded into species later on. With this trait the natural pop growth will be disabled, and instead the species can only be build via buildable pop menu, on a shared queued with other species and robots.

Planet management has never been easier!

WORKSHOP​

KNOWN ISSUES:
* All available species in your empire will be available from the list on all planets, but only planets that already has atleast 1 pop of this species will be able to be build on that planet. (If you try to build any other species on that planet, they will be removed at next "month tick" by the game. I've not found a way around this yet.)
UPDATE 2018-06-01:
Improved to only show pops of already present species classes in the list, still not perfect but better than before.(thx! @cray935)

TODO:​

Investigate if Pops that doesn’t already exist on the planet can be hidden from the Buildable pop menu.

1. find the correct scope; is it possible to scope the planet? Pre-scripted once only use empire scope. Is it possible to scope the species we are about to build? No similar function exist pre-scripted
2. find the correct condition; any_pop = { species = ???? } No similar function exist pre-scripted

Possible to turn off natural growth for species, but keep Buildable pops queued? SOLVED

1. game rule can_pop_procreate turning false will also kill queued pops, not only natural growth.
2. robots seems to get around this by the species being defined as it can’t grow. (But can still be queued). UPDATE: Robots are allowed to grow with pops_auto_growth = 1.0 modifier, still pop control will kill queued pops.
3. possibly events could be scripted to change species definition to mimic robots, more investigation needed. UPDATE: Got it working using a dummy event and species scope, that will affect the same species in other countries tho, need to rewrite it with pop scope, probably creating a new sub-species for your country that can have different attribute settings. SOLVED: Added a new free trait that controls this.
4. possibly pre-defined species such as syncretic evolution slaves could be defined to mimic robots. UPDATE: Using pops_auto_growth = 1.0 combined with pops_can_reproduce = no, they will mimic robots.
5. possibly a third population control option could be created that will trigger the event above, but keep game rule can_pop_procreate to true. UPDATE: seems to not be possible, but solved via the new free trait.
6. Should create a new icon for "Birth Controlled" Trait

Gamebalance?

1. adjust the food cost, is 50 food balanced?
2. if normal growth is turned off, should queued pop be cheaper? UPDATE: added a 50% cost reduction with the new trait. Balanced?
3. should be locked behind Cloning technology? (suggested on steam @Ouranos)
4. making bio pops mimic robots will make all those species share queue (just like different robot species does), if normal growth are turned off, should you get compensated with faster buildable growth/less resource req?
5. The normal planet growth time increasing formula is removed when using the trait, and pops are instead reduced to flat 25 growth. To compensate I've set it at 0.5 growth/month currently.

Create a pre-defined bio slave similar to the robot? (Could be used by empires who doesn’t like robots)

1. out of scope for this mod? Maybe a sub mod.
2. possible to make the AI use it relaibly? Not sure how/if AI can be controlled to build pop.
3. backstory that makes sense?
4. gamebalance?

 

[Naeven]

I tried to remove the issue with all empire species showing up on all planets (even if they are not already there) by checking if any pops already existed with potential_build. But I guess it's not planet scope :-/

If anyone has an idea how to solve this, help would be appriciated.

\common\buildable_pops

buildable_PLANT_species = {
    cost = {
        food = 50
    }
  
    potential_build = {
        any_pop = { is_species_class = PLANT }
    }

    species_class = PLANT
}

 

[Talkie Toaster]

What scope *is* potential_build? Empire? If it's tile based, you could just use planet = {} to jump back a level.

 

[Naeven]

I'm not sure what scope it is.
In the pre-scripted buildable pops, they only use empire scope, for example "has_policy_flag = robots_outlawed"

planet = { any_pop = { is_species_class = HUM } } did not work either.

Anyway, thinking more about it, I also have problems with the condition, since it will only check if it has the correct class (If I have 2 species of the same class, still both will show up).
And the way buildable_pops are setup, I don't think I can "ROOT"/"PREV" in a way to target the specific species I'm about to build.

 

[Naeven]

updated first post with todos & outcomes of my testing so far.

 

[Naeven]

uploaded new version of the mod with a free trait "Birth Controlled", that will disable natural growth, but keep allow them to be buildt via buildable pop menu.
Trait can be choosen from start or gene-modded on later. (should work perfectly on existing games)

 

[Naeven]

Updated for 2.1

 

[cray935]

I tried to remove the issue with all empire species showing up on all planets (even if they are not already there) by checking if any pops already existed with potential_build. But I guess it's not planet scope :-/

If anyone has an idea how to solve this, help would be appriciated.

\common\buildable_pops

buildable_PLANT_species = {
    cost = {
        food = 50
    }
 
    potential_build = {
        any_pop = { is_species_class = PLANT }
    }

    species_class = PLANT
}

It's tile scope, so you need to wrap it: planet = { any_pop = { is_species_class = PLANT } }

But this wont be enough, you need to check the species, not just the class.

 

[Naeven]

It's tile scope, so you need to wrap it: planet = { any_pop = { is_species_class = PLANT } }

But this wont be enough, you need to check the species, not just the class.

Actually I've tried that exact string also after I wrote above, but it doesn't work because still the specified species class will show up in the buildable pops menu, even if no other pop of that species class is already present on the planet.

 

[cray935]

Did you try "any_owned_pop" aswell ? Don't know if any_pop is scope less and scans the whole game ... Didn't try it myself though.
There is also an effect to log all scopes in the specified scope.. "print_scope_effect = yes" maybe it helps, logs will be in the game.log file

 

[Naeven]

Did you try "any_owned_pop" aswell ? Don't know if any_pop is scope less and scans the whole game ... Didn't try it myself though.
There is also an effect to log all scopes in the specified scope.. "print_scope_effect = yes" maybe it helps, logs will be in the game.log file

Tried "planet = { any_pop_owned = { is_species_class = HUM } }" now as well, but it doesn't work either.
And both this variant and the old actually breaks the "decision" (it will create 2 empty sections within the buildable pops menu).

I've not used "print_scope_effect = yes" before, I've put it within the potential_build bracket, but I can't see anything in game.log.
I'll check how that command works later, thanks for the tip

 

[cray935]

Tried "planet = { any_pop_owned = { is_species_class = HUM } }" now as well, but it doesn't work either.
And both this variant and the old actually breaks the "decision" (it will create 2 empty sections within the buildable pops menu).

I've not used "print_scope_effect = yes" before, I've put it within the potential_build bracket, but I can't see anything in game.log.
I'll check how that command works later, thanks for the tip

Ah sorry, I meant "print_scope_trigger" since we are at condition part. You also mispelled any_owned_pop (any_pop_owned does not exist as far as I know)
However these are my last thoughts on this. I'll try it myself this week.

 

[Naeven]

Yes, that was a typo, but it didn't help to correct it
That log revealed that it's actually not tile scope, but nation scope afterall.
even doing only a "planet = { print_scope_trigger }" did not produce any log and broke the "decision".

 

[cray935]

So it's actually not tile scope, but what does the logs show? What are the scopes of PREV, FROM, etc. ? Maybe there is somewhere the tile or planet scope? If this is not the case I'd be very disappointed too.

 

[cray935]

I found the solution, there is a condition for buildable pops called "tile_potential". No need for a thank you, just call me god. =D

 

[Naeven]

I found the solution, there is a condition for buildable pops called "tile_potential". No need for a thank you, just call me god. =D

Thanks for that!
tile_potential = { planet = { any_owned_pop = { is_species_class = HUM } } } does indeed work, and filters out all species classes not already present on the planet.

Will update the mod with this shorty.