Need some help with overcrowding/pop growth

[Sinister2202]

Okay 2.2 is making me into a noob all over again...

My capital world is dying, literally. I am playing fanatic egalitarian and I do not wish to turn on population controls, I need that influence for edicts!

All the jobs are filled, but there are at least 11 homeless Pops on my capital, but they just won't stop breeding! So I let the game run for a while and 14 homeless Pops with 3 unemployed - still breeding.

I turned on "discourage growth" so the growth lowered to about 0.06 (but that's still growing). And I figured, I should probably demolish the gene clinic which has 5 specialist jobs. But if I do that, the specialists will be out of a job and I am not sure what other building there is to build, other than alloy foundry, which I don't really need.

Despite the huge emigration push from the planetary decision "discourage growth", there is no DECLINE in population. What is going on and how do I remedy this?

Can't my own Pops figure out the situation and just start declining to other colonies? ffs

(Thank goodness for stability buildings like psi corp and black sites)

 

[AlazkanAssassin]

What problem does this actually cause for you? Reduced productivity? Risk of rebellion? Just wasted resources on maintaining unproductive pops?

 

[stlemur]

Congratulation, you've built a classic Harry Harrison dystopia. If you have trouble feeding everyone, let me tell you about this hot new food product called "Soylent Green"...

 

[AdmiralMagus]

Some overcrowding and unemployment on fully developed worlds seems to be expected with 2.2. If you have sufficient amenities, it shouldn't matter. You will get constant annoying pop-ups about crime sprees but unless you have other issues this won't actually do anything. Very occasionally a gang war event will trigger some devestation, which hurts the planet economy while it is repaired.

It's definitely unappealing, though, and a big mental shift from pre-2.2.

 

[AlknicTeos]

... Very occasionally a gang war event will trigger some devestation, which hurts the planet economy while it is repaired....

where do I see planet devestation ?

If the resettle feature wouldn't be that laggy, it could be used therefor. ... but at some point every planet and everything will be overcrowded. ... maybe an distant issue problem

 

[Sinister2202]

Thanks for the feedbacks. I guess I will have to go arcology.

 

[Delthor]

I turned on "discourage growth" so the growth lowered to about 0.06 (but that's still growing).

0.06 growth would take about 1600 years to grow a single additional pop. I don't think you need to worry about "that still being growth." Even if you mistyped and it was 0.6, that's 160 years for one pop, and I think 160 years down the road, you can handle one extra pop making 1% less happiness.

You really don't need to worry about a bit of overcrowding. You can easily go up to 5-10 overcrowding with very minimal penalties, especially as an egalitarian society that has a bunch of happiness boosts. If you have utopian abundance, you don't even need to worry about unemployment much, though crime events seem bugged and trigger off happy unemployed pops even if there's zero crime and high stability.

Both of these things contribute to emmigration push, which will help you reduce growth significantly or get it to near zero growth with the discourage growth decision. Unlike encourage growth, this decision lasts forever unless you cancel it, so it's pretty inexpensive. I don't think pops actually decline unless there's an overrepresented species, and it's declining while something else is growing.

 

[Xeorm]

Yea. I wouldn't worry too much about overcrowding. You'll get some loss of resources, but the main issue from overcrowding is a loss of growth. Which obviously you don't care much about when the place is already maxed out. Would definitely remove the gene clinic, and you'll likely want to replace it with the holo theater so you don't lose amenity production. That or more clerk positions. Clerk buildings are fantastic for employing pops.

 

[Sinister2202]

0.06 growth would take about 1600 years to grow a single additional pop. I don't think you need to worry about "that still being growth." Even if you mistyped and it was 0.6, that's 160 years for one pop, and I think 160 years down the road, you can handle one extra pop making 1% less happiness.

You really don't need to worry about a bit of overcrowding. You can easily go up to 5-10 overcrowding with very minimal penalties, especially as an egalitarian society that has a bunch of happiness boosts. If you have utopian abundance, you don't even need to worry about unemployment much, though crime events seem bugged and trigger off happy unemployed pops even if there's zero crime and high stability.

Both of these things contribute to emmigration push, which will help you reduce growth significantly or get it to near zero growth with the discourage growth decision. Unlike encourage growth, this decision lasts forever unless you cancel it, so it's pretty inexpensive. I don't think pops actually decline unless there's an overrepresented species, and it's declining while something else is growing.

That's true. I checked my species rights and it's still on social welfare. I should upgrade to utopian abundance, thanks.

It actually is 0.06. The penalty on that decision is so heavy on my overall economy though, so I just turned it off. I'll just have to colonize some more and see where it goes.

Also I think the devs forgot to add that the discourage growth decision also gives penalty to happiness in the tooltip
.

 

[Delthor]

It actually is 0.06. The penalty on that decision is so heavy on my overall economy though, so I just turned it off. I'll just have to colonize some more and see where it goes.

Also I think the devs forgot to add that the discourage growth decision also gives penalty to happiness in the tooltip

Yes, maintaining a constant population requires some investment in consumer goods, which is cool and makes it less of a no brainer solution. I didn't know the discourage growth affected happiness... If it does despite not being listed in the tooltip, you should definitely report the inconsistency in the bug section. If it is intended, then it's just another case of needing to respond a bit elsewhere to compensate.

One of the best things about this update is that the decisions you make around resource flow and pop management are much deeper, with incredible nuance. You can have refugee crises, crime from an overpopulated/underemployed world, living standards matter way more, and so on. I find it all really exciting; just approach these as challenges that are part of the game you need to overcome just like an enemy fleet, and it all gets way more interesting. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm absolutely loving it. Peace has never been more fun.

 

[AdmiralMagus]

where do I see planet devestation ?

Devestation is overlayed in red on the picture at the top of the planet management screen. If you have it, it is hard to miss it.