I understand the concept behind the current pop growth meta, but I'd suggest it is fundamentally flawed. The idea was to balance and spread pops across the galaxy, which was a great concept. The idea also seemed to be to keep the system as simple as possible with as tiny of a UI footprint as possible. Also an admirable goal. I'm with you so far.
The result has been... less than ideal.
Suggestion:
Have each planet have a "Pop Growth" mouseover where the current "This is the current growing pop" is.
Instead of "This is 100% the next pop" is, have it display info such as:
Based on growth, the next pop is LIKELY to be <race>
Have pop growth be broken down by how many pops possibly growing on the planet and modified by existing number of pops on the planet. IE: Large numbers of existing pops on the planet make it more likely to be that pop, but not completely. Rapid breeders/slow breeders get bonuses/penalties, communal/solitary the same.
So a planet that has 10 pops
8 human, 2 platypi
Humans have no special traits
platypi have rapid breeders
Migration treaty with the space unicorn race next door.
"Our planet is growing at a base of 3 per month. At 100 a new pop will appear."
Breakdown of how that 3 gets split:
Human make up 80% of the population. They get 80% of the base. They get 2.4 per month.
Platypi get the other 0.6
Now you add modifiers and migration pull.
The platypi's rapid breeders (+10%, right?) makes them 0.66.
Space Unicorns get whatever they get from migration (0.15? I'm literally making this up for example purpose)
After so many months, in this case humans will hit 100 first. A human pop spawns. Humans lose 100 pop growth points. The other species on the planet don't lose their growth points. The calculations get refigured (humans will now have 9/11, making them have a higher bias again, but the platypi are further ahead). Eventually a platypi will pop. Minorities will grow but remain minorities.
Now, take a smaller planet with a more equal distributition of pops (say 2/1 or 3/1) it will be much more even, traits will matter more, and an earthquake or bombing might matter.
Obviously these are rough numbers, but it's my thought.
The result has been... less than ideal.
Suggestion:
Have each planet have a "Pop Growth" mouseover where the current "This is the current growing pop" is.
Instead of "This is 100% the next pop" is, have it display info such as:
Based on growth, the next pop is LIKELY to be <race>
Have pop growth be broken down by how many pops possibly growing on the planet and modified by existing number of pops on the planet. IE: Large numbers of existing pops on the planet make it more likely to be that pop, but not completely. Rapid breeders/slow breeders get bonuses/penalties, communal/solitary the same.
So a planet that has 10 pops
8 human, 2 platypi
Humans have no special traits
platypi have rapid breeders
Migration treaty with the space unicorn race next door.
"Our planet is growing at a base of 3 per month. At 100 a new pop will appear."
Breakdown of how that 3 gets split:
Human make up 80% of the population. They get 80% of the base. They get 2.4 per month.
Platypi get the other 0.6
Now you add modifiers and migration pull.
The platypi's rapid breeders (+10%, right?) makes them 0.66.
Space Unicorns get whatever they get from migration (0.15? I'm literally making this up for example purpose)
After so many months, in this case humans will hit 100 first. A human pop spawns. Humans lose 100 pop growth points. The other species on the planet don't lose their growth points. The calculations get refigured (humans will now have 9/11, making them have a higher bias again, but the platypi are further ahead). Eventually a platypi will pop. Minorities will grow but remain minorities.
Now, take a smaller planet with a more equal distributition of pops (say 2/1 or 3/1) it will be much more even, traits will matter more, and an earthquake or bombing might matter.
Obviously these are rough numbers, but it's my thought.