Subterranean refugee rapid breeders

[Tisifoni12]

So I get the subterranean civilization thing and being a kind, helpful, species I decide to accomodate their refugees. I haven't checked how many pops of refugees there were; I kind of assume one, maybe there.

The refugee species now constitute 17% of my Empire population and I have instituted controls to stop them spreading to all my worlds.

I really think there ought to be some gradation in migration. Yes I know you can set species rights, but you don't get to set them until they've arrived and don't always get what you expected. AI empires cheat and dump 'other species' on your worlds; species they've uplifted or a former refugee species they wanted to pass on.

Even playing as a xenophile species I have become reluctant to agree to migration.

Surely a migration treaty would cover the terms of migration, possibly:

• Limits on numbers (specialists?)
• Your homeworld only, favourable environment worlds, or integration across the empire's worlds
• Migration or resettlement (below)

If it was at the same rate as internal migration rather than resettlement then the trickle of migrants might in turn grow into a pop or two. There might also be trickle back to their own worlds. I don't see why a pop 'in growth' should be one specific species. Migration, births and deaths will determine population; overall growth could be calculated separately from the balance between species. I found another game where I and two allied empires had only a pop or two in each other's empires way more plausible.

How does the game system decide which pop will currently grow on a planet ? Does it reflect the numbers of existing pops, the environment, other factors ?

I do think there's scope for refinement here.

 

[Ramiel]

How does the game system decide which pop will currently grow on a planet ? Does it reflect the numbers of existing pops, the environment, other factors ?

From what everyone's been able to tell, it picks from whatever species is least represented. That's it.
I'd take closer look at the numbers over time if I were you. I'd bet anything that on any planet that has one of these aliens not a single one of your native pops is growing or will grow again until the pop ratio is 50/50. The system overall's great, but the whole thing seriously needs some numbers rebalancing.

 

[SeekingEtermity]

From what everyone's been able to tell, it picks from whatever species is least represented. That's it.
I'd take closer look at the numbers over time if I were you. I'd bet anything that on any planet that has one of these aliens not a single one of your native pops is growing or will grow again until the pop ratio is 50/50. The system overall's great, but the whole thing seriously needs some numbers rebalancing.

It definitely takes habitability into account at least slightly. I've seen 30% habitability xenos spawn on my homeworld, but only very rarely (like, 1-2 out of 120 pops). On the other hand, the subterranean civ pops are the same type as the planet their underground civ is on (which makes sense) and since this is likely to be the same as or at least similar to your native type, they will be mostly-adapted and likely spread extensively.

All else being equal, it does seem to just try to balance numbers. I've got an Ecumenopolis that literally has 0 jobs for anything below Specialists, and it keeps growing this one xeno that cannot take Specialist-or-higher jobs, so they just sit unemployed (on a planet with 10+ open jobs). I ship them off to some other world that they are well-suited for - which works nicely to boost my pops in general, and they're good workers on agri-worlds - but I find myself needing to resettle pops *to* my ecumenopolis because it won't stop growing these useless (for that planet) proles (serviles? One of the two).

 

[Tisifoni12]

I just checked and out of 8 inhabited worlds (a ninth currently being colonised) three have a growing pop of the minority, four have no pops of the minority and the remaining world has a growing pop of the majority species and a declining pop of the minority species, due I think to migration. Somehow they account for half the population of that planet ! Is that just from those who resettled on the surface or does it include the subterranean pops ?

 

[Tisifoni12]

I would like to have an insectoid species that differentiated within the species into classes / specialisms, perhaps though the conditions or diet of the 'females'; e.g. feed the female a certain diet and keep them at a controlled temperature and they will produce soldiers or workers or intellectuals or administrators. They are purpose designed, but can't up or down grade to other jobs.