Building Slots

[Lord of the Isles]

I believe x is strictly dependent on the tier of the city/town building. I don't think organic population growth is modelled.

Yes, organic growth isn't modeled - population is abstracted in the level of the settlement as you say. But other things affect it too.

Growth happens at a province level (2, 3 or 4 regions per province). It seems to be based on 4 factors (according to the tooltip):

1. Growth bonuses from the main settlement building
2. Growth bonuses from certain other buildings in the province
3. Spare food production generated in the province
4. Some techs increase growth

The food in 3. comes from fishing ports, agricultural buildings and a few other specific buildings. I *think* that, unlike earlier TW games, there is no population for the game to calculate what food is surplus to the province's needs and can therefore be classed as 'spare'. Certain buildings have a food cost every turn. I think increased population is represented abstractly by the increasing levels of the settlement main building and by higher levels of other buildings - higher levels cost higher fixed amounts of food per turn.

The growth bonuses come sometimes from the main settlement line of buildings but also from the sanitation line (e.g. an aqueduct gives +2 growth, a sewer +4 - numbers from memory). A few other buildings do as well - one of the religious temples for example. Once the province has maxed out its building slots (see below), growth becomes 0 in the province. I have a game now where Hellas has 0 growth but one region (Sparta) only has 3 building slots available. It is the same level as Crete which has the full 4 slots. This may mean that some regions cannot grow beyond 3 slots but I'm not sure.


Background (for those without the game)

Each region has a predetermined number of slots available in that region. One region in each province is the main one (the province capital or city) which is the one that gets a normal TW seige when you attack it (walls, gates etc). The other regions have Minor Settlements (towns with no walls when you attack it, just buildings/streets/single capture point). The maximum number of building slots are:

Cities: 6 slots
Towns: 4 slots - though some may be capped at 3 - not sure yet.

The first slot in both cities & towns represents the settlement itself. As these get upgraded (sometimes you need a new tech researched to upgrade) they increase growth bonuses (and, depending on the culture, other bonuses as well) and also increase the number of total building slots available (up to the max numbers above). You always start the game with 2 or 3 (maybe some start with 4 or 5?) slots available.

The remaining slots in a region are divided into various lines. Towns are limited: you can only select the religious line, the agricultural line, a restricted subset of the military line and, where it is a coastal town, the port line of buildings. Cities can build in addition the full military line of buildings, city centre line, sanitation line, industrial line. But no agricultural buildings in cities (though some city centre line ones produce food). NOTE: this is Rome & Hellenistic factions - there may be minor difference for other factions/cultures. All buildings can be deleted down to an empty slot and you can rebuild a different line next turn (or leave it empty but soon a slum will form and it will cost you 500 coins to remove it).

The constant battle in developing provinces is to balance food and public order (squalor). Money and military bonuses are important too but mainly: some buildings give public order bonuses but cost food, and some give food bonuses but increase squalor (in other words, they cost public order).