Population Growth Adjustment

[gorinthebold]

Where/how can I increase/ decrease the population growth rate in the settlements? Do I have to do it one by one or is there a way to change them all at once?

[Alex The Great]

Well there is a file called settlement mechanics there u can change that

[gorinthebold]

where exactly is that file

[Lusted]

descr_settlement_mechanics.xml, it can be opened in notepad. You want to edit all the SPF entries.

[gorinthebold]

Ok, I'm an idiot. I still can't that file

[Lusted]

Have you got 1.1 and run the unpacker?

[gorinthebold]

i remember downloading it the patch, and the readme in the program files of the game says v1.1 so im gonna go ahead and say probably

[gorinthebold]

ok nevermind, I found that file. i just hadn't run the unpacker yet. But the SPF thing mystifies me. I'm not exactly sure how to approach this

[gorinthebold]

to clarify: i have made each turn .5 a year in stead of 2 years, but i the population rate remains the same, so its not really realistic. i tried reducing the SPF modifer values to 1/4th their origninal value (e 1.0 to .25) but it didnt seem to have the right effect. maybe a syntax error or something else I'm missing?

[nikolai1962]

One way is to reduce the base fertility in the descr_regions.txt

Each region has an entry like

North_America
	Miccosukee
	aztecs
	Native_Rebels
	212 198 206
	tobacco, coal, america, no_pirates, no_brigands
	5
	-->6<--
	religions { catholic 0 orthodox 0 islam 0 pagan 100 heretic 0 }

The number in bold is the number of corn symbols you see in the settlement details, each worth 0.5% pop growth.

Reducing this reduces income too though.

You find the file in the data/world/maps/base folder and you need to delete the map.rwn for it to take effect.

~~~

most of the SPF values you'd reduce to decrease pop growth but these three

<factor name="SPF_SQUALOUR">
<factor name="SPF_PLAGUE">
<factor name="SPF_TAX_RATE_PENALTY">

are the opposite. These would have to be *increased* to reduce pop growth. Squalor being the most critical. Increasing squalor will have an effect on the max population too, not just the rate of increase, so you might not want to change these at all.

[dietre]

the problem with increase sqauler is.........it will reek havok on your public order and will make ur cities revolt or rebel. I think the best way to reduce the pop growth is to reduce the effect of farms. spf farms i believe. reducing this and trade will LOWER the amout of food ur city receives from farming and thus lowers ur pop growth. by lowering base fertility effects the trade lvls of ur cities and you will be losing moey per turn == NOT good.

Another simply way to reduce pop growth is not to reduce the pop growth but raise the amout of pop needed to increase you town level. in settlement mechanics.xml they are at the bottom of the list.

add like 5000 ppl for the next lvl and increase them all in increments.
that should make it harder to reach your ciditals in 10 turns, lol
also go into export buildings and change ur build times. Remember that vanellia is set up for 2 yrs. so your barracks that was 3 turns is ment to be 6 yrs, now that your running on 6 months per turn, that become 1.5 yrs.

[nikolai1962]

the problem with increase sqauler is.........it will reek havok on your public order and will make ur cities revolt or rebel.

there are two squalor entries spf_squalor and sof_squalor. The first effects pop growth and the second effects unrest. Changing spf_squalor increases the effect on pop growth *for each pip* of squalor. Doesn't effect unrest at all.

Unless i tested it wrong :)

by lowering base fertility effects the trade lvls of ur cities and you will be losing moey per turn == NOT good.

Depends how you like the game imo. Two ways to make the game difficult, one is to give the AI a lot more money and other advantages. This works fine if you like the AI having lots of stacks. The second way is to make all the factions really poor then give the AI factions a *little* extra. Basically aiming to make it hard to expand your empire *even if the AI factions weren't there*. Then anything the AI does is an added problem. It does take an awful lot of modding/testing to get it balanced right though.

The first method is a lot faster but it doesn't feel very historical to me to see these ancient factions running round with dozens of armies.

(But you are right that lowering the base fertility does have a big effect on the economy and should only be lowered if you want that side-effect.)

[dietre]

thanks for clarifying the spf and sof, i thought they worked together and effected both. makes sense that 1 is for growth and 1 is for public order.

you wouldnt by chance know what controls the amount or % of units decreased by besiege ???

[nikolai1962]

you wouldnt by chance know what controls the amount or % of units decreased by besiege ???

nope, sorry. haven't noticed that anywhere