[dogscoff]

Not sure if your advice is for proportions or a standard game or both.

Both in theory, although this effect is exaggerated in proportions by the importance and relatively slow growth of population. In the standard game it's usually insignificant becasue population is so cheap anyway.

Nomally, it would be.

1 human populatates a planet at turn 1.
1.1 humans at turn 2
1.2 humans at turn 3
.
.
.
.
.
.
1.9 humans at turn 10
2 humans at turn 11

It is rounded up to the next one-tenth of a integer rather than a full integer as in a normal game.

But more important, are you saying that by adding another race in Proportions, it changes the way it calculates population growth and each race is rounded up a full integer rather than one ten-tenth of an integer.

No.
Put it this way: Because of integer maths, the lowest population growth a planet can have (ignoring population decline or zero growth) is 1 million per growth period. However, if you have multiple races on a planet, you get at least 1 million per race per growth period.

So in any game it goes according to the following table, the only difference is that in proportions, each growth period is ten turns and in the standard game it is every turn.

code:

---

                Planet with 1 race.   Planet with 2 races.   Planet with 3 races. 

Start:             1 million             2x 1 million           3x 1 million

Growth period 1:   1m + 1m =2m.       2m + one of each =4m   3m + 3 of each =6m

Growth period 2:   2m + 1m =3m.       4m + one of each =6m   6m + 3 of each =9m

Growth period 3:   3m + 1m =4m.       6m + one of each =8m   9m + 3 of each =12m

---

And so on for 4 races, 5 races etc.

The above model is complicated further in the real game by varying population growth rates (ie according to happiness and cloning facilities etc) but that only makes a difference when the "natural" growth rate (ie if you only had one race on there) would exceed 1 per growth period.

If you have enough population and high enough growth rate on a planet to be producing more than one person per growth period "naturally", and you introduce a second race, you will get no bonus population- the natural growth is split between the two populations. However, if your natural growth is 2 per period and you have 3 races, you will get 3 growth instead of 2.

[ March 25, 2003, 11:59: Message edited by: dogscoff ]