[dogscoff]

I've probably posted this elsewhere but...

Population movement control. You have a setting to decide how much freedom your population has to move about within your empire. You can change this throughout the game but should be "encouraged" not to do it too much.

At one end of the scale you have martial law/ curfew which restricts movement completely. At the other end you have free movement across all borders, which means your people can move around within your territory at will, and even visit other empires if they like.

This setting would influence things like
-plagues, (restricting movement of people lessens a plague's effect.),
-research (free movement of people = better sharing of ideas),
-Production (commercial / industrial advantages of a larger market)
-counter intel (restrictions on movement make life more difficult for spies and saboteurs)
-happiness (people like to travel, although maybe aliens don't...)
-population growth (see below)
-Refugees (see below)

This introduces the idea of populations moving around on their own: In a free movment empire, each planet's population growth could take into account species living on nearby worlds. For example, even though a planet has only terran population it might produce a small number of Phong as well because there is a Phong population on a nearby world.
The game could also simulate refugees - If people are really unhappy on one planet, then population would move rapidly to nearby, happier planets- perhaps your people would even go to live with another empire.

The max limit for planet population could be changed to a max recommended population: Although population won't grow naturally beyond that mark, larger numbers can be present on a planet as a result of refugees or a player unloading too many civilians. When planets get overcrowded you soon get plagues, unhappiness and localised organics shortages.

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so Brain, but how are we gonna teach a goat to dance with flippers on? "