[dogscoff]

Good post. I've been bleating about population handling for a while now, especially automatic migration. I guess I ought to mail my thoughts to MM somwhen...

I'm also uncomfortable with the huge numbers of people you can so easily move from place to place, but the consequncs to the play balance if it were changed aren't worth thinking about.

I also like your thoughts on that other post thread, about "counting heads" within a ship's crew: This would be a really nice feature, and would give you incentive to look after your ships a little better. Ships with not enough crew would become less and less effective, as would ships with too many crew & not enough crew quarters. Space yard ships would suddenly need loads and loads of crew quarters if they wanted to build ships in deep space, although they could be cryogenically packed in the same way as colonists (ie 5 million pr Kt).
Abandoning / destroying ships in order to merge crews would also add an intresting element to the game.

Unfortunately it would require *huge* hard code changes by MM to implement...

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "