Starting Population Amount

DonCorazon · #1 July 28th, 2008, 01:10 AM

I have been messing around with some pretender designs / scales, starting new games just for a few turns and notice that the starting population seems to vary each time, even though I am not changing growth / death scales and always starting in the same province. Anyone know what causes this?

Thanks

Omnirizon · #2 July 28th, 2008, 01:35 AM

sex.

sex causes change in population.

leasts that's i heard.

DonCorazon · #3 July 28th, 2008, 02:19 AM

That's "unprotected" sex Omni - don't believe everything your momma says, including the stuff about blindness. Oh wait, maybe that's what is ruining Utgard.

JimMorrison · #4 July 28th, 2008, 03:54 AM

Giants touch themselves!

I always wondered why even capitals have a variable pop. I think it's mostly aesthetics, so that they're not always pegged at exactly 30000. Though, it seems to me that the variance is a little wide, I think it can go anywhere from 29000-31000, which is a decent chunk of people, especially if you DO have a Growth or Death scale that is going to compound directly from that value to the end of the game.

It takes ~11 turns to get from 29k-31k. So, one year of game time worth of your Growth can significantly impact the actual benefit of a strategy involving that scale.

konming · #5 July 28th, 2008, 03:58 AM

I agree. There is no reason not to set starting capital pop to exactly 30K (except for LA Ermor, obviously). If we can have the flucuation in population, what next? Randomness in starting army? Starting leader?

Tifone · #6 July 28th, 2008, 09:13 AM

Ouh c'mon, now let's not start with super-balancing issues ^^

I dare to disagree, it is fun (and quite irrelevant i think) this way. Surely it's an advantage. But a casual one in a big game involving many things - this time happens to you, next time to me. ^^
If we start complaining this we go back to the Monkey PD and the blessed Jarls topic ^^

konming · #7 July 28th, 2008, 09:16 AM

May I say those are designed to be different, while this is random for no good reason and entirely unneccessary?

I would also think someone starting with 350G instead of 400G a small thing in such a big game, still, why do it?

Sombre · #8 July 28th, 2008, 09:41 AM

No idea why it happens. I've noticed it too.

I'd also like to know if the terrain type of the capital matters.

Ballbarian · #9 July 28th, 2008, 10:09 AM

If I remember correctly, the terrain has no affect and I would even go so far as to say that the terrain for the given province is ignored and is treated like plains even if it was tagged as swamp or waste in the map file.

Take that with a grain of salt. A lot of time and several patches have passed since I last tested it.

Edi · #10 July 28th, 2008, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Ballbarian said:
If I remember correctly, the terrain has no affect and I would even go so far as to say that the terrain for the given province is ignored and is treated like plains even if it was tagged as swamp or waste in the map file.

Take that with a grain of salt. A lot of time and several patches have passed since I last tested it.

Nothing wrong with your memory.