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Population growth mechanic

7 replies [Last post]
Fri, 06/17/2011 - 22:24
larienna
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I am a bit in hurry, so I cannot elaborate. It's for a civ like game.

I decided that I want players cities to get more powerful as the game progress because that is generally how city works in civ like game. Their development takes and they gain power thought the game.

To simplify the game the population/city level will be recorded for the whole empire and it will be independent for the empire growth on the map.

So the idea is to find a mechanic to manage the population growth that will make city stronger and stronger as the time evolve.

The simplest mechanic I could think of is have a population track that I increase at each turn and as population grow, so does the money income and production level which gives access to higher quality buildings and features.

I am not sure if that kind of mechanic could actually be boring. I mean it only increase once everyturn, no matter what. Of course, there could be events or problems like health and unrest which could boost or reduce the population level so that not all players have the same level.

What do you think?

I have not seen any other game with similar mechanics. It reminds me on endeavor where you become more powerful as the time progress (you get a building that add actions every turn) and that it's fixed by the game no matter what happens. That is the only game I can think of.

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Fri, 06/17/2011 - 22:32
#1
Casamyr
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One possible thought would be

One possible thought would be to have varying sized cities - village, town, city, metropolis which contribute x population per turn (maybe 1,2,3, and 4) and thus your Empire increases it's power each turn as well.

So if you had an Empire with 3 villages, 2 towns and a city they would get 10 population points a turn.

This will make the game a little more dynamic and makes events even more devastating - plagues for instance could reduce cities by degrees of magnitude. A city could be reduced to a town or village for instance.

At various stages then money increases etc, unlock buildings or the ability to upgrade to a new city level. Say 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 Population ( all guess work and would need serious testing to see what levels would work),

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Sat, 06/18/2011 - 11:25
#2
larienna
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I already have city size on

I already have city size on the map, But I do not want the population level to be the sum of what is on the map, I want it to be 2 separate entity even if at first glance it does not make sense.

So the empire growth on the map is independent from the population grow in the city. At one point, the map will be saturated and the empire will stop to grow but the city might continue to grow.

This makes it easier to manage income/resource/power up that will affect your whole empire by making it relative to each city rather than having to multiply or divide by the number of cities on the board.

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Sun, 06/19/2011 - 16:43
#3
joni
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I'm with Casamyr

larienna: I think you misunderstood Casamyr.

The suggestion was making the population growth depending on (a sum of) what is on the map. Not the population level, but the population growth.

Then the game could have different events:

  • Some that increased or reduced the population level directly (on a single turn).
  • Some that boosted or reduced the population growth (over some turns).
  • Some that reduced the level of a city (so that population growth and surely other development in the game is slowed down).
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Tue, 06/21/2011 - 08:37
#4
larienna
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Oh!, So for example, if a

Oh!, So for example, if a player has 5 cities, his population grow by 5 points every turn.

To prevent larger player from increasing exponentially, one idea could be that according to the level of your empire, you need a certain minimum empire size to raise your population.

For example you could say that a player would need at least 4 cities in his empire to be able to increase the population track. In this case, if an empire has 12 cities, he will not increase his track 3 times, but only once. This will prevent a player from growing too fast.

I could also make it a 2 value system. Let say the cost could be 4/7 or 3/7. If you match the first value, you gain 1 pop, if you match the 2nd value, you gain 2 pop. But you cannot gain more than 2 pop in a turn. This would prevent players who are behind from growing.

I have just realized that it could make an additional value to play with. For example, I could have a special resource or ability give you additional cities for population growth purpose.

Interesting, I'll give it some thoughts.

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Tue, 06/21/2011 - 13:00
#5
benjaminvictord...
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larienna wrote:To prevent

larienna wrote:
To prevent larger player from increasing exponentially, one idea could be that according to the level of your empire, you need a certain minimum empire size to raise your population.

You could also include an upkeep mechanic, whether that be food or something else. This helps to keep players from expanding too quickly without regard for their infrastructure.

Quote:
I could also make it a 2 value system. Let say the cost could be 4/7 or 3/7. If you match the first value, you gain 1 pop, if you match the 2nd value, you gain 2 pop. But you cannot gain more than 2 pop in a turn. This would prevent players who are behind from growing.

This seems more interesting than limiting the growth to 1 pop. Maybe you could take this a step further with a growth progression like this: 3/7/12/18/25

So, the further you get up the population growth chain, the larger an empire you need to grow further. This allows for a skilled player to eke out a slightly larger population over time without making the game just be a race up the population track.

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Wed, 06/22/2011 - 01:48
#6
Casamyr
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Misunderstanding cleared

Thanks Joni, I couldn't have said it better. Where you are going now is exactly how I would have designed it.

Sorry about the short post, i'm doing it from my iPod and Its a bit difficult to read everything.

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Wed, 06/22/2011 - 06:37
#7
larienna
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I want it to be possible for

I want it to be possible for smaller empire to be competitive. So I want it for them to be possible to progress. With the 2 value system, the player is going to progress but much slower. While the second value allows to reward the player who is in the lead.

I'll probably use the food level for the population growth. Food is currently used to determine how many armies you can have into play. The larger your empire, the more food it generate. Some resources, buildings, wonders or spells, could increase your food level.

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