What Does Population Effect?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Here is what I know population to effect:

More population means more cash from economic based planets (Anyone know the formula?)
More population means more cannon fodder for wars (Troop ships)
Too much popluation without enough stims means unhappy population
More population means more votes in the United Planets

Now... what else does a high population get me? What I'd specifically like to know is if there is any point to cultivating a high population on a research pure planet?
8,925 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, two of your points only tell half the story.

Just as you get more people to put on troop ships, you also get more defensive troops when an enemy invades.

The reason you get more votes is because that planet's influence is greater, which pushes the boundaries of your influence farther out.

I put at least one farm on every planet size 7 or above, if only for invasion defense.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
More population means more cash from economic based planets


And cash is the most important factor in the game: no cash = no production or research, even if you have build tons if factorys and labs.

So i would care for population growth on any of my planets. Even if it is a pure research planet, the population will givetax cash....

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I believe Influence is also based on population - and as it can cause planets to defect, and draw in tourism revenue, just calling it 'more votes' isnt quite fair.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"1" farm? I find even on class 10 planets, eventually.. I have more than 1 farm..

I know i'm giving up other production factors.. but having 25 million people on the planet is nice as well.. since then having less factories/research labs is offset by the massive # of people to operate in them?>

or maybe I am wrong.

Side gripe.. the manual is just too sparse to explain even things like above adequately...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You dont need people to operate any of the buildings in the game - it's just not a factor in this game. The sliders for research/military/social tells how much of the potential operation is used, together with the spending throttle.

25 *billion* people on a planet is nice for taxes, influence and troops (both defensive and to send to take AI worlds) but makes no difference in terms of operating buildings than having 1 billion.

I personally only put 1 farm on planets between 9 and 14, then maybe 2 on 15,16,17 depending on the resources. PQ18 plus all have a minimum of 2 farms. Once it gets to PQ24 or so I only bother putting 3 max down.... it's too hard to balance out your morale over widely diverging planetary populations if you put more than this.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I play on Suicidal, and penalties for having high population planets by far outweigh any of the bonuses (for my play style, atleast).

On Normal, you can get away with playing any way you like and still win. That's mostly true for on Tough and Challenging as well... But on higher levels of difficulty, you'll begin to notice that it's inneficient to to have populations over 5 billion people on any research/manufacturing planet -- regardless of it's PQ.

It's different for Influence/Economic planets (I don't really give a hoot about Influence, though).