1.30 update stops mega cities?

[minky]

With the new update, when settlers join cities, the population doesn't increase - is there no effect at all when settlers join cities now?

 

[elthrasher]

With the new update, when settlers join cities, the population doesn't increase - is there no effect at all when settlers join cities now?

It adds 10 food, which is enough to grow a city from 1 pop to 2 pop, half as much as you need to get from 2 to 3. You need 10*current pop to grow, though this drops later in the game to 9*pop in 1400BC, 8*pop in 550AD and finally 6*pop in 1025AD.

It's generally not worth it to join a settler to a city, but you might do it if you captured an enemy settler and had nowhere to put it. Also, if you feel like a one-city challenge it's generally better to join your free settler than sell it for 20 gold.

 

[ericball]

Joining a settler is also occasionally useful (in SP) to increase the size of a Mongol captured barbarian village (size 1) that has no access to food resources. (Especially if you have a city which has good food & production resources to pump out settlers.)

 

[cman2010]

so they finaly stoped the mega city strat I loved that when the game first came out.

 

[elthrasher]

so they finaly stoped the mega city strat I loved that when the game first came out.

Yes, it finally happened back in October 2008, a couple of months after the game's release.