Beyond civ5: a revolutionary pop growth and labor system

[Hail]

some drastic measures

remove

• drop city sizes
• drop population growth model solely based on food surplus
• separate health and happiness (they serve mostly the same purpose -> limit city growth)
• drop one citizen per tile rule

add

• population growth is exponential in nature
• happiness effects population efficiency(bonus to yields)
• health effects the growth coefficient(gc)
• each terrain type and terrain improvement type has a labor value: the pop needed to "work" such tile

explanations:

population growth is exponential in nature

Spoiler :

i will start with the most well known differential equation: f(t) = df(t) / dt
f(t) = A * exp(t), A >= 0.

if t is discrete, than the equation becomes f(t+1) = (1+k)*f(t), k > 0.
if f(0) = 1 than f(t) = (1+k)^t.

k is the gc.
this gc is very important. this is where health, overgrowding, etc. comes into play

resume:
in civ terms: t is turns. pop(t) is city population at turn t.
pop(t + 1) = (1 + gc) * pop(t); where gc is a function of health, starvation, overgrowding, etc.

each terrain type and terrain improvement type has a labor value

Spoiler :

to work a grassland farm, hill mine, etc. the player needs to allocate pop.
for simplicity suppose it's an all-or-nothing. either the player allocates the full amount or the tile
will not be worked.
farms can "cost" more pop than mines or the opposite. whatever the game-designer wants

the bottom line:
the proposed game mechanics are surely more realistic, but are they more fun than the current ones?
what ya all think?

 

[Save_Ferris]

I don't know, I really like the city model. Maybe workers can be part of the population. I honestly think it's time for a CiVI (Civ 6) Forum, there's ideas floating about and it's never too early. If they're on schedule, it's only 4 years away

 

[Glak]

These are great ideas. I kind of like the "all or nothing" approach to working tiles. I think that decimal yields would work well too.

So for example a medieval farm would require 4 people to work it and yield 4.5 food. Each person requires 1.0 food for baseline health. Additional food improves happiness and health. We can assume that excess grain is fed to cattle providing meat and dairy, or turned into alcohol, etc... The farm would also provide some production representing its various farriers and excess labor, maybe 0.5, but it would also consume production to maintain irrigation etc... However when you produce troops or a building you could divert that production. If you do it for a short time, no problem, otherwise the farm might deteriorate.

Now as that farm increases in population you end up with 5, 6, 7 people on the farm. They would migrate to adjacent tiles and begin working them. Perhaps there is a town that requires 10 people.

Instead of health I had been thinking of fertility. Look at modern countries and the low fertility rates caused by society. I guess that it could still fall under health if you use a broader definition.

I was thinking that instead of commerce/gold/science/culture we have excess food and production make people happy. As above that excess food represents better food, and excess production can represent consumer goods. Instead of culture I was thinking of propaganda. Cities would be the main source of it, it would be made by your government, religious, and educational buildings. Science would work differently, it would just sort of happen randomly like in real life, then the knowledge would spread by trade routes. You would then need to invest in related infrastructure to get the benefits.