Contradictory information (F8 / F11)

[morchuflex]

Hello.

I have many, many times found that the game gives you contradictory information regarding your situation: the demographics screen (F11 key) says my population is second in the world, but the "victory situation" screen (or whatever you name it - F8 key) says my best rival is below me!
What should I believe?
At first, I thought that F11 counted every civ in the game while F8 only considered those with whom I'm in contact. That would have explained the discrepancy. However, this glitch also happens when I'm in contact with every civ in the game. So, another explanation?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

There's another glitch like this in the F8 screen (only in C3C though). On the Victory Status screen, it might say 100 points, but on the graph, it'll say 99. I don't know who to believe - but I'd take the bigger number!

 

[The Last Conformist]

The victory screen counts the number of population points you've got, the demographics screen adds together the population numbers (the one's you see below the city name in the city screen) of all your cities. The bigger the city is, the more population does each pop point in it represent. In your case, your rival will have fewer population points than you, but more of them crammed together in really big cities.

I'm not sure what points GA is refering to? The game score? If so, the explanation might be that the score given is the present one, but the one on the graph is the one for the last finished turn. To test, you could join a worker to a city, and see if it effects the stated score.

 

[Jon Shafer]

F8 takes into account only who you've met, and as LC mentioned, the F11 "population" is measuring something different from the F8 screen, so they can be different. The F8 screen is usually better in that respect.

 

[morchuflex]

If I understand well, being ahead in F8 is what really matters: it means that I have more people actually doing something?

 

[punkbass2000]

In a sense, yes. IMO, between F8/F11, F8 is better for culture unless you're in the middle of the pack (since you get specific numbers but only for two civs), population and territory. Oh, and number of rivals left can be useful, too. On F11 I mainly only look at GNP (total uncorrupted commerce), MFG goods (total unwasted shields) and Productivity (those two plus total 'extra' food). The rest generally aren't too useful, informative or meaningful.