Population jump

usnavyet

Chieftain
Joined
Jun 16, 2015
Messages
18
Wondering if anyone else has seen this. I'm playing SMAC with the unchanged version from GOG. Bought it a few months back, an offer of both SMAC/SMAX in one package. I've still not played SMAX, as I had and played SMAC when it was a new release (Am I old? :confused:) Anyway, I prefer land bases so when I capture an enemy seabase I usually eliminate it by building sea colony pods. What sometimes happens is I'll get in down to a pop of 1 or 2, then after a turn or two it has magically added a pop. My current game I have two Believer sea cities I'd captured that I was doing this to. Turn 2388 they were both pop 1 with either 5 or 7 turns to growth. I paid to hurry sea colony pod production in 2 turns for both. Beginning of turn 2389 they were both pop 2!! What the heck!! I've seen this happen before, but not be paying close enough attention to get a saved game before and after. Don't know if this happens in land cities, because I rarely ever eliminate a land city. Anyone else ever see this?
 
OK, so you have seen it too. That's ok then, at least it's not just my games. Thanks!!
 
Note that each time you reduce population by a level (by colony Pod or otherwise) you reduce the number of columns of food to go before growth while keeping the same amount of excess food, often resulting in full food boxes and population growth.
 
That's true Lefty Scaevola, but I am well aware of that. This specific example, year 2388, both were pop 1, one of them was 5 turns from growth and other was 7 turns from growth. This is taken directly from food boxes. I paid to hurry pod construction in 2 turns for both, turn 2389 they were both pop 2. :cry:
 
I've been trying to get rid of a conquered Believer land base using colony pods. I've got it down to population 1 but can't get rid of the last citizen. I've tried making the citizen a doctor so no tiles are worked and the growth box shows as stagnant, then rush buying the pod, but the citizen is still there with the pod on the next turn.

I thought it might be because the icon was still showing as a Believer base, so I would have to wait for it to fully convert to my faction before I could disband it. However, as an experiment I tried disbanding one of my own bases using pods and the same thing happens. I can't get rid of the last citizen and disband the base.

So is it actually possible to get rid of an unwanted base? Or could this be a quirk of the game version? I'm playing the same version as usnavyvet, vanilla SMAC from GOG.
 
On what difficulty level are you playing? At the two lowest levels, building a Colony Pod doesn't reduce base population.
 
I can't remember if I'm on the 2nd or 3rd lowest level. Colony pods are definitely reducing population (I just tested on a saved game) -- but the last citizen stays put no matter how many pods I build.

It's slightly annoying that I can't get rid of that stupidly placed Believer base, but this is a learner game for me (haven't played SMAC in about ten years). I'll be switching to Alien Crossfire and trying a higher level next.
 
Actually, I should have said that at the two lowest difficulty levels, building a Colony Pod doesn't reduce the size of a one pop base. Larger bases will suffer a reduction in population. Sorry about that. If you can post a save file that illustrates the problem we can take a look.
 
Thanks Petek but I think that explains it. I must be on the second lowest level and can't reduce a 1 pop base to disband it. Definitely going up a level or two next game.
 
Could it be that you built the Cloning Vats? It says it makes population grow every turn, provided sufficient nutrients and facilities. I guess it refers to a city having Hab Complex/Dome, and the nutrients box not being stagnant.
I do abandon land cities a lot, seeing that the AI has no regard for city placement, and myself being a Civ III veteran, where city placement was crucial. I used to have trouble with the last citizen, since the center tile had 3 nutrients, so even with the only worker turned to doctor, there was still an extra nutrient. I had to build a convoy to deliver 1 nutrient to another base, so there could finally be no extra food and the base could be abandoned. Silly me, I forgot that recycling tanks were giving me the 1 extra, so now I scrap it first, and have only to worry about cities built on bonus nutrient or monsoon tiles.
With cloning vats, that 1 extra was enough to keep the city growing. I'm not sure before CV... could it be that even without it, rushing a colony pod would make population grow so it could be built?
 
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