[Vanilla] Productive Populations Mod Idea ( or does it already exist )

[FrostEmpyrean]

ALL Units should lower the City Population by 1 ( like Settlers do ) when made. This works out in that fighting Wars would decrease your 'Productive Population' in the City, and after the War, Units can 'Retire' and become 'Productive Population' yet again. If Units die, a Population is lost forever. This would make fighting Wars with more Units instead of better Units would be punished, and fighting long Wars would have a negative impact on Production.

I feel that this would be better than the current War Weariness, which now decreases Production as well, but through the lack of Amenities instead, which I feel isn't realistic. This also means that losing many Units in War would set your City back a great deal ( like IRL ). However, if this is the case, Domination Civilizations will find it much harder to conquer Cities and win Domination Victories. I think that while they could gain new Population through conquering Cities, it is possible to overextend themselves and collapse ( which is also realistic ). This would make War less likely to be declared ( especially in early-game when Populations are low ).

Giving Domination Civilizations like Mongolia Growth Bonuses in certain Eras would probably counterbalance this new mechanic, and also make them a bit better if you're not going for a Domination Victory.

Now, is it possible to make such a Mod, or does it already exist? ( If it does, please redirect it to me ) Also, would the AI be able to consider this when making their moves? Thanks!

Note: If Builders use a Population and after using up their Charges, they disappear instead of returning to the City, does that mean they were slaves that were overworked to death? It would be nice to be able to take War Prisoners from Cities when razing them.

 

[Lord Shadow]

Yeah, two things spring to mind.

One is indeed how the AI would handle this. Might be crippling.

The other is you could be collaterally allowing a weird kind of forced migration mechanic, in which peripherical, fast-growing small cities would produce the cheapest units only to disband them elsewhere and create a core of mega-cities.

As a sidenote, there's these two mods by Zee which increase the minimum distance between cities, and make a bunch of associated tweaks. Might be somewhat up your alley.

 

[FrostEmpyrean]

I don't think moving Populations from small to big Cities would be useful. You'll need to spend at least 1 Turn to move each Population, which could be used better somewhere else. Also, bigger Cities have to have the required Housing and Infrastructure to receive and put them to work, which would replicate the rural-urban migration that countries see now. I don't think it will be that big of a problem, but it could always be useful to force-send Units who 'Retire' back to their CIty of Origin. As for how the AI would handle this, since I'm not a Modder ( or a Programmer of any sort ), I have no clue. I guess we'll need someone with technical expertise to explain how it might negatively impact the AI. Thanks for replying.

 

[FrostEmpyrean]

Also, I went to check out the Mods you linked, but really, the intention of this Mod is to make Civilizations think twice before declaring War. I thought that this Mod would also make Civilizations less likely to have a huge standing Army ( because Unit Maintenance didn't work well enough ) and is also pretty realistic in my opinion. I find that it would also make, should you want to defend your Cities constantly, Civics like Retainers a bit more useful. I also went and thought a bit more about Mongolia, and found out that Genghis Khan's Ability, Mongol Horde, can convert defeat Cavalry, which would increase his Population anyway. I'm doing a bit of research on other Domination-driven Civilizations ( since I only own Base Game as of now ),

 

[Lord Shadow]

Well, the AI doesn't intuitively understand mechanics just because they exist.

On the migration thing, I wouldn't so easily discard it. Bigger cities take a lot longer to grow, and Housing isn't exactly hard to get. Food may be a different story, however. As for the AI, such a thing would fly under its radar.

Now, on the population reduction meaning less wars from the AI perspective... maybe? They probably wouldn't know what's happening, but their reduced production capacity would slow down their war efforts and space out its hunger for armed conflict in peacetime after their cities have suddenly shrunk. However, if AI civs frequently shrunk themselves building units they believe necessary, it'd negatively impact the rest of their game and possibly cause them to stagnate too much. It remains to be seen whether a behaviour could be coded to regulate their unit production in light of the new restrictions.

 

[FrostEmpyrean]

I'll have to look into the Migration, but I know nothing about AI Mechanics so I'll assume what you say is correct, and responses to new Mechanics have to be programmed in. I also thought it was possible for normal Citizens to be visible Units as well, allowing them to be taken as Prisoners of War without razing the City as well as allowing new Mechanics such as Disease to be more feasible. I guess the AI will be the most troublesome should someone want to take up the task.