Value of population

[Nilzor]

As a side discussion to the largest city-thread here - what value has population in itself? Research is directly proportional to the population count, right? Anyone have any numbers on this? Any other benefits you get from pure population?

Concrete example - lets say you have a size 10 city where all ten worked tiles are 3xFood. No production, no gold, no specialists. How much science do you get?

Another case where this is interessting is in the discussion on academies and other tiles with direct science output (e.g. Old Faithful as Spain). Would food tiles give better science output in the long run? I see there is a thread on academies already, so we don't need to go in detail here, but it's an interesting discussion

 

[Strategist83]

The basic rate is 1 science per 1 population. This then gets modified by various multipliers, such as the Library (+50%). These multipliers are the primary reason why it makes sense to grow cities to a large size. Another benefit of population is trade route income, which, again, is more significant with large populations, especially with the changes in the recent patch.

In your example, that city creates 10 science/turn. Science has nothing to do with the amount of food produced - just the amount of population.

And no, food will not ever in any reasonable situation create more science for you than an academy. The academy is worth a massive six population. Many of the multipliers apply to the science output of the academy, as well, so it is very powerful.

 

[ColinTH]

In your example, that city creates 10 science/turn. Science has nothing to do with the amount of food produced - just the amount of population.

I think the op is aware that food does not produce science, more the long term affects of food increasing population size thus increasing science.

Building an Academy early is surely the way to go long term, but I personally can't do it! I wish I could resist the temptation to get that tech (now) rather than reap the long term benefits. The new patch has made the proposition even more tempting!

 

[Nilzor]

Thanks. 1 pop = 1 sciense.. Should be rememberable.

And yes, it was the long term effects I was thinking of. But I guess it takes a very large amount of turns to compensate for 6 beaks per turn you get while waiting for the city to grow 6 sizes.

 

[DaveGold]

Any other benefits you get from pure population?

Each population is extra research, extra trade route income, and an extra tile worked (or specialist).

 

[Nilzor]

Each population is extra research, extra trade route income, and an extra tile worked (or specialist).

You got any numbers on the trade route income increase?

PS: if my questions are all answered in the manual, feel free to flame me

 

[Drawmeus]

You got any numbers on the trade route income increase?

PS: if my questions are all answered in the manual, feel free to flame me

Given how hopelessly out of date the manual is (if there even is one), I doubt anyone will do this >.>

The main advantage to high population is that it provides higher raw income levels for each resource type - higher base hammers (working mines, etc), higher base gold (working riverside tiles and trading posts, etc), higher base beakers (directly for population and because you can assign population to working things like a Jungle Trading Post with Rationalism + University or set them as specialists). Then when you add modifiers (like +25% hammers from Workshop), that bonus is affecting a much higher basic pool which makes the building much more useful. Granted you can put workshops on lots of little cities, but because you're paying maintenance costs on each workshop, it's more efficient to have a Workshop on one large city than one each on several small cities.

There are plenty of other advantages to many small cities - and degenerate strategies that have cropped up (like ICS) tend to give you many large cities - but speaking strictly in terms of what increasing the population of a city gets you, it's mostly much better base yields across the board.

 

[Roller123]

1.25*(10+10)= 1.25*10+1.25*10

Still, production is what makes a big city, since production cant be split. If a big city makes an item in 5 turns, a smaller city will need 10 turns. You will get that wonder sooner. Or at all.