Zero growth?? Help!

[Haydonsangel]

I'm still pretty new to Civ3, but hooked already! But I have a problem with my population growth. Some towns do great, but alot of them, after a while, will always fall to zero growth. I don't know what brings this on, or how to fix it. Can anyone PLEASE help??

 

[PaulNAdhe]

You've got to have enough arable land in the cities radius to generate an excess of food. If your pop is 6 then you need to generate more than 6 food.

If your city is next to mountains or hills or in the jungle or hemmed in by other cities, it won't grow. If you haven't irrigated everything you can then do so and you'll generate more food. But, if you've irrigated every square in sight and still at 0 growth, it might just be that city is destined to be a village

 

[dannyevilcat]

Or maybe you just don't build aqueducts.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by PaulNAdhe
You've got to have enough arable land in the cities radius to generate an excess of food. If your pop is 6 then you need to generate more than 6 food.

Actually, that's not quite correct. Each population point in your city requires 2 food.


Haydonsangel: It sounds like you should read the manual/civilopedia with regards to what the food production of certain terrains is, and how to irrigate, etc...

 

[Haydonsangel]

Well, I've tried building the aquaducts, but my population has normally stopped growing by that point. As far as reading over the manual, my 4 and 2 year old daughters were caught playing tug-of-war with it, so that isn't much help to me anymore! Whenever I can't figure something out I have to come to this board, or just trial and error. Either way I'm doing my best to plug along! Thanks for the advice. :enlighten

 

[Polonius]

The in-game Civilopedia is quite a good source of help - particularly as the manual has such a crummy index. Not helpful when you're trying to find info on a particular issue.

I've found that when my cities hit the wall with growth it's invariably because they can't meet the need for surplus food to grow any more. The growth rules vary a little with size (towns 1-6; cities 7-12; metropolises 13+) but as far as I can see the basic requirement to produce surplus food is always there.

Initially you get some "free" food from the town square, but this effect disappears when you start building new people on 1 food squares (they are not then fully feeding themselves).

The standard solutions seem to be irrigation, granaries, aquaducts, etc with the over-riding consideration being that you need to have picked a site with the right potential in the first place. Some spots just don't seem to have the juice.

I guess there are also times when they simply get squeezed out by adjacent cities and have no more tiles left to put a citizen on.

Are there any other traps?

 

[PaulNAdhe]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk


Actually, that's not quite correct. Each population point in your city requires 2 food....SNIP

Didn't mean to misinform Haydonsangel. But, I was at work away from the game and couldn't remember the exact number.

I've built cities in Mountains and Deserts that failed to thrive, but I needed a resource located there. Getting hemmed in by other cities is something I see the AI doing with their ceaseless city building. I've had some pretty nice cities in Tundra, you need to make sure there's lots of game resources around, though.

I guess desert is my least favorite and if there's no resource there I'll avoid it like the plague.

 

[bonscott]

Irrigation is your friend, especially grassland and flood plain squares.

Here is another issue on growth: GOVERNMENT

While under Despotism, growth will be limited as squares cannot exceed a certain amount of food (and shields) per turn. You will find that as soon as you switch to Monarchy, your previous zero growth town will now be growing like rabbits, especially with irrigation.

When working squares, each square should have a road (then railroad) and be irrigated or mined (unless it's a forest) or else you're not getting your max production possible. I personally mine all plains squares, irrigate grassland (or turn to forest) and mine grassland with the extra sheild bonus. However, each city can require different things so this is just my guide.

Good luck, Civ rocks!

 

[Dark Sheer]

Originally posted by Haydonsangel
Well, I've tried building the aquaducts, but my population has normally stopped growing by that point. As far as reading over the manual, my 4 and 2 year old daughters were caught playing tug-of-war with it, so that isn't much help to me anymore! Whenever I can't figure something out I have to come to this board, or just trial and error. Either way I'm doing my best to plug along! Thanks for the advice. :enlighten

Actually there is also a electronic copy of the manual on the CD (unless your daughters play tug-of-war with the CD as well )

 

[PaulNAdhe]

In Civ II I never used the Automate worker. I found it did too many stupid things. Like repeatedly building a mine then irrigating the same square So, I manually controlled each one of the little buggers, tedium squared.

Initially in Civ III I did the same thing. Then I got tired and gave one worker the Auto command and watched him. It did exactly what I would have and quite a few things better than I would have, like mining extra shield Grasslands. I always irrigated those.

Now, I use Shift I to improve a cities radius and when that's finished I set each idle worker to Automatic and it's amazing. It works flawlessly. When each square is finally Roaded in the workers go to a city and twiddle their thumbs.

Then when I discover Steam, they come swarming out of the cities and start building Railroads. It looks like somebody kicked over an ant hill Then when all squares are Railed, they go back and wait.

And when pollution raises it's ugly head, out they pop. This worker Automation is such an improvement over Civ II I can't praise it enough

 

[swt1]

A few additional items to the above,

1) Before building a new city, build where there is at least some grassland or flood plains can be used by

2) Make sure on the city screens your placing your workers for food and not just shields.

3) If the cities position is real poor and in coastal area, building a harbor can help a little if done properly.

4) If there is a fast growing city and a slow growing city, workers can be built from the fast city and added to the slow city. Make sure the slow growing city can support the new popoulation though!

 

[PaulNAdhe]

Originally posted by swt1
SNIP ...
4) If there is a fast growing city and a slow growing city, workers can be built from the fast city and added to the slow city. Make sure the slow growing city can support the new popoulation though!

I've done this before and regretted it. When the new workers join the city I get starvation.

I think city placement has the most bearing on Haydonsangel problem.

 

[swt1]

PaulNAdhe,

I agree, thats why the warning. The new population can't be used as an entertainer, and the new population will need to be placed where it can obtain some food. At least one food if there was one food in surplus.

Come to think of it maybe that is another hint --- Get some luxuries and happiness buildings if too much of your population is being used for entertainers.