[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#13845) Increasing the appeal of very large cities

["Jason Short" <jdorje@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=13845 >

Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa wrote:

>><URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=13845 >
>>
>>What about the MOO2 model of population growth? As a reminder: population is
>>tracked seperately; the growth rate is a simple population model if the food
>>production is sufficient, and is sharply reduced (often negative) if the
>>food is insufficient.
> 
> Handling food freighters in MOO2 was boring beyond belief. The way MOM did
> it was so much better.

MOM was identical, it just had no food freighters (and had food upkeep 
for units).  The freighters didn't have anything to do with population 
growth.

The only thing wrong with that model is that it is not transparent what 
affects population growth.

>>In a game without food transport, that meant that small colonies were
>>worthless: they couldn't do anything but feed themselves, and had no excess
>>capacity -- indeed, they basically were just things to spend resources on
>>defending, and defense was almost impossible. This mitigates S2.

Yes.

>>Also, the simple population model was basically a sigmoid: with higher
>>population, you get more population growth (exponentially more in parts of
>>the curve), until you start to reach the holding capacity of the planet.
>>This mitigates S1.

Yeah, the growth rate was something like proportional to
    (size) * sqrt(maxsize - size)
I'm sure we could find the exact formula somewhere.

>>Notice I say "mitigates" -- what it means is that you end up with more of a
>>mixed strategy, one that depends a bit more on your local circumstances. A
>>game where largepox always dominates is equally uninteresting as one where
>>smallpox always dominates.

I don't think that's true.  While it's nice to have different strategies 
be successful, smallpox is hated by many because it takes so much more 
micromanagement.

-jason