shrinking population

Shiber · July 22, 2002, 17:11

It has come to my attention that our population (or at least the number of people who participate in the weekly census) is decreasing. I suspect that there's a new element involved, something that we have never considered before.
A thinker who's a friend of mine told me that he believes that there is an element in nature that causes human bodies and possibly the bodies of animals to cease to function properly. He calls it "disease" or something... he says it may even lead to death under some circumstances.
I believe this disease thing may have something to do with our population's negative growth rate. Oh wait, it's 1275 BC so the idea of negative numbers wasn't thought of yet... okay, then I believe this disease thing may have something to do with our population's shrinkage rate.
He says researching "sanitation" might help (I don't know what that is but it sounds like some sort of technology from the far future, my bet would be two eras ahead of us), but in the mean time we should turn our efforts to finding other ways to defeat diseases.

* Seriously now, does anybody feel he knows enough about disease in civ3 to talk about it? What are the chances that we'd be hit by a disease in the near future? I imagine they're pretty high since we're surrounded by a jungle (even though we cleared some of it) and since we don't have any aqueducts nor the technology to build them.
Maybe we should make it a priority to research construction after we finish up currency so we could build aqueducts. This would help us grow further as well.

GodKing · July 22, 2002, 17:57

disease cannot strike if there is no jungle or floodplains touching the city (within the 9 grids including the city square and all 8 adjacient to).

I suspect that we will always have a fairly transient population, considering that many of our members are students, or others like myself who's job is seasonal (I work construction administration - in the winter there is little construction, thus little admin.).

In the last elections, there were many people who visited and voted for prez, I suspect because of markG. post advertising us. If so, we should just keep up the drama, get more advertising, and the savages shall come out of the jungle and join our glorious civizilation, offsetting the "death rate" we currently have.

OPD · July 22, 2002, 18:49

I'd expect the numbers to drop alot when exam time comes around.

Personally I'm ok cos I'm unemployed but as soon as I do get a job I'll hardly be able to participate at all.

BTW GodKing any chance of a job in construction I'm bone idle, lazy and easily tired but I do have a hammer and can get hold of a stupid yellow hat.

Jon Shafer · July 22, 2002, 19:07

People are getting sick of seeing the thread so they don't bother voting anymore.

notyoueither · July 22, 2002, 19:20

Disease strikes a city only if...

it is built in a flood plain...

one of it's citizens is actually working a jungle tile...

a worker is working on a jungle tile within it's radius.

In any of these 3 cases there is only a small chance each turn that disease will strike the city. These effects go away when sanitation is discovered. Building an aqueduct does nothing (except increase the number of people available to work jungle and therefore increasing the chance of disease striking unless you're careful).

Robber Baron · July 22, 2002, 19:57

Notice how jungle rot disease corelates to exam periods? hmmm....

BigFurryMonster · July 23, 2002, 05:22

I personally think it's a pretty useless thread.

disorganizer · July 23, 2002, 08:49

which number leads you to think the numbers are dropping? the number of "yes" votes rised, and as long as more ppl participate there than in any other poll (except maybe elections)...

Epistax · July 23, 2002, 08:58

Meant to reply earlier-- It's a combination of reasons (duh) including people just not participating in the census, and also the drifting away of people. I think this is because some don't find the current part of our game too exciting, they see things as moving slowly, and our current situation as disastrous. We should be able to expect higher retention later on, but not just anyone will be drawn to a game such as ours.

disorganizer · July 23, 2002, 09:26

the problem is propably also that ppl think they cant participate too much as they cant influence most of the decissions. many decissions are taken in chat i believe and not here in the forum.

jdd2007 · July 23, 2002, 09:41

the whole election debacle made me want to to leave anyway

Harovan · July 23, 2002, 10:00

This game has lost a lot of attactivity. Half of the ministers do their job rather occasionally or not at all, key decisions are met in turnchat quickpolls (and I dare to say, not always the best) and endless constitution discussions and nitpicking party fights suck the last bit of fun out of the game. The last stronghold of entertainment is the Jungle Gazette.

I'm thinking of leaving after this term as well.

Shiber · July 23, 2002, 10:03

Quote:

Originally posted by BigFurryMonster
I personally think it's a pretty useless thread.

I think not. If people are in fact leaving the game, then perhaps there's room for change.
I mean, if people don't like the game then it's their own problem and besides, most of us like the game the way it is. But perhaps we could still make a few changes, such as making the game advance a little faster.
If things continue the way they are, then when our civilization becomes really big turns are gonna take forever. Perhaps we should do something about it now.

July 23, 2002, 10:45

Many people, I believe are posting in the join thread and then leaving without ever participating again. There should be some way to regulate this...