What's a "Population Boom"?

[TomChick]

What exactly is a "population boom", as defined by getting growth in a city up to +6?

I've noticed the nutrient tanks are at the same capacity whether your Growth is +5 or +6, so I presume there's some sort of benefit from a +6? I can't find in the manual or datalinks any specific info on having a base at Population Boom.

Thanks in advance,

-Tom

[Smeagol]

A population boom makes your base gain a unit of population each turn. If my memory serves me correctly, this can only be done by growth pluses from SE choices and from the Children's creche. The +2 growth from golden ages does not apply towards your actual growth social factor. This might have been fixed for SmacX, but I don't have it yet so I don't know.

[Adam_Smith]

Yes, they fixed it. You need +6 growth or the Cloning Vats.

[Master Marcus]

Yes, that too much unbalancing and overpowering pop boom ( SE +6 growth OR the CV ) is well above 200%+ . If +5 growth is +50% growth, a more realistic pop boom should have been around 75-100% . That's why I don't really like the CV, so praised by many. The exponential growth causes numerous drone riots every incoming turn that you have to spent sometimes no less than 50% of the whole turn just to create specialists ( especially if you have 80-100+ bases ).

It's irritating, and unrealistic since you double the cities pop within a few turns, after a 150-200 turns of conventional growth. Believe me the ending part of a game is real refreshing without building the CV and the MH; you still dominate the chart and this doesn't really change anything about your unavoidable path into victory. But you're not delayed anymore about inconveniences like drone riots & eco damage. This speed up the game without losing any of its twists.

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The art of mastering:"la Maîtrise des caprices du subconscient avant tout".

[Helium Pond]

Okay, yeah, yeah, Cloning Vats, whatever. I'm more curious about a point TomChick brought up: where is the effect of a population boom documented? I learned about pop booming from Vel's strategy guide. Once you know about pop booming, it really becomes a central part of SMAC strategy, so it's really valuable information. The fact that it's not plainly documented suggests that the designers didn't realize how significant a game element it would be. Also, the fact that the game itself doesn't indicate in any way that a given base is in pop boom suggests that the designers thought it was kind of unimportant. You know, on the F4 screen there's red for riots, white for golden age, and nothing for pop boom. There's nothing *anywhere* for pop boom. Which is odd.

Anyway, does anyone know where exactly it spells out the effects of a pop boom?

[Ned]

Helium Pond, Pop Boom is indeed important. I too did not learn about it until reading these boards. In fact, when I was first learn Civilization, I didn't know that it too had PoP Boom. There, Pop Boom was solely associated with "Golden Age." When I moved to SMAC, I tried increasing PSYCH to force a Golden Age to see if I would get a Pop Boom. I did not. Only later did I find that this was largly a bug and that what really caused a Pop Boom was +6 Growth.

CV does not overpower a game because one ordinarily should have Boom his or her key base population long prior to that date. However, there are a number of factions with -1 Growth, or which, like Yang, cannot use Democracy, which are difficult to Pop Boom.

MM: How about limiting the nuts intake of a base to 0 or 1/turn? Then you don't have any inconvenient growth. When you think you're ready for an extra pop or two in that base, increase the nutrient intake to 2+.

I assume that you find drone control methods to be a pain to enact (I know I do), or detracting from other areas (especially true with Psych allocation).

Despite this, I still think the CV is worth it. Pre-Habitation Dome, it cranks your population up to the limit, then stops. At this point, you can tailor the base to your satisfaction, because it cannot grow anyway (without pod booming, or so I am given to understand). After Habitation Domes, the extra pop usually balances itself out by gathering enough minerals to build drone reducing facilities fast, or enhancing econ enough to allow rush building. Once you get large enough bases (20+ pop, I think), all excess population has to be a specialist anyway, so why not make some psych enhancers? I always notice an INCREASE in overall happiness in very large bases.

I do have problems with the CV. It's way too powerful, and it requires diligent attention as to what's happing with the population. I think a +2 Growth, or something like that, would have been enough, especially with the removal of the negative affects of Power AND Though Control.

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Yours Truly
[This message has been edited by YT (edited March 15, 2000).]