In our recent update version 2.4 Populi we initiated some big changes to the way Citizens are generated and handled in the AlienGPT system, which we detailed in last week’s developer journal.
This time around we’re going to look at another important feature added in Populi, the ability to move your population around your vast and sprawling civilization using an all new Citizen Transport system, and some ideas that you can use as a base for your own strategies surrounding Citizens.
Before Populi, there was no dedicated way to move Citizens between your Core Worlds, with players repurposing Colony Ships and military Transports to do the job. This was a laborious process and became onerous when a lot of Citizens needed moving from one place to another, discouraging players from experimenting with population hothousing strategies as one might with other space 4X games.
Here’s how to use this new system.
Moving a Citizen is simple: click the button here on the Core World interface. It is located to the right of the Growth indicator.
On the Transport Citizen screen that opens, select the Citizen and the target Core World destination, then hit Transport after checking the estimated Travel Time and Surlin the Scamp here is off to bolster the numbers of a frontier world.
As a VIM (Very Important Mimot) he’ll be personally transported to Pylefira I in a fast shuttle, which appears on the map as a unique automated unit as shown here. Each turn this transport will expend its movement allowance in travelling towards its destination. It can be targeted by hostiles, so try not to send your VIMs of into enemy territory!
With the ability to efficiently move your Citizens around your empire, we can now more easily implement a classic space 4X strategy where a planet is selected for the hothousing of Citizen growth, and using that planet to rapidly increase the population of newly colonised Core Worlds.
In the above example we can see that this Mimot world with nine Citizens will be adding +27 to their Growth rate (Mimot grow very quickly with each Citizen giving +3 Growth), on top of a whole host of other modifiers they get: they’re using Population Boom for a +200% Growth bonus, the Nurture Den, the Natural League Faction and the Recruitment Station Orbital Improvement are also assisting here too.
Here’s another example from the Drath Freehold.
The Drath grow slowly compared to the Mimot, and get a small penalty to their Growth, with seven Citizens only generating 5.6 Growth altogether, before the other modifiers, but they do have access to the Coerced Colonization Policy for a +100% bonus, and Artocarpus Fruit increases this further. There’s a Colonial Clinic giving a large +40% boost too, although that is quite expensive to build in terms of Manufacturing and requires a little Durantium too.
By stacking as many Growth modifiers on your planet as possible with various Improvements like the Colonial Clinic and adding civilization-wide bonuses from Civilization Abilities, Traits and Polices, any modifiers from Events, and leveraging the natural Growth of your increasing Citizen pool, you can dedicate a planet to Citizen growth.
Here’s one possible way to develop your civilization, by dedicating specific planets to specific jobs.
Set one planet for Manufacturing early, and use it to pump out Supply Ships. Then pick a large Core World with plenty of space to build on, and dedicate it to Citizen Growth, building the Colonial Clinic and other Growth boosting Improvements.
Keep it free of Pollution (a negative modifier on Growth) by only building limited Manufacturing assets and then send Supply Ships from your industrial world to get those early Growth production assets up instead of relying on your own factories. Pick Civilization Policies that favour Growth, and away you go!
Once your Population begins to max out and your people start complaining about overcrowding, you can use the Citizen Transports to send excess Citizens to your newer worlds (including that heavily Polluted Manufacturing world that’s building your Supply Ships and likely has little population growth of its own). Develop this baby-making planet with Cultural, Approval and Wealth generating Districts and Improvements too, to make use of those Citizens who’re otherwise sat their breeding.
Core Worlds with natural Approval boosting tiles to help offset the Approval penalty for overcrowding, like this Permanent Rainbow, can make great planets for this strategy.
Note that in some space 4X games this is often the optimal way to play; in GalCiv it’s not so important on the lower difficulties but it will help on some maps in some situations, and can be an incredibly satisfying way to play for those of you who love the industrial/economic development side of 4X games.
We hope this new feature helps you to enjoy the game more, with less fuss required in moving your Citizens around your empire, and inspires you to try different playstyles like the one I’ve suggested here too! There are many potential applications for Citizens (think about some of the Improvements, Techs and Events that increase Citizen Stats…) so go wild with your imagination!