How do I move citizens around? Dealing with overpopulation?

[Nats]

I have been trying to move my citizens around but every time I come back to the city they have changed again. I see that there are automated setting for these citizens but does nothing exist that lets me just move them to where I want them and have them stay there?

For example I have several cities I do not want to grow as fast anymore. I move all the farming citizens out elsewhere and when I look again they are all back.

Also how do I deal with overpopulation. I dont want to just let them starve but how do I increase my city population limit? Is the only way to reduce population to create units?

[LORDSOL]

turn them into militia move then disband

[Eagle_of_Fire]

When I move people in a city they usually stay there until the city grow I think? Not that it matter to me because since cities are so important in this game I just visit them one by one every single turn just to make sure everything is perfect. At the late game when I know even the automated settings can't f... things up I use the automated settings. There is an "expert mode" at the very bottom and you can set the priorities there. Late game I've selected production, trade (money), science and then farmers as the priority but you'll want to switch to whatever is more important to you at that point of course.

As for city population limits... Well you seem to be confused here because there is actually no population limit in the game. The only real limit is your food production. The total population (like 12/22) you see in the city tab is the amount of population you have versus the amount of jobs available in the city. Those job caps are limited by the amount of districts that you build in said city (including territories), which is why most building tell you in their descriptions that they add one worker job of that type into the pool you see at the top (where you drag and drop pops).

"Overpopulation", since I've just said there is no town cap limit, is whatever your own bar is for that definition. If you have too many people in a city you should definitely start building up units with said city. If you believe that you already have enough land units then consider naval units as they are pretty much as important from mid game onward.

Just FYI, I've found that cycling between units and cities to be so important in this game that I've assigned both to my mouse thumb buttons. One cycle thru my army list and the other thru my cities (but only one way) and I usually start my turn with the headlines, then cycle thru all my armies one by one then go thru all my cities once the "next turn" button show up before I actually hit the next turn.

[DNLH]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

"Overpopulation", since I've just said there is no town cap limit, is whatever your own bar is for that definition. If you have too many people in a city you should definitely start building up units with said city. If you believe that you already have enough land units then consider naval units as they are pretty much as important from mid game onward.

Just a heads up, 'Overpopulation' is an actual in-game term for whenever you have more pops than worker slots. There are even mechanics tied to it - off the top of my head, Cubans' Pharmaceuticals provide additional Food per Farmer on Overpopulated City. I believe it also causes additional Food consumption.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by DNLH:

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

"Overpopulation", since I've just said there is no town cap limit, is whatever your own bar is for that definition. If you have too many people in a city you should definitely start building up units with said city. If you believe that you already have enough land units then consider naval units as they are pretty much as important from mid game onward.

Just a heads up, 'Overpopulation' is an actual in-game term for whenever you have more pops than worker slots. There are even mechanics tied to it - off the top of my head, Cubans' Pharmaceuticals provide additional Food per Farmer on Overpopulated City. I believe it also causes additional Food consumption.

It make sense but in any other game it would cause you to either stop having more citizens altogether or have so many problems and maluses that you'd have to do your very best to avoid it. In my games, late game I had cities with like 7-8 pops over the limit and I haven't even felt the difference. The only reason why I finally caved in and created more units (that I did not need) was because it felt like wasted growth potential.

[DNLH]

It really depends on how you build your empire, there are LTs that can provide heaps of Food and then there is other stuff that provides bonuses depending on amount of population, not necessarily workers, so I say it's something that devs want you to utilize if you can make it (especially with things like mentioned Cubans special, that lets you grow a couple more unemployed pops). I had builds that struggled to fill all the worker slots in a city, I had ones that couldn't keep up buidling new slots for pop that kept growing. I don't think any other cap is needed aside of the soft one that we have currently that makes the Overpopulated Cities consume more Food.

[willgamer47]

IIRC, Hamlets provide more slots, thus allowing more pops.

[MaX-NOR]

I asked Chatgpt about this:

In Humankind, overpopulation can lead to issues like stability loss, lack of food, and difficulty in maintaining cities. Here are five ways to manage or reduce overpopulation effectively:

Encourage Emigration (City Merging & Outposts)

If cities are overpopulated, merge them with nearby cities or attach outposts to increase available land.

Convert overgrown cities into vassals or independent territories to redistribute population pressure.

Promote Urban Planning (Infrastructure & Policies)

Build infrastructure that increases food production (e.g., Farmers Quarters, Irrigation Canals) to sustain larger populations.

Adopt civics like "Collectivism" or "Regulated Workforce" to better manage population growth.

Utilize Population as a Resource (Army & Colonization)

Train excess population into military units to prevent overcrowding.

Settle new territories to expand available land and distribute citizens across multiple cities.

Encourage Scientific or Economic Growth Over Agrarian Expansion

Select cultures that favor science or economy rather than agrarian growth to slow down population increase.

Focus on research that enables automation and food efficiency rather than sheer population expansion.

Apply Harsh Policies (Forced Control)

Enact policies that reduce birth rates, such as authoritarian or restrictive government choices.

Use stability-reducing actions like forced labor or war to naturally curb unchecked population growth.

Sacrificial Megaprojects (Wonder & Infrastructure Investments)

Large-scale projects like Wonders or Districts consume population to accelerate their construction.

Prioritize building expensive structures when cities are overpopulated.
Planned Starvation (Limiting Food Production)

Reduce the number of Farmers Quarters or disable food-producing infrastructures to slow population growth.

Shift population to other jobs like Industry or Research to decrease food surplus.
Encourage Migration (Liberating Cities)

Release some cities as independent nations or vassals to offload population.

Encourage city defection by intentionally lowering stability.

War and Attrition (High-Risk Strategy)

Engage in continuous warfare to use up excess population for military purposes.

Allow cities to be sacked or raided to reduce population in extreme cases.

Environmental Exploitation (Pollution and Climate Control)

Industrial pollution reduces food yields and stability, indirectly controlling overpopulation.

Prioritize production-heavy districts like Makers Quarters over food-producing ones.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by MaX-NOR:

I asked Chatgpt about this:

You lost me right there. I don't need a bad tool assistant to tell me what I can figure out myself in 30 seconds.

[chaney]

I'll undercut that 30 seconds by condensing the verbose Chatgpt text:

Play badly and you can have a low population. "Problem" solved.

[MaX-NOR]

Some of the option the chatgpt suggested I would never consider. Such as removing farms and starve the populations on purpose. Reduse stability and liberate my own city is almost never in my playbook.

I usually build more districts and units to have some controll.

[Nats]

I dont use AI utilities and this is a good example why

[DNLH]

Yeah, it's a not really helpful mix of stuff that was already said in the thread, solid advice of 'you can have less population by producing less Food' and then some vague hints that I think mean that HK isn't popular enough and it just grabbed some generic advice from 'close enough' 4X titles.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Not popular for ChatGPT but popular enough for Sid Meiers to think that they should completely transfigure their flagship game to look like it? :P

(I know Sid haven't been part of Civilization in a long while, this is meant to be a joke.)

[Rfl]

Originally posted by Nats:

For example I have several cities I do not want to grow as fast anymore. I move all the farming citizens out elsewhere and when I look again they are all back.

In the city view top right you can set an approach. It usually is set to "balanced approach". What you want is expert approach and then sort and put food last so that all slots will be filled before any farmer slot is filled (when a new pop is created or when you get a new slot).

[Nats]

Originally posted by Rfl:

In the city view top right you can set an approach. It usually is set to "balanced approach". What you want is expert approach and then sort and put food last so that all slots will be filled before any farmer slot is filled (when a new pop is created or when you get a new slot).

Yes I know about those. But I thought if I manually moved the citizens they would stay where I placed them. But they dont seem to. This game is similar in that feature to Endless Space and in that game you can move them around and they stay there.