Population does not stop growing.

[Auhrii]

Here I am, fairly late into the game in a tall empire (2 colonised planets, though granted I have a good portion of the galaxy within my borders thanks to outposts). I have a major problem: Overcrowding. The population is still growing at the same rate it always was despite a clear lack of housing.

This makes no sense. Quality of life is very high, so population growth should be stagnating and plateauing out at the housing limit, not growing endlessly and inevitably causing my empire to collapse. Even discouraging growth only delays this problem.

Please fix.

[andy-scull]

What about planet decision for (AFAIR) 50 influence? I think it's immediately and forever stops all pop growing. At least the description doesn't state any timer for it so it is just stuck to planet forever in my case.

[Auhrii]

Originally posted by andy-scull:

What about planet decision for (AFAIR) 50 influence? I think it's immediately and forever stops all pop growing. At least the description doesn't state any timer for it so it is just stuck to planet forever in my case.

That's what I meant by discouraging growth - it only slows it by 75%. When your population is already breeding like rabbits on crack, that's not going to do much besides drain influence and amenities.

[TangoImmortalis]

Agreed that this should be revisited. Most of these mechanics, should probably have base values set by the difficulty level we choose to play at.

I get that some guys like the "realism" of this. It also assumes every possible species we create, is going to have our own inherent lack of values towards sustainability. (Why am I creating factions, if every faction created is essentially human, with our worst traits?)

Admin cap has broken wide play for the user, yet I see AI Empires with apparently 0 penalty for being wide. I thought they only gained advantage, at Captain difficulty or higher?

If I can't expand, the overcrowding issue becomes inevitable. If I can't turn it off, and I'm not a fan of 3rd party modding, I'm left with 0 options.

This DLC/Update, feels like a lot of the options, and replayability that came with them, or variations of them, has been removed from the player.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

Originally posted by andy-scull:

What about planet decision for (AFAIR) 50 influence? I think it's immediately and forever stops all pop growing. At least the description doesn't state any timer for it so it is just stuck to planet forever in my case.

That's what I meant by discouraging growth - it only slows it by 75%. When your population is already breeding like rabbits on crack, that's not going to do much besides drain influence and amenities.

Is this an ethics thing? Enabling population control for my Authoritarian empire has stopped pop growth dead.

[andy-scull]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

That's what I meant by discouraging growth - it only slows it by 75%

Maybe I spelled it wrong or it was added in latest patch. Sorry, I can't run the game now (at work) so I only have info from wiki and stellaris data files.
It's in planet UI. Decisions - "enable population control" or something like that, should cost 25 influence. Removing it should be free
Decision itself attaches planet_population_control modifier to planet for -1 days (forever).
and in defines.txt it says:

can_pops_grow_on_planet = {
        NOR = {
                has_modifier = planet_population_control
                has_modifier = planet_population_control_gestalt

So I think it should fully stop pop growth, not just lower the rate. Just like synthetics as they're tested in same block.
Also, when I used it on my planets before, the 'currently growing pop' in planet interface was empty, there wasn't any species in it

[Auhrii]

My empire's ethics are Egalitarian, Xenophile, Materialist, if that makes any difference. Population growth should at least slow down as you near the housing cap regardless.

[StormWing]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

My empire's ethics are Egalitarian, Xenophile, Materialist, if that makes any difference. Population growth should at least slow down as you near the housing cap regardless.

slowed housing does not help, it delays the inevitable, as the OP has already said

[andy-scull]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

My empire's ethics are Egalitarian, Xenophile, Materialist, if that makes any difference. Population growth should at least slow down as you near the housing cap regardless.

Could you look in empire policies for something like 'Population control"? Maybe it's just disabled in you empire by default.

[Auhrii]

Originally posted by StormFire52:

Originally posted by Auhrii:

My empire's ethics are Egalitarian, Xenophile, Materialist, if that makes any difference. Population growth should at least slow down as you near the housing cap regardless.

slowed housing does not help, it delays the inevitable, as the OP has already said

What? First, I am the OP. Second, I meant population growth should naturally slow down as the population increases, especially as housing availability decreases. Good quality of life (happiness/approval rating) should also slow it down somewhat, but it doesn't. Population growth is, unfortunately, this unstoppable force that can topple even the most well thought-out empire.

Unless you only just realise population controls via policies are a thing, but don't want to touch them because that goes against your empire's egalitarian ethics.

[U.D.R]

Admin Cap broke nothing... Just expend and you'll see.

[StormWing]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

Originally posted by StormFire52:

slowed housing does not help, it delays the inevitable, as the OP has already said

What? First, I am the OP. Second, I meant population growth should naturally slow down as the population increases, especially as housing availability decreases. Good quality of life (happiness/approval rating) should also slow it down somewhat, but it doesn't. Population growth is, unfortunately, this unstoppable force that can topple even the most well thought-out empire.

Unless you only just realise population controls via policies are a thing, but don't want to touch them because that goes against your empire's egalitarian ethics.

ah lol, my bad. forgive me, Im currently drinking a caffiene filled slurpee at 3:05 am in the attempt that I can stay awake longer.

I thought you were having issues stopping the growth period, and were asking for help.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Auhrii:

Originally posted by StormFire52:

slowed housing does not help, it delays the inevitable, as the OP has already said

What? First, I am the OP. Second, I meant population growth should naturally slow down as the population increases, especially as housing availability decreases. Good quality of life (happiness/approval rating) should also slow it down somewhat, but it doesn't. Population growth is, unfortunately, this unstoppable force that can topple even the most well thought-out empire.

Unless you only just realise population controls via policies are a thing, but don't want to touch them because that goes against your empire's egalitarian ethics.

Overcrowding is a issue in real life. The game presents you with several ways to deal with the issue depending on what sort of empire you are (Slowing pop growth, stopping population growth all togheter, exiling excess people, selling people of as slaves, etc).

It stands to reasons that certain empire/ethics will have more of a issue with this then others (since many ways to "deal with it" can be considered evil). If i were you i would just realise that its a weak point of whatever empire type you made and try to find new solutions (like constantly expanding to new world and resettle a lot of pops), eventually you will be forced to deal with it in a more extreme manner (As will likely eventually happen pretty much everywhere in real life).

Personaly i kinda love it, since it forces you to do some real life like bad choices, wars are often fought over land even by the "good guys" ya know.

[TangoImmortalis]

Originally posted by Garatgh Deloi:

Originally posted by Auhrii:

What? First, I am the OP. Second, I meant population growth should naturally slow down as the population increases, especially as housing availability decreases. Good quality of life (happiness/approval rating) should also slow it down somewhat, but it doesn't. Population growth is, unfortunately, this unstoppable force that can topple even the most well thought-out empire.

Unless you only just realise population controls via policies are a thing, but don't want to touch them because that goes against your empire's egalitarian ethics.

Overcrowding is a issue in real life. The game presents you with several ways to deal with the issue depending on what sort of empire you are (Slowing pop growth, stopping population growth all togheter, exiling excess people, selling people of as slaves, etc).

It stands to reasons that certain empire/ethics will have more of a issue with this then others (since many ways to "deal with it" can be considered evil). If i were you i would just realise that its a weak point of whatever empire type you made and try to find new solutions (like expanding to new world and resettle a lot of pops), eventually you will be forced to deal with it in a more extreme manner (As will likely eventually happen pretty much everywhere in real life).

If we look at issues of population growth (or lack thereof) in what we consider to be modernized societies in the real world, this mechanic is backwards. The richer your population, the harder it should be to convince them to keep producing offspring. I agree with you on most things my friend, but the admin cap and population growth are things that should be equated to the difficulty we pick upon start, not something inherent to every game (thus crushing the replayability).

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by TangoImmortalis:

If we look at issues of population growth (or lack thereof) in what we consider to be modernized societies in the real world, this mechanic is backwards. The richer your population, the harder it should be to convince them to keep producing offspring. I agree with you on most things my friend, but the admin cap and population growth are things that should be equated to the difficulty we pick upon start, not something inherent to every game (thus crushing the replayability).

In real life we don't have the tech of Stellaris (adapting genes and a lot of other "growth" bonuses). If you keep throwing on tech that increases growth (and you will since theres no other option) the populations wealth and willingness to produce offsprings would be offset by that.

Also, the admin cap is a non issue, just ignore it or use it as a pointer to when to build more labs, the penalty for going wide before was harsher then it is now, its just easier to see now.

[flow]

Once you reach a certain amount of unemployment and overpopulation on any given planet, your population growth should naturally slow to a crawl anyway.

Admin cap has always existed, we just weren't shown it. You're not supposed to stay below it.