Quoting Nick-Danger, reply 79
Quoting Frogboy, reply 41...For 1.09, I am lobbying to have something put in that goes way back to an original concept that got lost and that is, using your citizens as a resource (population is still a resource, it's just not used for anything)....If anything should be global it's population. As you describe the game, we're not really birthing new citizens, we're attracting them to our cities from the wilderness (via prestige).
Make population limited and global. Make us compete with other sovs for the limited population. People become the determining resource. This would limit city/troop spam. Make putting people into armies hurt economy/etc. and make the loss of troops hurt so we don't throw them away heedlessly.
Making population limited sounds interesting, but what happens in a long drawn-out game that has taken the lives of all your citizens in battle? What you end up with is a stalemate with nothing to do because your population is gone. This might work as a map option (armageddon mode?), but not for the base game.
Good point.
I mentioned in a subsequent post global pop being soft capped, not hard. Rate of pop attraction would be a function of your pop -- so as your pop decreased from unit loss, all else equal, your pop attraction rate would increase, helping to replace your losses. You wouldn't be stuck with an ever-diminishing pop base (unless one played stupidly and ignored prestige/etc.).
...It wouldn't be fair to plop-down a new city right next to your enemy and start spamming a massive army using citizens from the other side of the world.
Not possible, as your new city would have a very slow pop attraction rate (low prestige). Attracted pop would be required to staff buildings (barracks to speed up recruitment, etc.).
Second, your scenario would be harder to pull off than it is now, as currently there is no limit on recruitment at your new city, whereas there would be with the idea I mentioned.
I'm not saying it's a good idea. It may stink. I'm trying to come up with ideas that are:
-based in part on lore as much as possible
-balanced
-create relatively hard choices
I'm not wedded to any of my suggestions. Better alternatives are welcome!