NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there any way to influence population growth? Because I'm absolutely sure I used to have more citizens than an other nation in my region, and now he has more than me! How is that possible?

Population growth is a random amount, between 5 and 8 million. Two nations with close creation dates can easily bounce back and forth.

Oh I see, because I think we have pretty near creation dates.

Wouldn't it be interesting if you could view your creation date, how long you've been in your region etc.?

You can (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/nationdata.cgi/nation=Manfigurut). If you want a general idea of how long you've been in the region, your region XML (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/regiondata.cgi/region=Sals_Realm) should list all resident nations in the order that they arrived.

Although I always asssumed your population growth was affected by the way you answered issues -- if you outlaw birth control, set quotas on childbirth, etc.

Although I always asssumed your population growth was affected by the way you answered issues -- if you outlaw birth control, set quotas on childbirth, etc.

Your assumptions were in error. Sorry.

Your assumptions were in error. Sorry.

That would be an excellent addition though, wouldn't you say?

That would be an excellent addition though, wouldn't you say?

And it would probably be a bitch to code.

And it would probably be a bitch to code.

It would, but they already track certain national stats. Having a "birth rate" stat that is similar to our "tax rate", could then be multipled times the natural random increase rate. Birth rate could started at 1.00, and then be slowly modified downward by birth control issues and upward by pro-immigration issues.

The more difficult aspect isn't the coding, but in putting caps on the birth rate. Currently the tax rate is unbounded. In theory a birth rate would run the same danger and could lead to stagnation (birth rate=0) or really high growth rates. Furthermore, I would not want to have a statistic that can even approach "0" be used in any mathematical calcs for fear of a division by zero error.

It still is an interesting idea, but not the highest priority of things I'd like to see changed.

The more difficult aspect isn't the coding, but in putting caps on the birth rate.Except that it would probably require completely re-writing the whole code for population growth. With an organically growing game like this, that could very easily cause cascading problems in other areas.

Except that it would probably require completely re-writing the whole code for population growth. With an organically growing game like this, that could very easily cause cascading problems in other areas.

I understand that point, and think it is an excellent one.

But I gathered (based largely on your previous post) that population growth was pretty simple:

Pop[i] = Pop[i-1] + 5M + (random uniform number)*3M


If so, would something like the following work?

Pop[i] = Pop[i-1] + 5M + (random uniform number)*birth rate*8M

where birth rate is constrained to be between 0 and 1, and initially set to 1.

Granted I have zero idea what the code looks like, or how variables are passed around and dimensioned. So I'm not trying to press this ... I'm just curious now. :)

But I gathered (based largely on your previous post) that population growth was pretty simple:

Pop[i] = Pop[i-1] + 5M + (random uniform number)*3MThat's how it works, yes, but remember that Max is/was an amateur programmer. Likely, the code isn't anywhere near that clean. And, again, tweaking the formula could potentially affect seemingly unrelated things. And, of course, we'd have to go through all the existing issues.

Quite a bit of work to change something that's largely irrelevant.

That's how it works, yes, but remember that Max is/was an amateur programmer. Likely, the code isn't anywhere near that clean. And, again, tweaking the formula could potentially affect seemingly unrelated things. And, of course, we'd have to go through all the existing issues.

Quite a bit of work to change something that's largely irrelevant.

:) I forgot that he programmed this by himself. And I'm not one to judge other people's programming abilities either -- as I can only program in Fortran or edit other very simple pre-existing python scripts.

I would guess the real danger would be in passing variables from subroutine to subroutine.

As for going through all the issues, in time (at the current rate it will be Christmas) I hope to have spoiler stub articles for all the issues. More importantly I've been working on creating a subject index. With some 210 issues, us players will be able to identify the issues *we* believe deal with population growth rates. But yeah, you guys have placed a few easter eggs and other surprises in the game that we can not help you find. :)