Population

[Makhil]

Include a population number for every planet. It grows with the income, it is reduced when you lose ships or when your building are destroyed.
Your population determines the number of structure you can build, the number of ships you can produce per tick and the size of the fleet you can use. You could have a priority given to the population just as you have for engineers. They would determine the percentage of the population used in:
- Construction
- Production
- War
- other ideas...
The Improved Power Grid branch would be replaced by 'Settlement development' and would allow your population to keep growing.
ex: your income allow your population to reach 1 Billion people, but your settlements only allow for 700 million = you need more settlements.

It opens the way for more options like paratroopers (and their special ship), they would raid the settlements, steal income and kill people (i suppose they would rape the women too but i'm not sure how it could impact the game)... there could be defence turrets to protect the settlements.

ATM the game is too linear and too repetitive, this idea is just one step in trying to create more depth.

[Ultimate Newbie]

Whilst those ideas are good, i had an alternative use for a planet's population in my Micromanagement Proposal (the thread is a little dated, its been developed further elsewhere), the concept being that the population is both a source of income and a place of expenditure; income generated from Taxes which were adjustable (hey, it was micromanagement ) where high taxes give you a short run boost, but low taxes give a long term boost, and expenditure to keep the population from revolting or destroying things on the planet etc. The idea was that this "internal" idea of population could be affected by "external" (ie, how the game is now) events such as structure killers killing people.

Having said all that, the ideas arent mutually exclusive; eg, your idea plus that more people = more taxes, but also more costly infrastructure/security (to counter the paratroopers).

What do you reckon?

[selmac]

i like ur suggestion ultimate, i play a few games where there is a population, where taxes are a source of income, and it works well. But i think if we add in a population and taxes, then it is more about running your planet instead of annihalting everyone else in order to be no.1.

Whilst it may bring in more people, it may start getting a bit ocmplex for others, and also it would be changing the idea of planetarion.... well thats my two cents worth anyway

[Monroe]

Well I would agree it would be an interesting addition, I also think you should be able to put that stuff on 'autopilot' and let the game manage it for you if you want. So that way you can focus on bashing your way to the top, or if you really like micromanging *shudders* then feel free to do so.

[WreCkeRer]

Originally Posted by selmac

Whilst it may bring in more people, it may start getting a bit ocmplex for others, and also it would be changing the idea of planetarion.... well thats my two cents worth anyway

ppl will get used to it. Its just my 2nd round in pa and still im confused with some stuff. That's why there r n00b players, good players and pros.
It will change the idea of pa but still i think it would be a nice addition