Settlement Population Growth

[Stinkfloyd]

Ive tried messing with the descr_settlement_mechanics file to lower the population growth of my settlements (i play 1/2 year per turn). Whenever I lowered or raised the PIP modifier for base farming level the settlement had a higher growth rate. It seems that any departure from the original PIP value for base farming level, increase or decrease, causes an increase in settlement growth. Am I doing something wrong to achieve my goal of slower growing settlements? Should I try and change another PIP value like squalor or farming upgrade value?

[mailor]

These are my values for 0.5 yrs per turn, and it works to suit my taste. It will be very hard to have decent populations growth rates in castles later on, and when you use high tax rates in cities, they will grow very slowly as well. Note that governors will have a very low bonus to population growth with these values too (max +1%) and Squalor and Pest affect population decrease much more than before. Just try these values, tweak them a bit for yourself and you should be ready to go.

The problem with the farming level you mentoin is pretty weird, and I don't understand what could have gone wrong (in my changes, they are lowered for every settlement).

      <factor name="SPF_FARMING_LEVEL">
         <pip_modifier value="0.5"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_FARMS_BUILT">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
  	 <castle_modifier value="0.75"/>
         <city_modifier value="1.0"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="25"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_HEALTH">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
  	 <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="25"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_TAX_RATE_BONUS">
         <pip_modifier value="0.80"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS_FUN">
         <pip_modifier value="0.5"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="25"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_GOVERNORS_INFLUENCE">
         <pip_modifier value="0.5"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="2"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_TRADE">
         <pip_modifier value="0.2"/>
  	 <castle_modifier value="0.75"/>
         <city_modifier value="1.0"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="25"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_SQUALOUR">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="32"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_PLAGUE">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
         <pip_max value="32"/>
      </factor>
      <factor name="SPF_TAX_RATE_PENALTY">
         <pip_modifier value="1.5"/>

[Stinkfloyd]

Thanks Mailor. I'll try this and let you know how it goes.