Stagnation?

[DonQ]

So to be honest I don't really know if this is a stainless steel issue or just something from the vanilla game, but I'm just now noticing this problem after using the mod. Several of my castle provinces are stuck at 0% growth, yet they've got nothing left to build to help boost it.

For example, playing as Sicily, my capital Palma is stuck at the fortress level, and has 0% growth, but no buildings left to build. Looking at the city details screen, it shows a huge level of 'stagnation' that is reducing population growth. How can I reduce stagnation after I've already built everything possible?

[Auroner]

It's a SS feature, they made it really hard to get a citadel. You will need 22500 population for it and the best way to do it is by having a high chivalry general with hopefully some (-squalor) traits inside the fortress. It's still very hard to get it though. Same with Cities, only a few can naturally become a Huge city (Rome, Jerusalem, Paris and some more).

You could possibly cheat a bit to push you over the edge, if it's ruining your game experience....

[Grabbin_Megroin]

Never build the gallows in any of your castles. It gives a small happiness bonus but also takes away something like .5 population growth, so it's not worth it at all IMO. That's probably why your pop isn't growing.

[Strengelicher]

Never build the gallows in any of your castles. It gives a small happiness bonus but also takes away something like .5 population growth, so it's not worth it at all IMO. That's probably why your pop isn't growing.

The gallows may give a small happiness bonus to certain players, but not to the population of a castle type settlement where it is built IIRC. I would rather expect a bonus on law or the like. Anyway, the bottom line is correct - the gallows reduce growth, so never build them.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Just cheat for that extra population.

[Arccotangent]

There are several factors that could help you out here. Getting a fortress to 22.5k depends on several things, including what buildings you opt for, the location itself, your faction, and the governer you have stationed there.

The Gallows building can have a negative impact, as it lowers happiness by 5% which may or may not reduce population growth by 0.5%. For purposes of population growth, the Mason's Guild and its upgrades will provide you with population growth bonuses. As guilds are mutually exclusive, decline invites from other guilds and destory any existing guild building if you want the Mason's guild.

Settlements have various base agricultural bonuses to population growth. If you want a fortress, you likely need a pretty good base farming output. In your case, Palma has a 1.5% population growth bonus. Is it possible you mean Palermo, as Palermo is by default Sicily's capital and is spelled somewhat similarly? It has a higher population growth bonus of 2.5%, which as far as I know is tied for the highest obtainable by a castle in the game. Trading power can also affect population growth. For a near Citadel settlement, a combination of good trading partners and natural resources can provide an extra 0.5% boost.

Your faction can also affect whether or not getting a Citadel is likely. For example, Jousting Fields are a Castle building available to only several factions that has the effect of increasing happiness by 5% and therefore it may be able to increase population growth by 0.5%. In your case, Sicily does not have access to this building, or for the record neither do the other two Italian factions. The plus for Italian factions is that they have access to two obtainable and transferable retinues, the Architect and the Artist. The Artist can be obtained by sitting in a settlement as the Artist Studio is completed, or by sitting in a settlement with a completed Artist Studio (both are chance based). The Architect is obtainable whenever any building completes in a settlement with a stationed governer. In total, these two provide a combined -3 to squalor. As far as I'm aware, only the Italian factions can get the Artist, whereas all factions outside of the Northern Europeans can receive the Architect.

Probably the biggest factor is the governer you park in the castle. Chivalry provides a population growth bonus, with a 0.8 conversion rate between each point of Chivalry and each 0.5% bonus to population growth. For reference, a full Chivalry governer provides a 4% bonus to population growth. Besides squalor reducing ancillaries such as the Architect and Artist, there are traits that may increase or decrease squalor. Traits having to do with being cheap can significantly increase squalor by up to +6. There are traits that decrease squalor such as Extravagant, Kind Ruler, or Good Builder. Good Builder is probably the trait that you can cultivate the most easily (the others are somewhat reliant on luck during Coming of Age or adoption). By having a governor sit in a settlement with a Master or Grand Master Mason's guild (which you would go for anyway in a castle if the goal was population growth), there is a 20% chance each turn he gets 6 points in GoodBuilder. If your general picks this up once, he immediately gets the 1st threshold and -1 squalor. If this 20% roll works 4 times, he maxes out his GoodBuilder trait and now provides -3 to squalor.