From: mperry@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: HELP: Civ city overpopulation
Date: 18 Dec 92 12:28:17 +1300
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Dec15.200411.28080@newstand.syr.edu>, wggray@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Wild Bill) writes:
> In article <161@ssiny.UUCP> gnohmon@ssiny.UUCP (Ralph Betza) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec12.001650.2955@nttor.uucp>, chuck@nttor.uucp (Chuck Cote) writes:
>>> A few civilization questions:
>>> 	1) I have had cities of a population of 28 or so, with a democracy, and
>>> 	   every surrounding square being worked, with all land squares irrigated
>>> 	   where possible.  But I cannot produce enough food for the poor bastards
>>> 	   that live there!  Every turn I get "famine in Rome" or some such, and
>>> 	   I don't know what to do.  I tried producing settlers to send to some
>>> 	   other city with an abundance of food, but the other cities by this
>>> 	   time have populations of over 10 so I cannot add the settlers to
>>> 	   their numbers.  Any suggestions?
>>>
>>[ ... ]
>>> 	Chuck Cote			Northern Telecom, Toronto Lab, Ontario, Canada
>>> 						chuck@nttor.UUCP
>>
>>Sometimes you get one person too many; some food squares produce
>>only one food unit, but people require two units. The result is slow
>>starvation, but it isn't serious. Eventually, the granary goes
>>empty, and you lose one person. At this point, you have a surplus of
>>one food unit! After about a zillion turns, the food box fills up
>>again, and now you have one too many, and it all starts over...
>>
>>There's nothing you can do about it.
>>The irritating thing is when you lose a settler because of this;
>>or when the famine makes you lose an Elvis, your city goes into
>>disorder, and the government falls.
>>Other than that, the consequences are not serious.
Try running with a little more luxery rate.

>>
>>The really serious food shortages are the ones that come after
>>global warming, when some of your grassland squares change to
>>desert. If you haven't done so yet, try a game where, after you get
>>way ahead, you just nuke, nuke, nuke!
Serious food shortages? Global warming?
The idea here, is don't let it happen!
Question, with global warming - does the ice melt?


> 
> 	Actually, there are ways of avoiding famine. I find that
> 	if I arrive at a level of population that I like, then
> 	all I have to do plant in the fields so that I'm not 
> 	making extra food, or losing it. That way the population
> 	stays stable. Your best bet is to find out the maximum
> 	amount of people a particular city and its surroundings will
> 	support, get that amount, and then even out the food
> 	production. If you want to solve cities' problems of
> 	sonn-to-be-seen famine, make some settlers and move 'em
> 	out, then stabilize the food to stop any recurrence.
> 	I hope I helped.:-)

Take a nice large healthy size 37 city and food only for 36.5
It takes about 150 turns to starve down to size 36, and another 300 to grow to
size 37 (and another 150 to starve again) - ie the cycle is 450 turns long for
a large city. This ignores "We love the president days".

If you are really worried - build a settler and move it to another city which
can maintain it - and designate that city as its home.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games