From: wggray@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Wild Bill)
Subject: Re: HELP: Civ city overpopulation
Keywords: civ
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 20:04:11 EST

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.
>
>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!

	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.:-)
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       |  __     _   _      _     __ |  -Friedrich         |
       | | o)   | | | |    | |   (  )|   Wilhelm           |
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