Ok so this is something I don't understand. The population of every race gives bonuses like +2 science or +1 to fids. But is this bonus only if you have that pop in system? Or is it per unit of that pop in your system. Like will Sophons get a massive stack of bonus science from each pop unit of their species they have? I'm just curious because I haven't seen this properly explained yet.

Curious like you.

From what I get from GDDs and videos, it seems it's a multiplier: pop of this faction * bonus FIDSI, but cannot confirm it.

I imagine it being that instead of "units" of pop you would have units of specific and different population type. how this will be represented is unknown to me. 

Ridiculi wrote:
Based off the screen shots I've seen of the System Menu, it looks like it's a straight system improvement. So for every Sophon population in a system you get +4 science generation there... which makes sense based off the importance placed on population make up now.

What concerns me about that is how much of an advantage that would give players who play factions like the Sophons. 

BlackBird1696 wrote:

Ridiculi wrote:
Based off the screen shots I've seen of the System Menu, it looks like it's a straight system improvement. So for every Sophon population in a system you get +4 science generation there... which makes sense based off the importance placed on population make up now.

What concerns me about that is how much of an advantage that would give players who play factions like the Sophons. 

Well, based off the new video, the dev present said Sophons aren't very good at producing food or industry. So if you only start with 3 population and are terrible at food production, +12 science from turn 1 sounds pretty awesome, but it starts to look less advantageous around turn 15 and you're still stuck with a low population overall...

Plus it kind of makes sense with them being able to research Era 2 techs right off the bat... sure, they can research new Era 2 system and ship improvements, but do they have the industry to actually build them?

Wait that would mean the game simple says : this system is made of sophons ? Will we have systems with other populations though ? I know there will be an empire wide senate with detailled numebers  but the first bit could be too abstract...

What I like to see is the possibility to resettle specific pops. So you can put the Sophons on a science system and so on. Or evacuate precious pops before the Craver eat them. With the new emphasis on the pops such a mechanic is mandatory. In one video it was stated that the attraction mechanic, where you will influence neighbouring pops to move to your system, will not be in EA because they are improving this aspect.

And what about colony ships? Now that I think about it. What happens if you build a colony ship in a system with none of your faction pops? Will this colony ship settle a new system which does not include your starting faction pops? Can you choice which pops will be present in a colony ship if you build it in a system with different pops? Or is it allways restricted to your starting pop?

Each population gives an immediate bonus to the planet/ship it lives on.

If you have a Mavros on a planet, he will give bonus  in addition to what any other population would produce on that particular planet. If you have a Vodyani, he will give you a bonus to  but it will take extra time to have another Vodyani appear.

In addition, each population also influences politics of a system. Mavros will usually vote for industrialist parties during the election, while Vodyani - for the religious ones. So a system with just 1 type of population will probably vote in a way that's easy to predict during the elections. A system with many different population types will be far more "disorganized" in its vote.

@ Panczasu : One question for clarification: Pops from one faction can possible switch their political idiology, right? So Sophons can become militaristic if threatened enough. The different races just respond differently to industrial, ecological.... situations and events.

MezzoMax wrote:

@ Panczasu : One question for clarification: Pops from one faction can possible switch their political idiology, right? So Sophons can become militaristic if threatened enough. The different races just respond differently to industrial, ecological.... situations and events.

Keeping in mind that I may not be right about everything, here's how the system works:

• The senate is influenced each turn by the population you have. Afaik these values are fixed and there doesn't seem to be a way to change them. Meaning that if you have a Mavros population, your senate will always get some industrialist support. This value is negligible if you control only a few Mavros pop within a big empire but nevertheless it is always there.
• The senate is also influenced by the buildings you have in the same way. For example  improvements always generate a fixed value supporting the ecologist party. A single improvement's effect is very weak but it does stack with others.
• In addition to the above, the senate is influenced by various events that take place during your game. You lost a system? Militarist party gets a boost. Your system leveled up? Industrialists' power increases.
• Each hero also generates support for his/her political party, surprise, surprise.
• Finally, special events (triggered by quest, exploration, pure randomness, w/e) have influence on your senate as well.
• Lastly, whenever something happens that generates support for a political party, your empire's  influences the support any party can gain/lose. For example, you encounter a new empire which gives pacifists more support. If however you have any sophon , then your scientific party will also get some limited support. If you also control Hissho , then the support for your pacifist party will be smaller than usual.

I hope this helps