I cannot get the save file to load for some reason, sorry. 

Your manpower is stuck at 0 because every unit of manpower you're generating is being sent to your Sanctuaries and any ships you have that aren't at full manpower, you'll be at 0 for quite a while as the Umbral Choir if you're expanding properly. 

As far as your population generation, remember that you will only generate population on the Nexus and nowhere else, your Sanctuaries will have "population will spawn in this many turns" timers but you'll never spawn another population on your Sanctuaries, only your Nexus. They are sent from your Nexus to the rest of your Sanctuaries either using the Sanctuary Link or when your Nexus is full then it will fill your Sanctuaries from least populated to most populated. 

If you're struggling to produce population the likely cause is your food. The Umbral Choir struggle with Food production so you'll want to focus on building a lot of Food improvements on your Nexus, keep your approval rating as high as you can get it, make sure you have available population slots on your Nexus and/or Sanctuaries and you should see your population problem disappear. 

This is very strange. I have every food production improvement developed, 100% approval, tons of space and I'm still stuck. I'll upload another save file when I'm home. But I understand the advice and I'll start a new game paying more attention later. I really enjoy the race. I want it to work out. 

 Ohhhhhhh that explains a lot. I was under the impression that sanctuary links were for ship spawn, like rally points, and not forced sanctuary growth. Thank you very much for the feedback. It was lack of attention on my part then. 

 Thank you really. 

No problem :)

Yes currently it's ships AND population. We're looking into decoupling them for a future patch though.

Awesome, I'm glad somebody could get to the bottom of it. Not sure why I couldn't get the save to open. 

jhell wrote:

No problem :)

Yes currently it's ships AND population. We're looking into decoupling them for a future patch though.

That sounds good! It was a bit annoying trying to manage both.

I'm continuing that game and having a blast so far. Great race. Having a lot of fun with the single trading company actually, even tho it's only half of the income. 

One last question about manpower tho. How do I build a citadel with them if it's close to impossible to reach the 600 manpower requisite? 

SamWAR wrote:

One last question about manpower tho. How do I build a citadel with them if it's close to impossible to reach the 600 manpower requisite? 

By the time Citadels become relevant, you should be able to build one but you'd really only ever be able to put it on your Nexus which I would advise against because both the shield and the Citadel itself wouldn't be cloaked and would give away your position. I think your defense against Obliterators is just moving, honestly. 

This is all theory, I've not actually tested it yet. 

Alright, thank you very much everyone. Apreciate the help a lot.

Yeah, I was going on theory. I've never built a Citadel as the UC, never felt the need. 

Jhell explained it much better than I did so disregard my input. 

Valadeus wrote:

Yeah, I was going on theory. I've never built a Citadel as the UC, never felt the need. 

Jhell explained it much better than I did so disregard my input. 

Nah, relax sir, the input is always valid. I apreciate your help really. Thank you.

I have been working on this problem for awhile now and I found a mid game solution. It is one that may seem counterintuitive at first and requires some good economy set up to pull off hut should be reliable way yo transition from growth to defense/military atound turn 60-80. 

It is the chain gamg tech....and it works because of the chiors unique interaction with food. Let me explain. First you need to understand how the UC utilize food differently than most other factions. 

Typically whenever 300 food is collected a system will gain a single pop...and likewise lose a single pop if 300 is lost, as is the case and cost of chain gang. Food in excess of 300 will contribute to growth in your next pop until you max out the system at which point it becomes a wasted resource. 

Not so with the Chior. Once their main system is maxed out which can be done by turn 60ish, and i mean maxed 39 pop full terraforming all nexus colonies...maxed... population growth is automatically shifted to open sanctuary slots. There is no need to micromanage it unless you want them in a specific location first. Also it seems the Chior has the ability to produce so much food that by mid game you can be outting multiple poos down a turn...not just one. You wilk see this If you focused the proper food techs as esch turn muktiple sanctuaries will show growth. 

Once this happens you can begin to chain gang every turn, and in fact still have enough food left over after the -300 hit to put more pop down in a sanctuary. 

The only downside to this is you have to manually set it in the too of the que every single turn until you get your manpower under control. It eill take awhile of repeatedly chain ganging ghosts into your cause...but eventually you will see your global pool show Sparks of life and go from negative to a nice fat stack of ethereal bodies to throw at the enemy.

I have a 3 part first impressions video series in the UC that shiws the beginnings of my economy strategy which i have since refined some to pull this off. I will likely revist the UC on my channel soon with a recap ot all i have learned. Let me know if you have questions about specifics. 

cheers!

^ While a valid tactic for mid-game, it becomes too costly if you end up doing this to Umbral Shadows super pops.

I assume chain program will always pick Umbral Choir over Umbral shadows for drafting but once the Nexus is filled with Shadows only, this becomes cost-inefficient.

But by that point, the UC shouldn't have much issue with manpower.

Of course, you could also just befriend a minor civilization and give them 15 of a basic resource for 100 manpower too.

@gap

Your umbral choir pop can be replaced very quickly but not your Umbral Shadow super pop. Chain gang would be too costly if you end up sacrificing Umbral shadow super pop, but it is of course more than fine if you sacrifice Umbral Choir pop which are expendable.