Trying to figure how to setup population generator solar systems (high food/population generation - high population growth) systems that grow population ASAP and then export it via transport ships to low growth border solar systems ... Knowing the food cost per population increase would obviously help identify the solar systems best suited for the job ... (in case food costs scale exponentially with the amount of population already present in a solar system ...)



Having each system grow its own population seems very inefficient when you don't have food generating techs for the more inhospitable planet types ... Seems much more sensible to keep growing the population on food rich-food focused-food bonused core systems and then move it to the low growth systems/planets via transport ships...





Ok - found my answer

http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Food D'OH !!



It'll still take some work to get that in food cost per population increase table but it should suffice ..

I need to re-derive that formula at some point, it's only approximate.

Evil4Zerggin wrote:
I need to re-derive that formula at some point, it's only approximate.

The formula is a bit unclear for me ...



Can you show me how it works with some numerical examples ?



3 population 14 excess food -> 26 % growth rate

3 population 20 excess food -> 36% growth rate

3 population -6 excess food -> -10% growth rate

4 population 10 excess food -> 13% growth rate

4 population 3 excess food -> 5% growth rate

I rederived the formula, it should be much more accurate now. It's also in terms of accumulated food needed to grow now.

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Start of game population export



Food cost to grow from 5 to 6 (starting planet situation)

(5 * (5 + 0.5))^1.4 = 103.529894



104 / (5 * 3) = 6.93333333 // assuming no other bonuses (hero, approval) you'll need at least an average of 7 food per population unit to be able to grow the 5 to 6 in 3 turns and keep pumping transport ships ...



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Mid game population export



Food cost to grow from 20 to 21 (mid-late game situation)

(5 * (20 + 0.5))^1.4 = 653.150722



654 / (20 * 3) = 10.9 // assuming no other bonuses (hero, approval) you'll need at least an average of 11 food per population unit to be able to grow the 20 to 21 in 3 turns and keep pumping transport ships ...

You can probably even get the 22 food per population unit required to ship them off 2 at a time (2 seed modules on a transport ship) if you luck on a food rich solar system or help out with Hero // other bonuses ..

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IMO the best way is to put a Adminstrator hero with Civil Engineer and Heavy Isotope Refineries on a 1-planet system. You get 2 free production per system, so that will give you 37 base production even if you don't get any from population; with Industry bonuses/cost reductions, I've been able to build a colony ship every other or every turn even near the beginning of the game even with only 1 pop. At 1 population the birth rate is very high.



(Of course, I'm too lazy to do this population transfer thing late game!)

Evil4Zerggin wrote:
IMO the best way is to put a Adminstrator hero with Civil Engineer and Heavy Isotope Refineries on a 1-planet system. You get 2 free production per system, so that will give you 37 base production even if you don't get any from population; with Industry bonuses/cost reductions, I've been able to build a colony ship every other or every turn even near the beginning of the game even with only 1 pop. At 1 population the birth rate is very high.



(Of course, I'm too lazy to do this population transfer thing late game!)

Starting Game

Getting the early Administrator - Civil Engineer takes a bit of time (by that time some species would have had plenty of time to reach max pop on homeworld and kick out a few transport ships ...) .. There is nothing however preventing you from using this 1 pop new colony strategy - (when the administrator is ready) and kick out a few additional population units... You are not going to lose much by not allowing this system to grow pop if the planet chosen has low max population limit (ex tiny arid/tundra) .. But if the planet has high max population limit and good food production potential (say huge jungle) - you are probably better of letting it grow fast to population capacity (decent science boost) ... When it fills up you will have enough production to alternate transport ships with improvements//military ships while the population regenerates ...



About the late game stuff ... Even on huge galaxy map size you can (AND YOU SHOULD) fill all colonized planets in your empire to maximum population capacity very quickly (as soon as relevant colonization tech is available, as soon as population capacity increase improvements are available) ... During my first ever Endless Space game played on impossible difficulty level with the Amoeba on a twin elliptical huge galaxy I was able to top total FIDS and Science production by turn 180 (and had little idea on how the approval system works, what different techs/improvements do, how trade route work ...(learned quite a bit from this game - will try to reverse engineer trade route output formulas as well as system level FIDS output formulas)) ...



Using a few (1-2) high food generator systems to SPEED UP populating inhospitable (low food output) systems seems key to maximize IDS output ...This allows most planets on said systems to focus from the beginning on industry, science or dust and quickly build the necessary improvements by themselves with little need for DUST waste (rush buy)... Trying to put up the +food ge nerator improvements (usually very "gears" intensive and not very efficient due to low +food due to planet type) early on the systems with harsh environments to speed up local growth on new colonies seem like a bad plan ... Of course Administrator heroes can also be used to quickly maximize a new system but the effects are even greater combined ...