Hello there!

One thing that has always disturbed me in 4X games is the fact that population units, in most cases, are completely abstract. You always get to see a bar filling up with "pop growth", but your pops are seemingly immortal. This is a major problem for me, and I understand it's not everyone's concern, but I will still make my point, as I firmly believe this prevents the identification of the player with the people he is supposed to rule over.

What I'd like to propose is a system of pop mortality, linked with happiness. It would not be arbitrary, but depend on a number of factors. Such mortality rate could be impacted by buildings and policiers, such as sewers for instance - which in Endless Legend only gives you an approval bonus. It would be increased mostly by city crowding, and distinct from pop upkeep in food. Making it a new mechanic, separated from unrest or approval, would reinforce the immersion as a ruler and bring a new layer of strategic management to deal with, without being overly complicated to handle.

I know from the introduction of era stars that you can get stars for achieving a certain number of population; this would make it more rewarding, at least in my opinion. In sieges too, it would prove interesting. The besieged city would see it's population declining from the blocade, and it would make wars more damaging for your economy. I don't believe it would have a punitive impact, but it would definitely make wars a more sensible matter, where you have something to lose and can be significantly weakened, even if you actually win the war. It would also nerf your conquests, as they would be diminished. Wars would, to put it simply, cease to be a purely militaristic concern, and involve pops in a more direct way.

I'd also like to see organic population movements from cities to cities, even from empire to empire, but that's just me. It would reinforce the feeling that the game is alive, and I hope it's something planned.

In most cases, population units are meant to visualize your economic powerbase. I suggest to make them more of a center of your vision, for without them, you are nothing.

What I'm trying to say is that raising largely populated cities, and maintaining them so, should be more of a challenge. I hope it will be so, as we know some territories or 'regions' will be meant to support larger cities. Concretely, your pops are something precious you must take great care of in the early game; in later eras, medical progress would make this issue less of a worry, yet still relevant. In the future of the game developpment, maybe such a mechanic can be used to model the spread of epidemics, even pandemics?

Thank you for reading this very dense idea I just got. Let me know what you think!