Figuring turns to grow & farm placement

[WesW]

It seems that there is a lot of confusion over how to figure how many turns it is taking a city to grow, and how to figure the effects of tile improvements, espcially farms. I will try and explain things.

1)Growth: Each population represents 10,000 people. When you look at the city manager, it tells you the pop growth rate per turn. Divide 10,000 by this number to figure the number of turns to a new pop.

2)Farms: the effect of tile improvements depend on the percentage of resources being collected in the radius ring in which the improvement is placed. I think most of us have figured that out. What many people are having trouble with is why growth rate sometimes drops so much when a city grows.
Part of the answer is that, when a city grows, happiness usually decreases by one percent, and crime increases by one percent. This crime raise affects all food production, and this cumulative effect all comes out of the surplus, thus sometimes having a significant effect on growth.

Btw, if anyone knows what the red in the growth bar indicates, I would be grateful if you would tell me.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by WesW (edited November 25, 2000).]</font>

[hexagonian]

RE: Pop growth

Thanks for that bit of info, but having an additional line of type with the actual turns to the next pop. growth would of been nice too, and would of been more practical.

Micromanaging is fun, but clear presentation of the necessary info makes it so - I hope that I do not have to have a calculator on hand all the time.

[DaddyCool]

I think that the red and the yellow together are how many people you would get if it wasn't for overcrowding, but the red part you're not getting because of overcrowding.

[AI_Scripter]

Actually, the major thing that decreases growth in a city is the growth of a city. Here's an example:

A city that started with pop=29950 and a growth rate of +600, happiness=74, crime=20%, then grew to pop=30530 with a growth rate now of only +400, with happiness=74 and crime=20%. For comparison sake, I raised wages at this point and happiness went up to 76 and crime fell to 18%, but the growth only grew to +450.

As you can see from that example (which is the norm), happiness and crime didn't have anything to do with the drop in growth rate. Of course, they DO sometimes have a negative effect, but the most significant reason for the drop in growth when the population increases is the population increase itself.

[Cube]

I think the red represents the time it will take until the city reaches it's maximum size and starts to expirience overcroding.