Number of Pops and Native Life

[Petek]

I can't remember whether this has been discussed previously: What determines how many pops take place before native life appears? The conventional wisdom is that you only get two worm-free pops. For example, see Ned's column about about eco-damage:

http://apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml

Ned states

"[Y]ou should keep your bases polluting until you experience your second pop. That one, as with the first one, is worm free. It increases your 'clean mineral' limit by another 1, to 18.

From this point on, pops will have worms."

However, I've had games in which I get more than two worm-free pops. Right now I've got a game going in which I've had 4 pops, but no worms. On the other hand, I've also played games in which the worms show up after the second pop.

Anyone know how this works? In my current game, I'm playing as the Drones on a 256x256 map. Planet rating is zero. Could this be related to map size? I'm running SMAX, fully patched.

[Chaos Theory]

It has also been my experience that the number of worm-free pops is variable. I speculate that worms become more likely, even for the same ecodamage, after 2190 (perihelion), but I haven't spent the time to test this.

[Natalinasmpf]

What about native life encounter life cycle increases? I mean, from 2100 to which date, I get hatchlings, then from some more advanced date, I get demon boils. Is this based on population, year, or?

But I don't know exactly when this happens.

[#endgame]

The lifeform setting (rare, average, abundant) seems to have an effect too.

[WotanAnubis]

Originally posted by Natalinasmpf
What about native life encounter life cycle increases? Is this based on population, year, or?

Well, I think (note the think) that every time "Hercules approaches perihelion", the native life cycle increases by 1 (for wild mindworms, obviously). And does not decrease when Hercules distances itself again.

[Ka Plewy]

Originally posted by WotanAnubis

Well, I think (note the think) that every time "Hercules approaches perihelion", the native life cycle increases by 1 (for wild mindworms, obviously). And does not decrease when Hercules distances itself again.

Lifecycle does decrease when Hercules recedes. Or at least I've noticed it on two different occasions. Lifecycle may have increased for other reasons, but I recall two occasions popping a pod during perihelion and getting boil worms, and then popping immediately after it recedes and getting pre-boil.