Population Issues

[OnyxShadow]

After a couple of very successful runs (80+ days on casual and then 100+ days on classic) I've gotten the hang of most of the game. However, I consistently have one big problem. I can't get more than about 10-12 colonists. I can get that number by day 30 or so in most runs, but then some hidden mechanics almost entirely prevent further additions. Slavers stop coming around, wanderers don't appear, and raiders are just about fully immune to incapacitation.

I've managed to get by despite this because lately I've avoided catastrophic losses to raiding parties, but its still frustrating to be stuck for seemingly no reason.

So I guess first I would like to ask if anyone has any strategies for recruiting up to the limit consistently?

If not, is there a simple way that I mod the game to make this aspect more reasonable?

[daft73]

This may help you out.... MorePeeps Please  

[Coenmcj]

The pop cap is certainly annoying, However it is there for a reason as Tynan has stated before he wants it to be a story driven game, where large numbers of colonists you won't know their personality or quirks and will simply be another number in the statistics.

[OnyxShadow]

Thank you for the responses.

I installed Popcap+, and it helped a little. For some reason, though, all personnel events seem to have vanished for the last 20 days (currently day 160). In that time I've had no raider attacks or wanderers. I did get a slave trader so that was an improvement over the previous situation, but my population is still stuck at 17.

[daft73]

Thank you for the responses.

I installed Popcap+, and it helped a little. For some reason, though, all personnel events seem to have vanished for the last 20 days (currently day 160). In that time I've had no raider attacks or wanderers. I did get a slave trader so that was an improvement over the previous situation, but my population is still stuck at 17.

The storyteller will still have an effect on colonists. This just takes the limit away

[J-Mac]

So 11 to 12 colonists is the limit currently?

[ShadowTani]

The alternative is to play Randy which has no limit, at least as far as I know. He's not so bad once you've gotten used to him.

[OnyxShadow]

I just started a run on random yesterday. Colonist acquisition is fairly steady indefinitely, and I REALLY liked getting more than 10 people. I really feel like the sweet spot is ~20 colonists. Much less and its mostly just subsistence living and hard to come back from tough breaks. Closer to 30 or more and you get done with every task too quickly and then have half your colonists just standing around.