Some questions/comments

[Psitticine]

I agree. I'd like to see something like a "pop needed" attribute added to facilities. It might work well expressed as a ratio where 1 is the "average" manpower needed.

Adding up these numbers and dividing the population by the total would give a result showing how over- or under-manned the average facility on the planet is. Bonuses should be applied based on that, not on overall population.

IOW, if you had 3 mining facilities (let's assign them a manpower factor of 1, just for the example's sake), 2 storage facilities (manpower .5, say?), and 1 shipyard (manpower 2?) on a planet, then the total would be 6. If the planet had 600 million people, the bonus would be based on having an average of 100 million people available for working the facility and/or related industries. If the planet had 6 million people, the bonus would be based on having only 1 million workers available.

There might also be a minimum number of people required per facility to keep things operation. I know I could never get anything done with only a million people to help. I think a production penalty would be a better way to go than shutting down facilities until the minimum people/facility number is reached. Too much bookkeeping involved in the second method!

[greghacke]

Galatica Imperium 2 (sp?) does much of this population theory. Specific facilities require a certain number of workers to function. Without the proper population, facilities do nothing at all.

I agree with the neccessity of adding this to SE4. Without it, the neccessity of robo-factories is reduced. It would add functionality to the population management and require thought in placing facilities.

[Phoenix-D]

There IS a setting for population to operate one facility, but it doesn't seem to work..

Phoenix-D

[LintMan]

I kinda like the production bonus for population model the way it is now. More people helps increase the production power, but not in an overwhelming way, so there's good incentive to grow your populations, but it's not your foremost concern.

IMHO, it's pretty fairly balanced within the overall production model of the game.