Population & Citizens
Your population is the workforce of every colony on a map. More citizens mean more production — but only if they are fed, housed, and motivated. Open the population panel at your HQ to see how your people are doing.
What the panel shows
- Current population and housing cap — you cannot grow beyond available homes.
- Growth rate — how fast new citizens arrive when conditions are good.
- Will / mood — how satisfied your people are; low mood slows or stops growth and reduces production output.
- Public transit — from 7 owned locations at least one line must be running. Otherwise immigration pauses and production drops. More lines from 15, 30, and 50 locations (up to 5). The harbor is not what makes them appear. See Civil Harbor.
- Consumption — water, food, beer, plants, and energy. Each row has on and off.
If growth is zero, the panel tells you why in plain language — no housing, full houses, missing transit, or angry citizens.
Switching supply off
Water, food, beer, plants, and power each have a switch.
- Off: citizens stop using that good. Turning it back on does not bill you for the time it was off.
- That row then counts as not supplied. Mood for it drops, even if the warehouse is full. Off is not a met need.
- On: they draw again from whatever is in stock now.
You cannot switch off housing or public transit. Those needs stay, whether you want them or not.
Do not leave a supply off for long. Factory output falls with it, and it will not drop below a small floor. Keep water and plants in surplus, and mood at least at 60.
What citizens need
Think of it as running a city:
- Housing — build homes before you expect growth.
- Water, food, beer, and plants — keep them in surplus, or switch one off on purpose if you need to spare the warehouse and can carry the mood.
- Energy — power keeps industry and morale up.
- Public transit — from 7 owned locations a liner starts on its own. Only a liner that is actually running counts. If it is stopped (no fuel, or you halted every line), no new citizens arrive and the factories produce less.
Population never shrinks from neglect — but it stops growing until you fix the problem. Stabilize economy and supply before you chase distant wars.
Why it matters
Production buildings consume inputs at full rate, but output scales with workforce mood. A rich map with starving citizens underperforms a modest map with happy ones. Check the population panel whenever your economy feels “stuck.”