Use location extension

[Bestiliand]

I think locations should take into account the real extension for pop capacity and other things. Then some regions could have more or less density without having an advantage or disadvantage. The devs already know the pixel extension of each location, if they take into account non-euclidean geometry and average the área of each location with the effect of map proyection on areas they could know real extension of each location and add as a pasive modifier for Pop cap and maybe other things

 

[MyRamsel]

Yes, I think that would probably be the best way to deal with population capacity and location density. Just make the base value for the pop capacity dependent on the area of each location and then apply percentage based modifiers for climate, topography, vegetation, city status...

 

[NoobishHeadache]

I don't think things like climate and topography should be reduced down to mere percentage modifiers for it, but I absolutely agree that the size of a location (or at least, the size of the feasibly liveable area of said location) should have a significant effect on its population capacity.

 

[FleetingRain]

I have the same feeling. It's not even something that would affect performance - it would just be calculated once when the map is loaded, and could probably be cached and only recalculated if the checksum changes.

But it also sounds too easy. If it's so easy and Johan, who has 20-something years of experience in the field, didn't implement it, then there may have some negatives we aren't aware of.

 

[MyRamsel]

I don't think things like climate and topography should be reduced down to mere percentage modifiers for it, but I absolutely agree that the size of a location (or at least, the size of the feasibly liveable area of said location) should have a significant effect on its population capacity.

They already are percentage based modifiers (see def diary 45) and I also think that in this case percentage based modifiers are much better than flat modifiers, since the base capacity could vary much more than before.