Posted by: SgtVennamo
« on: September 07, 2014, 03:16:15 AM »Quote from: alex_brunius link=topic=7473. msg75752#msg75752 date=1410074416
Absolute growth is not interesting since the only choice presented is either to keep the home-world or colonize several smaller bodies with the same population, which will always lead to higher growth and more population in the end.
And your math produce strange numbers since the Colony with 10 mil will not sustain 10% growth for that long.
Let's start with looking at annual numbers instead. Alternative #1 ( doing nothing with the 700mil pop ) and Alternative #2 ( colonizing 5 worlds with 10mil each ).
#1 700*0. 02 = 14 mil growth
#2 650*0. 02 + 50*0. 1 = 18 mil growth
While this doesn't seem that impressive 18 mil is actually 29% more growth then 14, and it will be compounded by time when the extra population raises growth further.
I never disputed having colonies wouldn't result in greater overall population, which it obviously does. I just wanted to point out that saying smaller colonies, by themselves, have greater population growth is not true. That being said, having colonies in addition to the homeworld results on greater pop growth quite quickly. By your numbers even one colony with 1. 5m people will have greater growth than the homeworld alone.
I admit my example was misleading one and a result of hasty thinking.
The main reason for my posting was that I'm moving to an english speaking country for a few months, and decided to brush up on the language. :p