Population limit now 270M

Unless I'm seeing things, it appears that the max population for each country is now 270 million? I didn't see an announcement about this...

True but we said the the limit will be reduced further.

It was forgotten in the game news.

There is in fact no limit.
You just cannot purchase population beyond this number.

The general idea behind it is to slightly reduce the gap between the small and very large countries.

we have increased the starting population to 15M and may increase a bit more.

So basically, purchasing and transferring population is limited to 270M; beyond that the population can still naturally grow up to 300M. (assuming migration and birthrates are growing).

In my experience, natural population growth was unnaturally slowed as you approached 300m before. Meaning, it was independent of other factors in the country. You would experience steady growth and then it would level off and often decline.

I would be surprised if this change did not affect natural growth as well. Andy, players, including me, have invested many coins in population purchases to develop countries of high populations approaching 300m. If this change affects natural growth at lower levels than before, these players deserve compensation.

In addition, I question the reason for this change at all. Do we not want players to build and invest in their countries? I thought the idea with factors that add malice to owning many countries was that players would develop a few countries, rather than attempt to own regions of the map. Changes like this put a cap on what can be achieved, and could lead to more veteran players reaching such caps with a feeling they "beat the game" and have nothing left to do or achieve. Honestly Andy, what is left for a player to do when they have 10 countries with 270 million population or whatever future lower limit you have in mind?

There is no change in population growth what so ever.

There is no limit of 300M. there is basically no limit at all but it is very unlikely that countries will be able to grow population at these levels.

The 270M is just limiting the coin investment in population.

Yes we do want countries to grow and develop.
We also want them to spend gold coins to purchase population but this is not the objective of this.

Many corporations use smaller numbers of workers, and numbers are getting even smaller when corporations are upgraded.

consider 270M the new 300M. You can have even more corporations with 270M than before with 300M.

and as I said before, it reduces the gap between starters and large countries just a bit.

Purchasing 30M less in population will cut the cost by 180 gold coins.
Is that a bad idea?

I think it is. This runs into another problem with the game. Your goals in game level, war level, and monthly rankings are achievable in months. Players who have been around for awhile have difficulty finding new goals to achieve. When there seems there is nothing left to accomplish, players get bored and leave.

Developing large countries is one possible goal for these players, but as the top end is lowered, the finish line grows closer. I have taken a number of breaks from the game out of boredom. They now grow more frequent, and longer. I have not taken any significant action in game now for 8-9 "real" months. I check the forums to see if there is anything interesting coming down, I extend my entities, and that is about it I have hit the maximum display value for assets, the cash cap, and now the new population cap in about 12 countries.

My real concern is that the game can not weather the loss of too many experienced players. Take the recent discussion regarding military expenses. I have successfully explained it to players who actually have fought wars. You acknowledge that we lack sufficient detail to even sort this out. How many players figure out things like contracts effecting country spending limit differently than regular market purchases? By the way, is this even intended?

The question is simply. Can the game survive a brain drain?

I can think of maybe five long time players left; the others have gone away, noticably quiet too. Not even a word. Probably out of boredom as previously stated. Even some skilled players that were quick to lean have left rather quickly. Zen and Zentreno come to mind.

Everyone should watch this video, Including the GM. I watched this in college and I think the topic is very important to in the current Sim country Situation.