Fixing negative population

[Angelita Moon]

I made a mistake and sold a cultural building which put me in a negative population. I need suggestions on how to fix this. Should I sell and rebuild both homes and culture buildings? Not sure what is best to do and what I can do. I am relatively new to the game and misunderstood. I thought I would get the population rather than lose it when I sold the bldg. Any suggestions?

 

[Pheryll]

Population comes from residences/magic residences and from some event buildings. There are also wonders, like the golden abyss and mountain halls which contribute to population. Since you are in the negatives, you will not be able to place or upgrade buildings that require population. Instead you should upgrade residences, and build or upgrade event buildings to supply the needed amount of population. If your population need is too high you may need to teleport or sell excess manufactories or armories. Teleporting these buildings out is often more preferable to selling, because it allows you to place the building back later when your population problem has been fixed. You may even want to gain more land for your city by research, world map conquest or diamond expenditure. Having more space in your city allows you to place more buildings or rearrange them to make room for the necessary space needed in the next chapter.

 

[Isilwen the fair]

I've done that before. Depending on how fast you need the population, and how much population you need. You can just upgrade homes, otherwise add back a cultural building that also gives population. As you get further in the game you want to multipurpose your buildings as much as possible to help with space. So you sell off and add new buildings as needed.

 

[samidodamage]

If you're like most new players, and you built non-boosted factories, you could sell those off and you'd get back the pop and culture they're taking up right now. Ex: If you're boosted in Planks; sell off any marble or steel factories you may have built. It's way more effective to make your boosted goods and trade them for the other 2 even if you offer them at a discount. That will also get you some space back and maybe make room for another house. If you still need more culture, you can try to find some vacant 1 or 2 squares and build the little culture bldgs in the regular menu. Then, keep an eye out for pop/culture buildings in the event that's going on right now. One of those and you'll be all set again. Good luck!

 

[Aritra]

I don't think it actually hurts anything, other than slows down progress that requires population (need more than already would for specific thing to first compensate the negative). I've actually done this on purpose. I don't recall now what building it was or why I chose to sell it, but I was aware it would remove more population than I currently had. I let population be negative for a bit (not long term at all) and just factored that difference in the population gain I was next pursuing. I think I was making room for something I thought was valuable in other ways and needed the space immediately (unwilling to wait for next expansion). It might be controversial whether it should be done on purpose (or to what degree, for what justification), but I wouldn't sweat it. Moving forward, know you now know something you didn't before and you can avoid it or choose it, either way knowing the consequences.

 

[NightshadeCS]

@Aritra is absolutely correct. Having negative population does nothing harmful except preventing you from upgrading or building something that requires population.

But you will have to get out of that state eventually. Right at this particular moment, the Daily Prize in the event is the Hazeltown, a very good culture/pop building. If you have some keys to spare, try to win one of those and place it. : )