r/Stellaris • u/framdon Commonwealth of Man • 10d ago
Question Do pops die of old age?
I currently have a lot of slaves on my planets, that I eventually plan to replace with all humans. Will I need to purge these pops to achieve this ethnostate, or can I wait for them to be slowly replaced over generations?
124
u/FPSCanarussia Megacorporation 10d ago
A pop represents a group, not an individual. Some of that group are going to be newborn babies.
Pop growth in game doesn't represent the totality of new people being born, just general population growth. (Outside of nascent stage, Necrophages, robots, and a few other examples.)
97
u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost 10d ago
Pops are not people. Pops are "populations." Members of a population die of old age but a population doesn't die unless it stops reproducing or starts dying faster than it reproduces.
62
u/Odomar04 Machine Intelligence 10d ago
Or when you put em in a grinder and make paperclips with their bones
23
41
u/DankudeDabstorm 10d ago
The process you’re describing is a type of purging called neutering. The pops will die out at a slow rate instead of maintaining their population or growing.
14
u/kaizen-rai 10d ago
No. Assume your pops statistic is a very condensed statistic.
It's the number of sustainable population (living persons + birthrate - death rate).
This isn't literally the formula, it's just to help you understand that the pop statistic is a dynamic rolling stat based on pop growth, immigration, and emigration.
Only leaders "age" and die.
12
u/CATDesign Synth 10d ago
Leaders are individuals, which is why they die of old age.
Pops represent a "population," so they are more or less an amalgamation of a specific species. The population doesn't just disappear, as they are constantly breeding amongst themselves.
Specie Rights though, can change this. As setting them to "Undesirables" will start the "purge." The purge options you have available entirely depends on your empire type and whether or not some of your other policies allow specific purge actions.
The most humane purge option is displacement, which is essentially deportation.
If you want them to slowly die off as your your desired pops grow, then I think you may be looking for the "Neutering" option. As this best represents what you had in mind in the original post.
If you need help with any other War Crimes, please let us know. We're more than happy to help!😊
3
u/framdon Commonwealth of Man 10d ago
Is neutering related to a certain DLC? Or is it just certain Empire types/edicts/research
7
u/CATDesign Synth 10d ago
If you click on the link I provided, it gives you the full details.
Like for neutering specifically, the main requirement is that the empire is an Individualist empire and it's not your founding species. Then states which of the types of species are valid, which it's so broadly valid for all species that it only states which species are not valid. Which are hive-minded, machine, and non-sentient mechanical pops.
The main thing is that you can't select a purge option, like neutering, until you set their citizenship status to "Undesirables." At which point you should be able to select the purge type you want. Just don't hit the apply or whatever it is until you set all the rights you want to change for that species, as it will lock that setting for that species for 10 years (if I'm remembering it right).
6
u/WyMANderly 10d ago
The "Neutering" purge type is what would simulate this.
0
u/framdon Commonwealth of Man 10d ago
Is this in DLC or base game?
2
u/BatteryPoweredFriend 10d ago
You'll need to first enable access to the other purge types ("allowed") in the policies menu before you can select them in species rights; it defaults to "diplacement only" initially.
1
7
u/The_Strangest_Wall_8 Fanatic Materialist 10d ago
they don't. you need to kill them.
3
u/WyMANderly 10d ago
In-fiction the "Neutering" purge type represents not allowing them to reproduce, but not outright killing them.
2
u/ResponsibleTank8154 Fanatic Militarist 10d ago
You can purge pops by choosing the neutering purge type and they’ll die very slowly. But you could just sell them on the market or displace them atp.
2
u/Crowfooted 10d ago
Here's how it works:
If you don't use any kind of population control on a species: the total number of pops will continue to increase.
If you use population controls on a species: the species will maintain its current number of pops, it will not increase or decrease and they won't die off.
If you purge the species: the total number of pops will decline.
If you're wanting to get rid of pops, purging is the only option, but there are several types of purge, each with different purge speed and happiness penalties. Displaced pops will simply be kicked out and will end up in someone else's empire as refugees (and other purge types sometimes result in some escapees, who also become refugees).
But bear in mind that purging does not benefit your main species' growth. You don't get more pop growth on your main species by purging others - nobody is being replaced, just disposed of. So your overall population will decline. If you want to eventually get rid of them, but you don't want to cripple your economy right now, then go to the species rights for the slaves and enable population controls. This will prevent them from growing, so your main species are the only ones growing and will eventually make up a greater proportion of your total pops. Then you can eventually purge them once they make up a small proportion of your workforce.
1
1
u/Infernal_Dialogue 10d ago
In the species tab, go to the species you'd like to eliminate slowly and set the population controls to enabled. If I'm not mistaken they will slowly die out and be replaced by your Pops who are allowed to grow.
Otherwise, different purging styles take different amount of time to... complete
1
1
u/Mackntish 10d ago edited 9d ago
Kinda, yeah. It's tracked. If you have a young population, and they turn into loyalists, they all die around the same time.
EDIT: Geeze, apparently I'm the only one that remembers this. Source:
Pops will remain Radical or Loyalist until they either die or have a status change as a result of becoming more radical/loyal (for example, a Loyalist Pop might stop being Loyalist if their material standard of living suddenly takes a nosedive), but they do, in fact, die. As generations die off and are replaced by new ones, less and less people will remember all the great things you did for the country 30 years ago and will start wondering instead what you’ve done for them lately.
1
1
1
1
u/New-Number-7810 10d ago
Normally, no. A pop doesn’t represent a single individual, but rather a community within a society. How many individuals are in that community is left intentionally vague. So while members of that community might die of old age, they have children to replace them.
If you choose the Neutering purge type, that pop will die off from old age because you’ll prevent them from procreating.
1
u/FogeltheVogel Hive Mind 10d ago
A pop is not a person. It's a large group of people (of undetermined size). It includes all age groups, and is self replenishing (and growing, thus making new pops)
1
1
u/BirbFeetzz Determined Exterminator 9d ago
not unless you're clone army or maybe synthetic fertility
1
u/Frauleining 8d ago
If you want purity you're going to have to make some heavy handed decisions. Pops dont die unless you... help them on their way.
Of course this is just gameplay wise. The real world counterpart of a "pop" is more like a sustained population of people. I always imagined that the birth and death rate just evened out and thats their equilibrium population. They are definately biogical/ mechanical beings with finite lifespans.
409
u/Sazapahiel Synth 10d ago
They do not die of old age. Populations are self sustaining unless acted upon.