History IV: Diminishing Returns

I had some good discussion on Reddit about the last post, and one thing that stood out to me in particular was the idea of diminishing returns for the effect of infrastructure on desirability. If the contribution is linear, existing infrastructure may quickly come to dominate the scene.

Year 2000, way too much growth? Colored by political entity

However, I think I still want a separate metric for new city placement. I think both of these are worth implementing to see how they affect population distribution. Disregarding infrastructure will be the easiest way to find a new spot for a totally new settlement, whereas a city expansion or colonization will want to stick close to the original and make use of existing infrastructure.

Year 500, colored by race

It is still curious to me how the geographic isolation of the dwarves results in a rapid growth of both cities and infrastructure. Humans should technically expand faster...but they don't. I look forward to exploring if this is merely an error in my code, or an example of emergent order.