Aid Game
The Simulator: How It Works

This file discusses how the population demographics progress. Resources and Aid are discussed elsewhere.

The computations here are pretty simple. The population is divided into "cohorts", or age groups, male and female. Each cohort has its own fertility and mortality rate (different for males and females.) The starting size of each cohort is a given. For each step:

  1. Alter the per-cohort fertility and mortality rates (via Aid Package).
  2. Promote each cohort (age group) up a notch. Cohort 0 becomes empty. The eldest cohort is dropped (dies).
  3. Apply per-cohort fertility rate to each cohort of females to get the overall number of kids. Apply male-female ratio to divvy up the kids. Place them in cohort 0.
  4. Apply per-cohort mortality rate.
  5. Count up.
  6. If capacity effects are on,
    • Determine capacity and the bonus mortality it merits.
    • Apply bonus mortality.
    • Count up.
  7. Update pyramids, plot, resource map, folder displays.
This is actually done on four populations: "with aid", "without aid", and a separate tracking population for each to handle the one generation and its descendents being highlighted.

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