Population limits

[belledohna]

I became aware that a quest building needed to be in my city, not a neighbor's. Since my game is at its population limit, I deleted-albeit reluctantly- one of my car dealerships, which has the same population. However, when I went to replace it with the quest building, I was informed that I was still at the limit-I would have to upgrade my town hall to add that building.
I am now wondering how the game tallies population; it carefully tracks the # of passengers going into the terminal, but trying to figure out one's population would be quite a project. Is there an easier way to do it? And does the game ever let you swap out buildings? I was able to add the car dealership back, by the way.
Thanks,
Belledohna

 

[greensmith]

belledohna,
Your population is shown in the upper left of the screen along with your maximum allowed population. You are wise to delete a building you can repurchase in the Store rather than a reward building that cannot be replaced.
Try selling two Car Dealerships to see if there's room for your quest building. That usually works for me.
Cheers,
Tom

 

[belledohna]

Aha!
Thank you, Tom-and there it is, a maxed-out city. I'm wishing I'd been looking at that when I tried it. Are you suggesting that the counter is supposed to react to building sales, but is sluggish, and by giving it a harder knock (i.e., selling two dealerships instead of one) that it will kick in and register the change? Or will I simply have to settle for an effectively lowered population limit (up one quest building, but permanently down two dealerships)? Were you able to add back the second dealership? Thank you for your time, by the way.

 

[greensmith]

The population counter shouldn't be sluggish. Mine has always reacted quickly. You can tell the population of a building by looking in the store or in your warehouse. A Car Dealership, for example, is 22. If your population is maxed out and you want to build an Art Supplies Store (population 24), you need to sell two Car Dealerships ... or one Car Dealership and a Flower Shop (8).
There are many quest buldings that increase population max by 20 or 50. Or you can "buy" the Grand Hotel for 300 silver tokens; it increases your max pop by 300.
A trick I found is this: When you are ready to upgrade a Town Hall, wait until you have enough coins to buy more buildings. After you start the upgrade, there's usually a wait of one or more days. If you exit AC, then start it up again, you will see that your max pop has increased to the upgraded Town Hall, even though it is not built yet. Buy more residential and commercial buildings now. When the Town Hall is finished building and you need other "special" items to complete it, the max pop will revert to your old Town Hall level.
Cheers,
Tom

 

[belledohna]

Wow, that's a very nifty trick! I follow what you're saying- the upgrade is meant to be as seamless as possible for someone who has all all their build items collected, but if you don't, you revert to the old population level until you do. And you're saying that the buildings you slip in during that brief window remain untallied, or does the population counter eventually count them? My understanding is that that the population limit is an ongoing thorn, particularly among upper level players who can't upgrade any more. Which leads me back to my little boondoggle of trying to swap one building for another: indeed, I was mistaken about the population count even though the buildings are both 2x2.
Unfortunately, when I first started playing this game, I looked at all those build quests as mere suggestions ( a travel agency?), so when I build a new hangar, I first fill it with a PPD to finish off whatever junket to Egypt I've left undone . Even now, my quest list resembles a roll of toilet paper that's been chucked out the window of a tall building.
I really appreciate your response, Tom, thank you!
B.

 

[greensmith]

I first noticed this in a support game that I no longer play. I paid the coins for the Town Hall upgrade and the building began. Later in the day, I opened AC again and noticed that my population maximum had risen to the level of what the new upgrade would give, even though the building wasn't finished yet. So I bought more residential and commercial buildings to hit that new maximum. When the Town Hall building was completed, the population maximum reverted back to the original; I had like 100 more population than the maximum. It stayed that way until I got the items necessary to complete the Town Hall. Then my population was the same as the maximum population.
My Waverly huff game on iOS has quite a few +20 and +50 max pop buildings plus the +300 max pop Grand Hotel. So right now my max is 2660 but I only have space for a population of 1100. Everyone is hoping GI will eventually add more land, especially to the city side.
Cheers,
Tom