FreeOrion

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Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

Then what effect would the population of a planet have, other than for food consumption?

As you said. No other effect beside consumption. A simple and micromanagment free model.

Not simple because of the Algorithm.

Instead... anything that is a Planetary statistic (Research/Mining/Food/Trade/Industry output, Planetary Shields, Orbitals, Construction, Habitability, etc.) should be based on the Species present on that Planet.

Anything that is NOT a planetary statistic (Ship performance, Troop Transports, Diplomacy, "Creative", Spying, Mind Control, etc.) needs a different model.

If each "ship" has a species, then it can use the same mechanism as planets.

Most of the others need some type of a "jobs" concept. (% in your empire is Probably not good)

For the same reasoning that planets can only have one species on them, ships should also be crewed entirely by a single. specified, species.

Each species is supposed to be totally different from the rest, needing different air and food. They are supposed to be different sizes and require different gravity, so a multi-species ship would be very hard to design and build. A shipyard building ships with a species the same as the planet or outpost it is on seems the most reasonable and easy to understand when playing the game.

If the planet is one species and all the effects the planet is producing are based off other species I don't see the point of specifying what species the planet is. The species of the planet population should have an effect on the game. The farmers or miners should be from that planet. This makes it worth choosing what planets to colonise with each species you control. Choosing jobs for each species is an extra level of complication which, I think, is unnessecary. No species should be so much better than the rest as to make it a requirement for every empire. Also no species should be so bad that it is always exterminated by every empire. The really extreme stuff can be left to Natives.

Don't confuse a game-mechanic's reason with it's in-game explanation. Game mechanics are chosen based on what is simple enough to be fun and what works. This can result in rules than from a realistic or logical standpoint are entirely arbitrary-- like "one species per planet".

Then we may try to find an in-game or technobabble explanation that makes the rules seem as plausible and intuitive as possible. Quoted above would be a fine in-game excuse to have only one species per ship or planet (excluding the gravity part which FreeOrion ignores and lets species colonize planets with no penalty to size difference from homeworld) but it's not the real reason for doing anything. Managing individual multi-species planets was deemed too complicated and micromanagy, whereas species distinctives could more easily be applied to a single-species planet. The same would probably go for multi-species ships.

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