Question 1: Energy-from-grass

The energy-from-grass parameter seems to primarily effect the total population capacity for the sheep. The higher the energy-from-grass value is, the larger the maximum population can survive – up until a point. Once that population goes over around 3300, it can’t sustain itself regardless of the energy from grass value due to the limited number of available grass patches. As the energy-from-grass value lowers, we see a decline in the maximum population.

In this first video, we see a starting population of around 100, with a birth-energy cost of 50, and an energy-from-grass value of 2. In this video, you can see the population reduces to around 2 sheep, which it maintains but does not grow:

In the next video, that starting population is still around 100, and the birth-energy still costs 50, but the energy-from-grass value is now 100. You can see the population rapidly spike, but then take a bit of a dive as we surpass what the limited amount of grass squares can sustain:

Question 2: Birth-Energy

The Birth-Energy parameter appears to primarily control the rate of growth of the sheep population. When the birth-energy is low, the rate of population growth is very fast – however when the birth-energy is high, the rate of population growth is low. Birth-energy does not seem to effect the maximum population. In both of the below videos, the maximum population hovers around 1600.

In both of these videos the initial population is 101, and the energy-from-grass is 50.

In this first video, the birth-energy is set to 1. We see a very rapid spike in population before it hits maximum population:

In this next video, the birth-energy is set to 100, restricting the rate of population growth and increasing the amount of time it takes to hit max population:

Question 3: Initial Population

While the initial population does seem to change the initial growth of the population, the long term emergent trends do not seem to be effected by the initial population. The population still spikes to slightly over the maximum sustainable population, then drops to the sustainable population, regardless of the initial population.

In the two videos below, the birth-energy and energy-from-grass are set to 50. In the first video, the initial population is 1, while in the second video the initial population is 200: