Nightfish. I think the 100K you were seeing in Moo2 was a result of the cloning center. It automatically added 100k of population each turn. If you look at the population of a growing planet (new colony) you will see that the growth rate is a maximum at about one half the planets population. Sakkra player would exploit this and be able to maximize their entire empires populaiton at a rate that was MUCH faster than just their growth rate, in fact they would grow EXPONENTIALLY faster. The formula I posted ealier is geometric growth and has a few benefits.
1. A fledgling colony that is struggling for survival will not be having a high growth rate. Thus the growth rate is a minimum.
2. As the colony grows and gets "stronger" and actually starts to contribute to the empire it will naturally begin to grow faster becuase it will have both technology and more people.
3. As we are concerned most about gameplay, slowing the populaiton growth as a colony matures makes "old" colonies more valuable. Only an old colony will be completly maxed out as far as population is concerned. Thus this formula ensures that a significant amount of time must pass before a colony is completely developed.
Also the formula I posted earlier was for the growth RATE. Therefore it cannot be linear. The complete calculations for planet growth would be: NewPop = CurrPop * [(MaxPop-CurrPop) / MaxPop] * X
where X = the Race specific growth rate.
If you are a little math savvy you can multiply the currpop out and get a 2nd order quadratic equation. Which by definition is NOT Linear nor Exponential.