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I'd add three flags to a room:
populationType
populationTotal
populationTimeSequence
populationType
1) middle class consumers, average people, like what you would expect at a mall
2) upper class business, more what you would expect with people going to work in a corporate building
3) lower class consumer, the type of people that would be found at salvation army, thrift stores, dollar stores etc
4) lower class urban, your average slums, ghettos
5) middle class urban, suburbia
etc
populationTotal
An average number of people that could be in the room, you could even use a fuzzy logic value then an actual number.
0.0 it is empty, 0.5 the area is pretty crowded, 1.0 the place is packed (nightclub)
populationTimeSequence
Just a list of generic times that you could use to determine how many people should be there when:
1) General day workers: People usually only show up around here from 8:00am to 10:00am, and then it drops down to almost no-one, and they show up again around 4:00pm to - 6:00pm
2) General nightclub: The place is completly empty and starts getting a few people around 7:00pm, then it gets really packed from 10:00pm till 3:00am
3) Shopping Mall, from 8:00am till 5:00pm it is fairly empty and then picks up from 5:00pm till 9:00pm.
I'd then use these time outlines to change the population when someone enters the room. You could also have some pre-coded messages:
Example:
8:00am
Shopping Mall
A very typical shopping mall.
There are a few groups of people walking around.
6:00pm
Shopping Mall
A very typical shopping mall.
The area is crowded with people.
You could then use the populationType to determine what would happen during a specific event.
You could extend on the populationTimeSequence to allow builders to choose during what time what type of people will be there and how large the group will get.
If you want weather to be a factor you could put a general modifier on outside rooms: Calculate total population as normal, subtract 10% if weather is stormy, 40% if weather is snowy, 90% if it is raining fire etc.
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