The Death CUlt Civic has been in a weak spot, due to the lowering of the number of pops in the galaxy. So, to combat this, they are moving the Death CUlt on to percentages.
The patch associated with the Aquatics Species Pack includes a ton of changes and added content to already-released DLC. The next update will be the 3.1 “Lem” and 3.2 “Herbert” updates rolled into one, and one of the changes within will be centered on the Death Cult Civic.
With the pop growth changes in the previous version, Death Cults occupied a strange space, say the developers, where when they were released, they were pretty powerful, with the galactic-wide reduction in the overall number of pops, Death Cults became more of a liability, because pops became that much more valuable with the growth changes introduced in the last version.
As such, they have adjusted the values you receive when sacrificing pops as a Death Cult. Where previously you would get a fixed amount, scaled by the number of pops, in the upcoming version the scaled portion will also increase based on the percentage of your overall pops you sacrifice.
Paradox Interactive
The higher the percentage of your population you sacrifice, the higher the bonuses you receive, especially in the early game when your overall population is low.
This means that, effectively, the issue of lowered number of pops in the galaxy is sidestepped masterfully, allowing the Death Cult Civic to be what it is, high-risk high reward gameplay.
