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[Johnny Madhouse]

I'm altering my play style in one of my worlds and trying to make a small village of 20 or so dwarves. I thought the pop cap was working after the first caravan left when I got a wave of three migrants bringing me to twenty, but then a baby was born and IMMEDIATELY I got seven more migrants. I'm now at forty five dwarves and I'm irritated because I don't have enough housing for them all, due to my plan to construct the village above ground with earthenware bricks.

[slink]

I have felt as if we get a full year's worth of migrants whether we asked for them or not.  Some of the waves have contained 20 or more migrants for me.  With a population limit of 70, I could never get it to stop short of 80.  I have it set now at 50, which gets me close to 60 total after one year's worth of migrations.

[imperium3]

Wall up the fort so that immigrants just starve. It's cruel, but it keeps the lye makers and fish cleaners away.

Of course you might have to open the gates when traders turn up!

[Cydonian Monk]

I found that in .18 and .19, if I set the cap at 19 or less that I couod typically keep the fort at less than 20 for several years.  But if I set the cap to 20 or above, I got endless waves of migrants.  I'd rather have 25-26 so I can get moody dwarfs (requires 20), but my system can't handle more than 35-40... and I was ending up with 80 after one year of resumed migration.

[sharpie]

You get the first three waves of immigrants whether you want them or not.  After that, your population cap is tallied against the number of dorfs.  You can still get births based on what you set the birth cap to.

[Shandra]

I am not sure about 1.st three, could well be only two... My experience with .19 up to now is that if I play with a cap of 19 the last wave (by coincidence so far always the 3rd) may already brake that cap by a few dwarves (most of the time just up to 20, but I experienced 22 at one time - but then 2 of them where kids)... and if I stick to that cap thereafter there are sometimes more migrants, or the message that my fortress hasn't attracted such... but If I set the cap down to 1 after I reached my original limit it is no more messages or migrants at all (excluding on side birth).
Of course I cannot be sure that it will truly obey the set cap, at least it had left me with my base 19 + 2 (my child cap) newborns for 5 years for now.

Edit: P.S.: And yes, on the first migrant waves I am savescumming - as I really don't like to have High Master Soaper/skilled metalsmith/skilled mason or such... for my 1st set of 20 I want consistent skills and not a bunch of weirdos - or can anyone explain to me how any person (ok, they have a much higher life time... but regardless of that) can gain superior experiences in surgery, masonry and smithing??? Nothing 'gainst Hobby Skills, but too much expertise is simply ... well, too much of it! I really would wish there would be a template for characters (like some xml sheet where we define hobby skills and the templates therefore and then the job sets (1st Field of Expertice followed by subsets thereof) and that non-embark creatures would use those templates to spend their skill points on)

[Caz]

drop them into lava / crush them under a bridge.

[j0nas]

The population cap is..very wonky, you're not the only one experiencing this.  Once a wave is triggered the size of it will be based off of the value of your fortress, so just enabling immigration for a short moment can result in a huge wave if your fortress is worth a lot.

Beyond that I also understand that the first two immigration waves are hard-coded and unavoidable, and it's also important to remember that even after reaching the dwarf-cap you've set, some additional waves may already be 'in progress' and will arrive as well.

Maybe try being a little sloppy with your military squads until the numbers dwindle a little?

[ext0l]

I found that in .18 and .19, if I set the cap at 19 or less that I couod typically keep the fort at less than 20 for several years.  But if I set the cap to 20 or above, I got endless waves of migrants.  I'd rather have 25-26 so I can get moody dwarfs (requires 20), but my system can't handle more than 35-40... and I was ending up with 80 after one year of resumed migration.

Solution:
Set population cap at ~25.
After getting ~25 dwarfs, lower cap back to 19. 

[EveryZig]

What would be nice (is this already in the suggestions thread?) would be if you could request what migrant skills you want at the diplomat sort of like how you can currently request trade goods (doesn't completely determine it, but changes the likely-hood). Perhaps give the diplomat a 'gift' to further increase the chances of desirable migrants...

[Johnny Madhouse]

I'd heard of the first three being unavoidable, and I kept playing even through the fourth and fifth waves, wondering how long things were going to go on. I wasn't building wealth very fast, due to using all my resources for construction and not cooking any meals. When the sixth wave hit, I saved and worked on an essay instead.

I'll try setting the cap to nineteen. I don't want to resort to smashing or burning dwarves, though it might be kind of neat playing as a tiny village WITH A DARK SECRET.