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[The Merchant Of Menace]

Hell, I can barely handle more than the starting 7

Then again, I've only just started playing Fort Mode

[krenshala]

I'm currently running at a pop-cap of 48, which means I've got 61 dwarves (4 are children).  I'm attempting to have the fort grow through local families, so I have the child-cap set to 1000:1000, however, so I expect my population to slowly grow.  Management wise, this is the most stable fortress I've had yet.

For those having trouble with lots of dwarves, try lowering the pop cap, then raising it slowly as things get easier and you find yourself wishing for more haulers (since the idlers tend to get assigned other jobs that keep them away from hauling duties).  Just remember you have to restart DF to get the new pop-cap to take effect (as far as I'm aware).

[Aspgren]

I love sizeable forts. I would be overjoyed to have THOUSANDS of dwarves in a huge megapolis! .. but that's more than my computer could ever handle.

and I don't think I'd handle it very well either! It would fail spectacularily and I would love every minute of it.

[wierd]

The current megaproject I am working on could easily be adapted to host several thousand dwarves, when fully completed...... I have over 100 of them neatly tucked in the temporary fortress in the corner now.

Should I go all out, even though the rooms won't be populated?

[krisslanza]

I can handle up to 100, maybe, but what kills it for me is getting back-to-back 20+ migrant waves. I end up getting either too many idlers, or there's just too many new people and not enough houses. Then the meeting hall looks entirely too cluttered, food stores start to plummet... it goes downhill really quick. I kind of wish I could cap the migrant waves, I just find it hard to suddenly house 20+ new faces when I do aboveground settlements and try to give houses to everyone.

[TomIrony]

My current nightmare fort has about 130+ dorfs and there's never more than 7 or 8 that are idle, and those are usually my broker and medical/nurse dorfs.

A trick I discovered early on is: when there's a wave of migrants, I assign them one of two roles. Either A) something useful in which they will specialize until the !!FUN!! hits with hauling turned off, or B) Hauling/Detailing only. Those I put in category B, I rename their job title to "Hauler" and don't assign them any private bedrooms. They sleep in the dormitory.

Then, when I need a new specialist, or to fill my military ranks, I just dip into the pool of Haulers, switch their title and turn off their hauling. I find it keeps things nice and organized, even at 130+ dorfs.

[Doughnut189]

I can effectively micromanage up to about thirty dwarves.

After that I have massive hordes of haulers.

HOWEVER, I consider managing* the hordes of migrants part of the challenge of DF.

*drowning

[RedWick]

My preference is for forts of 180+ dwarves.  I've run with 230 or so (with at least 30 or 40 babies/children).  About 1/3 of my fortress ends up as military.  Probably another 1/3 ends up as masons/engravers (I do a lot of above-ground building).  And the rest are craftsdwarves, farmers and other jobs that need to be filled.  I also keep a full compliment of fortress/royal guards.

Whenever I there's a job I want accomplished, but nobody is working on, I assign one of the idlers to the task.  This ensures that I'll never be hurting for somebody to do what needs to be done.

The only downside to this is the inevitable FPS death.

[darkrider2]

The military is the feature of DF you're looking for that deals with overpopulation.

[bombzero]

If you have too many idlers...
at least download fortress defense or a mod that includes it, gives a need for an army.

also consider this, as a RL community grows, the government loses touch with its people, whether its a village, a state, or a country. unless extreme dedication is taken
Does DF not simulate this?

when many people move to a country at once for a better life, housing, food, water, and space in general are oft in short supply.
Does DF not simulate this?

IRL when the populace of an area outweighs the number of availible jobs, and no more can be generated, unemployment rises.
Does DF not simulate this?

so don't complain about it, embrace it as a challenge, a puzzle if you will, to solve with whatever magma you have available means you have fit

[simonthedwarf]

I can handle up to 100, maybe, but what kills it for me is getting back-to-back 20+ migrant waves. I end up getting either too many idlers, or there's just too many new people and not enough houses. Then the meeting hall looks entirely too cluttered, food stores start to plummet... it goes downhill really quick. I kind of wish I could cap the migrant waves, I just find it hard to suddenly house 20+ new faces when I do aboveground settlements and try to give houses to everyone.

If there was a way to control the amount of migrants in a tsunami, it would be awesome. I know about population caps, but the main issue is when 25 migrants show up. Sure, I can be ahead on beds, but it means being paused for a hour just to decide labours and organize them.

The military is the feature of DF you're looking for that deals with overpopulation.

It would be, if setting up real 10 men squads were a viable option instead of having to have 2-3 man squads! With no naming function to identify their role! "Okay, Urist McCustomName, you're a spear dwarf or a recruit. I guess your going in the Hammers of Snuff.  Military screen being such a enormous pain, and large squad training being bugged or pathetic.

Killing your migrants is way too gamey.

[NinjaBoot]

I find having alot of dwarfs makes things easier.  (My current huge fort is on hiatus while my beefy comp is down, at last check it had 158 dwarfs)

Especially in a "Huge" Fort (I'm thinking a 10x10 embark at a minimum). 

I have my 30-40 various industry-related workers, each with at minimum 2 specialized workers in each, and, depending on what they are doing, upto 6 of them! 

This also gives the ability to weed out those unfit for military duty (weak and clumsy) and assign those with excellent physical stats to train as well. 

But the biggest is just having the simple man-power to clear large rooms and areas of stone in a very short period of time, which is particularly useful when your map is overflowing with valuable economic stones (flux, metal stones, coal).

And, well.. having alot of people of the same job-set increases the likelyhood of one of your useless artisans getting hammered or imprisoned for not completing a useless noble demand too!

[King DZA]

Wow, I'm surprised to see that the people who like massive forts actually seem to be the minority.

Personally, I can't have enough of the drunken little bastards. Gorerape's Population is  210 at the moment, but I'd easily bump the pop. cap up by several hundred if my FPS wasn't suffering so much already.
There's always labors that could use more workers(farming, masonry, furnace operating, ect.), and I regularly have a plethora of shit to haul. More dwarves adds a more flourishing feeling of life to the fortress, the extra management is just another challenge.

Also, I feel it adds more depth and detail to a fort. (If you can manage it)Your fortress is no longer just a hole in the ground struggling for survival, but a rich and thriving dwarven metropolis. Each time I start up DF, I pick a dwarf out randomly, view their thoughts and preferences, relationships, what role they play in the fort, medical history, (if I have DT running)what migration wave they came in, and so on. I begin check up on them every season for my entire play session, just to see how their lives are progressing. This does wonders for the storytelling aspect of DF that I'm ever so fond of.

In short, more dwarves=more fun.

[Loud Whispers]

In short, more dwarves=more fun.

More Dwarves + 100% Fort recruitment = More army

[i2amroy]

Personally I like them both. While it is easier to follow and be interested in the individual dwarves while you have fewer amounts, and it is certainly easier to manage them all, I find that there isn't anything quite as awesome as being able to designate a 21x21 room for smoothing and watch as some 50 peasants tromp over and smooth the whole thing within a minute. Usually I just start my fortress and let the migrants keep coming until I reach the upper 100-200 range. Though recently I have been trying out a more "generation" styled fortress where I set my pop limit to 75-100 dwarves and then attempt to get multiple generations going.