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[jocke the beast]

Hi guys.
Just started playing DF and I've got a little question for you.
I wan't a little minimalistic fortress in order to learn the game properly. Perhaps just 1-2 waves of imigrants and that's enough.
The problem is that I don't know how to "shut the new imigrants out".... Should I build a huge wall around my fortress entrance? That would kind of suck since I might wan't to go out chop some trees down and so on...
Thanks for reading 

[sjaakwortel]

set the population cap in the init at 10.

[jocke the beast]

set the population cap in the init at 10.

Thanks but I don't know how to do that. Where can I set the popluation cap?

[Hotaru]

There should be a file called d_init in your init folder inside your dwarf fortress folder. In that file, change the line [POPULATION_CAP:200] to [POPULATION_CAP:10]. You will get more than 10 regardless, so that would probably be the best number.

I would also recommend changing [INVADERS:YES] to [INVADERS:NO] in that same file while you're learning.

[jocke the beast]

Thanks guys.
Stupid-follow-up-question: Must the changes be done before I generate a world or can I change them after... Feels like before but one can never be sure without asking 

[Hotaru]

You don't need to regen a world for these changes.

[jocke the beast]

Sweet.
Thanks again.

[The Dog Delusion]

Might I also suggest turning off invasions (in the same file) if you haven't already? It will probably buy you a few seasons or years of productive fort building before you decide to turn it back on and brave the thieves, baby-snatchers and sieges.

[Rude]

I've worked out a checklist of labors and found that about 40 dwarves is enough to fill every labor that I setup in a usual fort with some labors having extra workers. This leaves no room for military or metal working.

Keep in mind that when messing with the pop cap, you will not end up with an exact number of dwarves and you will probably get 1-2 migrant waves after you have reached the pop cap. you'll still get pregnancies too. So if you want 20 dwarves, you might want to set it at about 10. you need 80 dwarves for some events to trigger and 100 for the complete experience. but as a beginner, you probably won't mind not having those.

[jocke the beast]

Cool. Thanks for the information.

Well, my little newbie-fortress has like 50 dwarfs now...2 died of thirst  wierd... Anyways, seems like I need to look up some basic stuff like how to keep my dwarfs happy when it comes to drink & food. Now I got plump helmets to brew drinks but there's like nothing to eat... Well, perhaps I should've prepared my journey better. Perhaps some chickens who could give me eggs or something...
Well, dying is fun 

[slothen]

you can always execute your migrants.

[Girlinhat]

Also of note: If you make an init change, restart DF (not just save, but save and quit and restart).  init stands for initialization, DF will only read that file when it's initializing the program.

[Mushroo]

Cool. Thanks for the information.

Well, my little newbie-fortress has like 50 dwarfs now...2 died of thirst  wierd... Anyways, seems like I need to look up some basic stuff like how to keep my dwarfs happy when it comes to drink & food. Now I got plump helmets to brew drinks but there's like nothing to eat... Well, perhaps I should've prepared my journey better. Perhaps some chickens who could give me eggs or something...
Well, dying is fun 

Dwarfs will eat plump helmets (they are the only underground crop that can be eaten raw without cooking in the kitchen).
I recommend at least 1 other type of plant for brewing, because otherwise  your dwarfs will get a bad thought from drinking the same old booze.
Eggs are a very nice way to get food (be sure to build nest boxes).

[thegoatgod_pan]

If they are getting thirsty you should def. set up a well--it hydrates just fine, and I (at least) can never seem to make enough booze to avoid shortages (or if I do, I relax and forget about it until there is a dire shortage).  No booze and well=happy dwarves no booze, no well= dead dwarves.

[Mushroo]

No reason to every have thirsty dwarfs; alcohol production should be a top priority from the beginning. Gathering wild plants will get you through until the 1st caravan, but by the first winter, you really should have a safe underground plump helmet farm, soon you will have more plump helmets and dwarven wine than you'll believe (I like to have at least 1,000 drink stockpiled before I concentrate on other less-important priorities).

One tip is to assign a Manager from the (n)obles screen, then you can order up batches of 30 make barrel/pot, 30 brew drink tasks.