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[Pabbicus]

I'd like to figure out how to scale it down, so I can have fewer dwarves but still get sieges and all that. I can't handle 130 dwarves. Too much dwarf power to ever assign into labor. I'll mine out the entire map and smooth it all and still have 30+ idlers.

[Di]

Um, how about universal military service? Also don't underestimate the amount of hauling.
Next, for goblins' siege to come you only need 80 dwarves and some wealth.
Finally, you can change raws so they come even earlier. entity_default.txt is the file. Wiki states that this may be done in already genned world. (see progress_trigger_)

[wuphonsreach]

I'd like to figure out how to scale it down, so I can have fewer dwarves but still get sieges and all that. I can't handle 130 dwarves. Too much dwarf power to ever assign into labor. I'll mine out the entire map and smooth it all and still have 30+ idlers.

Start with a pop-cap at the start of 15.  Raise it by 5 every spring.  (You'll have to exit, change the value in the init file, restart DF.)

[Urist McSpike]

My impression is that it has to do with happiness & comfort.  When my population has limited food, such a short supply of booze that they have to switch to water occasionally, and are sleeping on the floor of a rough dirt cave, my migrants are limited.  Once I get a large meeting/dining hall plus individual bedrooms dug out (with at least a bed) and a good supply of food & drink, they get larger.

One experiment would be to try to maintain a certain amount of food, drink & created wealth, but vary the comfort levels - sleeping in the dirt versus a large dorm with beds versus individual bedrooms with bed.  For your current population that is, not excess empty rooms - it seems like the potential migrants hear about how the current population is living, and expect the same.

A second experiment would be to maintain a rough standard of food, drink, created wealth & simple dorm setup, and use other methods to vary their happiness - a few misters or statue garden, maybe.

[Urist Da Vinci]

I can anecdotally suggest that embarking with only miners and just digging for the first few months will get you very few migrants, whereas trying to setup typical forts with metalworking and mass farming gets lots of migrants.

I have also seen that migrants will come within 3 months of raising the population cap, but lowering the popcap (as noted) can take over a year to stop the flow of migrants.

[Iosyn]

indeed, lowering popcap only takes affect once the mountainhome caravan has left, so yeah-- you'll still be getting immigrants until the next dwarven caravan arrives.

Also apparently the immigration jobs are weighted. For example if you don't have any farmers, expect to see a lot more migrant farmers, threshers and the like-- and some jobs are weighted more heavily than others. Farming is one, but I can't remember the others off the top of my head.

Also as it seems created wealth may partially affect it, smoothing/engraving and creating exceptional beds and doors would add to the fort value. However, when the caravan comes-- selling lots of furniture or something would allow you to lower the created wealth value and thus get less immigrants as your fort now has a lower value.


On personal experimentation this seems to be true: A small group of about 35 dwarves in a reasonably high-value fort, exporting only the bare minimum of crafts/foods and etc was suddenly flooded by huge migrant waves.
Engraving the legendary dining room did it, I swear.

Of course as already stated, it's affected by other issues as well.

[zuglar]

My experience is that food/booze supplies are the strongest immigrant attractors. By far. My first few forts were always on the verge of starvation/thirst, and I got very few immigrants. In later forts I learned how to farm, how to fertilize (why does everybody hate potash-makers?), and that a stack or two of *roast* can usually buy everything I want from any caravan (just put it in rock pots to keep the treehuggers happy). Result: food stocks ~10x the head count and a second spring immigration wave of 35+ (ouch). Furnished bedrooms for all might nudge the average up slightly, but not much. My biggest 2nd-year migration set ever (37, 14, 22) came in a fort where everyone but a lucky 12 were sleeping in the dirt. Plenty of food, though. An siege/ambush my second winter, and sometimes another in the spring, is pretty much a given.

The amount of digging I've done for these forts has been pretty consistent, and I've never figured out how to get a good military going so my metal industry has been low-to-none. And yes, it's a bad idea to invite sieges your second year if you don't have a good military -- it takes months to build bridges and traps, even when my 4+ master miners clear out the space quickly. More than once the gobbos have arrived while I'm still putting up decorations for the party... fun.

I've never made crafts or decorated/encrusted anything, nor have I made clothing. It's not architectural wealth because I usually don't get started on big things like wells and dining halls until the big wave gives me cheap labor. I think my total fortress wealth typically hovers around 38k at that point.

FWIW I basically see no thieves/snatchers until after the big wave arrives, and often not until my second fall; they apparently assess value based on something other than food.

Also apparently the immigration jobs are weighted. For example if you don't have any farmers, expect to see a lot more migrant farmers, threshers and the like-- and some jobs are weighted more heavily than others. Farming is one, but I can't remember the others off the top of my head.

Fisherdwarves seem to be #1 (I usually accumulate a dozen of them by the time I hit 80 dwarves), followed by farming, followed by useless crafts. I never get miners (I train up 4+ myself), and seldom get masons/smiths/carpenters/mechancis even though I only ever have one of each of them. Oh, and I usually get a vampire my second summer or fall.

[Iosyn]

aye, I get a lot of fisherdwarves as well-- seems to be food production jobs come first, followed by random crafts like you said.

Fed up of getting bloody glassmakers and clothiers in the first two waves, I swear. I'm seeing plenty of kobold thieves literally a few days after embark though-- literally as soon as the trade depot and barracks is mined out and before I've finished moving the external carpenter/crafter/mason workshops inside. Floodgates, beds, tables and chairs with some training weapons and nest boxes, so it's not exactly uber stone mug season yet. I never see snatchers until the third or forth waves at least, though.

And of course, can't forget bloody Keas. Always nicking stuff from my carpenters before I can even move them inside.
It's wood nest box. It's not even shiny. Bugger off and make your own.