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Author Topic: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control  (Read 923 times)

Noobazzah

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A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« on: August 08, 2012, 04:42:36 pm »

So, how does the BABY_CAP change the amount of babies being born? My citizens are way too happy, popping out babies all the time, preventing me from getting any useful immigrants anymore. Would setting it to " 0:0 " stop new pregnancies? And which number actually represents adults? The first one?
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toomanysecrets

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2012, 04:46:30 pm »

First number is child count and second number percentage of the fort that can be children.  0:0 prevents any and all births for me, but does not prevent child immigrants, especially early in the game.
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Telgin

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2012, 04:48:03 pm »

It's also important to note that the child cap won't terminate existing pregnancies.  So you may still have a few births after setting it to 0.

The population cap affects your total population (so adults and children), and the child cap affects new births inside your fort.
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Noobazzah

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2012, 04:51:18 pm »

Well, migrant kids usually grow up pretty soon, and my popultaion cap has been exceeded by at least 80, thanks to the kids. It seems that almost a half of my population is babies or young children. might have to atom smash them soon, since a siege caught me during a farming crisis ("no seeds" spam) and my booze reserves are running low.
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Noobazzah

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2012, 04:54:28 pm »

Yes, thought as much. With my luck, every female dwarf is currently pregnant and ready to flood my fortress with their pesky offspring. I got rid of all my cats, and now I'm getting overrun by babies. They're exactly like cats, except for they drink booze.
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Leonidas

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2012, 05:42:05 pm »

now I'm getting overrun by babies. They're exactly like cats, except for they drink booze.
No, babies can't drink booze. I think that's why they're grumpy all the time.
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Noobazzah

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2012, 05:46:30 pm »

Well, do they drink anything then? Anyway, children do, and the statement applies to them. They do collect crops though.
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pabrams

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2012, 06:11:18 pm »

Well, migrant kids usually grow up pretty soon, and my popultaion cap has been exceeded by at least 80, thanks to the kids. It seems that almost a half of my population is babies or young children. might have to atom smash them soon, since a siege caught me during a farming crisis ("no seeds" spam) and my booze reserves are running low.


I'm in a similar situation, with a current population of 168, 23 babies and 32 children, with a new baby coming every few seconds now it seems, and the birth rate seems to be still increasing, if anything.

I'm not sure which file to check to confirm the numbers.  I set population cap to 100 using the Newb tools but I'm not really sure that took effect... sometimes in previous games I've looked and it's back at 200.

I don't seem to be running low on resources though; food stores are at a ridiculous 5950, and drink is at 1247.  I've got 4 stills.  But still, if the babies don't stop coming at some point, there's gonna be trouble.
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Sutremaine

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2012, 06:28:27 pm »

Well, do they drink anything then?
They get their hunger and thirst counters magically reset while in their mother's care, or something.
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Noobazzah

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2012, 05:38:24 am »

Ah, breastfeeding obviously.
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2012, 08:07:58 am »

now I'm getting overrun by babies. They're exactly like cats, except for they drink booze.
No, babies can't drink booze. I think that's why they're grumpy all the time.
I fail to see why they'd be grumpy--not only do babies not need to work and get a free pass to see the world for a year (or at least the parts where their mother lives and works), but dwarven breast milk HAS to be at least 30-40 proof.
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silverskull39

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2012, 11:22:52 am »

now I'm getting overrun by babies. They're exactly like cats, except for they drink booze.
No, babies can't drink booze. I think that's why they're grumpy all the time.
I fail to see why they'd be grumpy--not only do babies not need to work and get a free pass to see the world for a year (or at least the parts where their mother lives and works), but dwarven breast milk HAS to be at least 30-40 proof.

Psh! we all know dwarves don't care enough/aren't smart enough to feed their young! the babies survive off of whatever they can pick out of their mother's beard. Of course, considering the dwarven diet, these leavings are probably 70-80 proof, if not more.
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Quietust

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Re: A quick guestion regarding the fine art of birth control
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2012, 11:28:15 am »

It's my recollection (from disassembly diving) that any baby being carried by its mother will effectively leech food/drink from her, causing her to become hungry/thirsty at double the usual rate. This does not, however, count as alcohol - when a baby is close to 1 year old, it will have severe withdrawal.
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