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[ASnogarD]

Probably been brought up before but I couldnt find a suitable answer in my quick searches of the forums...

I have a nice little spot by the sea, a beach with plenty of fish , loads of wood and no aquifer , hell it even has flux stone and ore ... great stuff...

... then the minions of hell descended on my barely started fort, not the kind you get when you explore too much or the kind you get when you embark in a bad area... noooo these are worse.

I was under siege by all manner of horrors... like the dreaded Wax Makers, the horrorific Milkers , even Wood Burners and Pump Operators... yes my friends, a army of migrants of oh so not usefull fools flooded into my fort... I only had something like 6 beds and I get a wave of 39 loitering useless good for nothing elf hugging vampire hiding fake bearded .... halflings, gah... bet the last fort got abandoned and they all pile into mine.

... I tried to get them sorted out, and seemed to go well enough... then the babies came, those useless lot were pumping out babies faster than the cats could make kittens, then a big FU came... another wave, 36 in this one with 12 kids. I was so busy pumping out beds and doors and coffers and rubbish I didnt even have a wooden play sword to arm anyone...and I know the real fun is on its way, and my dwarfs get chased out of thier fort if a freaking boar wanders in.

So...is there a way to manage migrants (other than the live trap testing, or pit re-location, or bridge transportation methods...ie without slaughtering the newcomers), whats the triggers for the huge waves ? Too much carved out areas ? I tried pre-designating areas but not allowing the miners access to the zones until I need them to keep the bedrooms small, I havent got too many farms or industries on the go... I want to design a mighty fort...not make slums for layabouts and Milkers hehe.

[Mageziya]

As far as I know you can modify the RAWs to lower the population cap, then raise it again when you are ready for more migrants. But that doesn't take effect until the outpost liaison has come and gone. (In a nutshell, he sees you have meet the cap and tells everyone your fort is full.)

You can do the same thing with a baby cap, but that takes place instantly and only involves babies born, not immigrated, into the fort. As in, even if the baby cap is maxed out, babies can still immigrate.

It also helps if you modify the game so it doesn't pause and recenter whenever a child is born.

[melphel]

Migrants are attracted by fortress wealth.  If the fort is rich and getting richer, folk from the mountainhome will seek a better life in the new world.  Chances are they were poor and useless there and are trying to start anew in the colony.  I imagine useful dwarves already have good jobs and aren't as inclined to moving.

Keeping production low and slow in the beginning can stave off the huge immigrant waves.  Restrain yourself from churning out expensive crafts, cooking fancy meals, and engraving everything in sight.

I prefer to let them come in their droves.  No-skills must be ready for conscription though.  With the population skyrocketing and wealth being flaunted, the ambushes are never far away and I need cannon fodder.

[Bererez]

My migrants dump stone into a quantum stockpile because I hate clutter. By the time everything is clean I usually have my glass industry and barracks operational so the women become glassmakers and the men become soldiers.

[itg]

Migrants are a pain if you're a managerial perfectionist, but they basically never do any real harm to anything but your framerate. They won't get too upset sleeping on the floor while you make more beds. I like to make any surplus dwarves mason/mechanic/haulers and then use them to build elaborate defenses and megaprojects.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Go near them, then press v-p-l.

Oh, not what you meant? Well, let me give you this advice: Have some make blocks. Have others turn the blocks into megaprojects. Use the megaprojects to kill any remaining useless migrants. Repeat until you can kill people standing pretty much anywhere by pulling a lever. Use migrants to attract enemies to the traps.

[Sutremaine]

DF is pretty good for sorting migrants. Take the ones you want to use immediately, and give the rest of them a custom profession. Then sort this custom profession. I use the following mental categories:

High speed, non-negative other physical stats: Military candidate
Good at everything: Whatever needs quality right from the start. Weapons, armour, leather, mechanisms for me usually.
Good at one role, meh everything else: Whatever that is. If it's useless to me they'll probably haul most of the time, but the job will be on someone should I ever want it.
Bad at everything: Food processor/soaper/wood burner and hauler. May be enlisted at some point to boost stats, either through active training or through beating up a flesh ball. I like to imagine that they make wheezy squeaky noises when hit with a hammer.

Then you just make them do stuff until they aren't soapers or milkers any more.

This fortress I assigned skilled masons and carpenters by putting the labours on everyone as usual and putting in block and bin orders as necessary. Eventually some dwarves pulled ahead in skill by virtue of being the ones most likely to be doing nothing when the orders were placed, and at that point I made the workshops >Adequate only. It seems to have worked pretty well, so I'll do that again.

[Loud Whispers]

Meh, I just tag them all when they arrive by wave number and send them off to the military.

[Calathar]

The migrant issue is a bug/product of historical figure immigration.  It used to be that one or two deaths could lead to a year without getting another migrant wave (back in 40d), and even then it could be a small one.  It made keeping your dwarves alive early on (especially concerning moods, which you may not have the resources for) that much more important or you would risk not being able to develop your fort quickly.  Tantrum spirals were that much more difficult to recover from too.  I don't even think you can stop a migrant wave even by wiping out half your population as it is now.  Unfortunately it's not a top priority, so you might as well mod the pop. cap.

[mastahcheese]

Just make sure that the people you have making the beds and coffers for all your free-loaders don't start getting good at it, if they start to make high quality furniture then even more migrants will show up.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

I don't even think you can stop a migrant wave even by wiping out half your population as it is now.  Unfortunately it's not a top priority, so you might as well mod the pop. cap.

Wiping out 123 dwarves, with a pop-cap of 100, will stop the migrants from coming. 

HTH

[ASnogarD]

I dont want to actually modify the game... beyond what LNP and its utilities do, want to make a decent fort as close to unmodified as possible.

Hmmm , so wealth is the key here ?

I didnt think I had much wealth generated by the time I got the first huge wave... had a number of gems (uncut) stored away , and ore piled in another stockpile. I had a craftshop making some crafts for trade, but mainly for making rock pots for the brewer... didnt even start my iron/steel production ( I was intending to make a outside the fort mine for mining, after I built my underground moat defences ).
I hadnt engraved or even smoothed a single wall inside... built a keep ontop of the enterance ramps, and a wall around the keep, and my atom smasher... thats about it.
Had 2 artifacts from moods... oh, and the dwarf traders goods I accidently stole... literally accidentally. I had a elven trader walk off in a hissy fit after I offered them gneiss crafts... in wooden bins (hypocrits were trading half the forest in lumber and walked off in a fuss over some wooden bins... elves), so when the dwarf trader got in a tiff because he didnt like my trade proposals I was pretty miffed and hurriedly told my trader to stop trading and get back to duties... for some reason I noted the merchants leave immediately, and my dwarfs carting off tonnes of stuff and my depot was turned to a few pieces of stone on the floor ( seems I accidently removed the building ).

Would limiting the number of rooms carved out lower the wealth value, ie just carve out what I need now and leave the rest as designated by unreachable ( I do that with my bedrooms but not the craft areas) ?

I dont mind a large number of dwarfs ( thanks Dwarf Therepist ) just not all in huge waves, that usually ends up with me dropping projects to build rooms and furniture for the new arrivals ( though in the end I started making dorms for newcomers until I got rooms ready ).

[PetWolverine]

From the Wiki page for Immigration:

The third migrant wave and on are influenced by ... the fortress wealth as reported by the last outgoing dwarven caravan. ... If the caravan fails to make it out then the fortress' wealth is not reported.

If this is correct, then destroying the first caravan could prevent migrant waves, or at least ensure that they're very small.

You don't have to attack them. Wait until they're in your depot, then wall it off. They should go crazy and then starve. I think the guards will remain, but you can just let them go when you're ready.

Also:

If a fortress manages to trade (not offer) away 100% of its created wealth then no immigrants will come the next season.

But that's a bit more difficult, what with having to get all that stone to the depot with very few dwarves to spare from essential tasks - not to mention you'll probably at least want to keep some beds, tables and chairs.

[melphel]

Changing the population cap isn't what I would consider modding the game, and it is something the LNP lets you do.  The pop cap is the most straightforward solution, although the least fun.

Digging out rooms don't contribute to fortress wealth, I think...if they do it isn't much.  You will build fortress wealth from furniture and workshops, and from all the food and booze your guys have been consuming.  Imported trade goods don't count toward wealth either, that is until you turn them into something made within the fort.

Being able to handle sudden influxes of unskilled dwarves is part of the game in my opinion.  Make them build their own beds and gather their own food if they want to stay.  Turn them into recruits, even if you have no equipment for them.  If you can outnumber the goblins, you can win an ambush.  If some of your guys don't live, then it's helping your overpopulation problem, if they do live then you have some legitimately experienced dwarves to start a serious military with.

[VerdantSF]

Changing the population cap isn't what I would consider modding the game, and it is something the LNP lets you do.

Agreed.  After reaching 50+ immigrant waves in previous forts, these days I use the pop cap religiously.  As I add new residential areas, I bump it up.