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[Bigheaded]

1. How much population do you want to have? 2. What population cap do you set? (does it work to give 1.?) 3. do you change the amount after several years? 4. Child cap?
Currently using a pop cap of 10, and a 10:10 child cap:adult ratio, will probably go upto 30 later.

I've found it's a LOT LOT LOT simpler having fewer dwarves, sounds obvious but it also makes you think "what do i REALLY need?"
Currently i have a fort of about 12 dwarves and a similar number of kids although 1 or 2 have just grown up, and my main aim this fort was to have AT LEAST half of my dwarf population being military. 7 on the 12 are currently military this leaves 5. So 5 dwarves basically means: 1 miner, 1 cook, 1x food gathering (hunting/fishing/gathering etc) and 2 leftover for oddjobs. Although i totally ran out of booze so i need to fix that problem pretty soon, especially seeing it's winter and all the water froze (luckily outpost turned up to trade, my entire fort was like "GIVE ME BOOZZZZZZZZZZE" (i.e thirsty and sleepy) so i purchased all they had)

So the main 3 are at the top of the post, a couple more points of interest
4. Have you tried smaller amounts of dwarves? (i WILL try "adventure mode - fortress style", where 1 dwarf kills off all his friends then lives alone and has to mine/cook etc for himself)
5. How many idlers do you usually "want" and how many do you usually have? I actually like having 0 idlers, i find them a job, so i'm nitpicking a LOT.

[itg]

1. Around 120 seems to be a good balance of dwarfpower vs. fps for me. If fps were no concern, I'd probably double that.
2. My current fort is set to 80. Actual population is 116. Lower than usual for me (smaller embark, too), but I like it. With temperature off my fps is in the 90's, and it's a 10-year old fort.
3. No.
4. Usually I set it to 10-15% of the adult population. It always seems to get screwed up, somehow, and then I end up with a fort that's 30% children.
4b. Not really. I like working on large projects, and that means I need laborers.
5. If more than 5-10% of the dwarves are idle, I find something that needs dumping to keep the freeloaders busy. If there's nothing to dump, it's time to start a new project.

[Sprin]

my comp can handle 250 pop cap on a moderate map with very decent FPS...
I kinda like big pop for a more city feel.
Also 10 idlers I like so I feel better when dwarfs are sick or in prison.

[Kibstable]

I set my pop cap to 50 until my front door is controllable and my dining room is usable, then I increase the cap to 90. That way I should only deal with thieves and kidnappers until I'm ready for more.   The third migrant wave of about 30 dwarves forces you to deal with fitting them into the fort just before the sieges begin, I like to have an extra few months to get them sorted out and settled in. Later the pop cap gets set higher until FPS starts to suffer which depends on water, magma, socks and embark size

[Loud Whispers]

1. How much population do you want to have?

Don't know, I don't fiddle with the pop cap.

2. What population cap do you set?

Default

3. do you change the amount after several years?

Not so far

4. Child cap?

Not touched it

I've found it's a LOT LOT LOT simpler having fewer dwarves, sounds obvious but it also makes you think "what do i REALLY need?"

Large army of soldiers, farmers and masons

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Currently i have a fort of about 12 dwarves and a similar number of kids although 1 or 2 have just grown up, and my main aim this fort was to have AT LEAST half of my dwarf population being military. 7 on the 12 are currently military this leaves 5. So 5 dwarves basically means: 1 miner, 1 cook, 1x food gathering (hunting/fishing/gathering etc) and 2 leftover for oddjobs. Although i totally ran out of booze so i need to fix that problem pretty soon, especially seeing it's winter and all the water froze (luckily outpost turned up to trade, my entire fort was like "GIVE ME BOOZZZZZZZZZZE" (i.e thirsty and sleepy) so i purchased all they had)

They can be in the military and have labours on, they're not exclusive. In this way you can have the entire fort in the military, constantly on duty training or off duty working.

4. Have you tried smaller amounts of dwarves? (i WILL try "adventure mode - fortress style", where 1 dwarf kills off all his friends then lives alone and has to mine/cook etc for himself)

Nup. All of the Dwarves are too interesting to murderize without reason.

5. How many idlers do you usually "want"'

0

and how many do you usually have?

0, but the 8 or so miners usually end up idle so I have to regularly turn masonry/engraving on or off or find them something new to dig.

I actually like having 0 idlers, i find them a job, so i'm nitpicking a LOT.

There are people who like having idlers?

[NESgamer190]

1:  Doesn't overly matter, as long as my fortress doesn't horribly succumb to some cat.
2:  200 right now, though in the past, I've had it to 10.  (A personally imposed challenge of 2 waves only and earn migrants if you're below 10.
3:  I don't often change the cap, but if I do, it's usually to bolster the numbers a bit.
4:  Child cap is to default standards, though I used to have child cap to 0.
4b:  Did try smaller numbers, and kinda loved it until I realized who'll extract the strands?
5:  Idlers wanted...  probably 2 at most to let me know I'm not absolutely failing at my fort.

Why did I revert to defaults?  A succession fort was involved between a friend of mine and myself by the name of crushpaint.

[Bigheaded]

I thought most people would be 100-200,

anyone crazy enough to go for 500? more!?

1. How much population do you want to have?

Don't know, I don't fiddle with the pop cap.

There are people who like having idlers?
[/quote]
Well, i was asking if you could "choose" a number of dwarves where about 5 extra migrants would soon join your fort, to keep a roughly level population, what would it be? most people like around 100-200 dwarves running around

The point about idlers is that you can dump stuff in a hurry or to fill gaps i.e you want to start a massive miner project, add 4 miners. They're also very useful for lever pulling.
I'd say 5% of your dwarves should be idling at any one time, if you get over 10% then you probably have too many, if you have under 2% you might find some jobs slow down a bit (i.e after wood cutting no-one takes the wood to the wood stockpile so the carpenters can't immediately access it, so slows down carpentry)


Also, just curious, how many of you even need planters? seriously. I start an embark with roughly 16 hens and 2 roosters (sometimes turkeys instead for extra eggs, but hens are funny), this is an immediate source of ~150 eggs per year, if not more, some quite often hatch (deactivate eggs in food stockpiles) to even increase this or for chicks for you to butcher up.


Thanks for answers, seems quite interesting how people differ.

[Bouchart]

Right now it's 130.  I need a lot of haulers for when a soldier hits a hungry head in the face and sends 30 teeth flying everywhere.

[Cozmopolit]

My Population cap is zero (initial 7 + 2 migration waves).

Child Cap is 50:50, current population 138 (including, obviously, 50 kids).

30 military dwarfs (10xAxe, 2x3 Axe "sparring squad", 1x4 Hammer sparring, 10xCrossbow), another 20 (Masons, Farmers) carry crossbows and some armor, about to equip more haulers with crossbows.

I had problems / tantrums killing the first 2 migration waves, so those about 20 dwarfs you get from initial + 2 waves is usually what I work with.

If you start with low amount of dwarfs you might want them to idle some time so that they get to socialize/marry/breed (keep your meeting areas really small, they only talk to dwarfs on the same tile as they are). I usually have about 5-8 idlers (a few premium jobs that are not always busy but that I want done as soon as the job is up, like the glass maker (furniture), woodworker, animal trainer, mayor) but I try to regularly give the hauler team a break between bursts of activity (cleaning up invasions, stone mass hauling) where the idle cound goes up to about 30, with a good number of those actually "idling" on the archery range.

Also, just curious, how many of you even need planters? seriously.

Well, the eggs don't solve the booze and clothing issue. I mix up plants for different kinds of booze, pig tails and dimple cups for excellent clothing. Most food is processed from meat, tallow and eggs.

[ZzarkLinux]

When you start moving stuff deep underground, then you need every dwarf you can get.

I built my computer ~2 years ago, only a dual-processor but it works well.
So I hope my FPS is more forgiving.

Hypothetical Cap: 175 dwarves, default kids
Actual Cap: Whoever survives the zombies (record is 40 pop)

[Loud Whispers]

The point about idlers is that you can dump stuff in a hurry or to fill gaps i.e you want to start a massive miner project, add 4 miners. They're also very useful for lever pulling.

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that it's better to have Dwarves who know what they're doing being idle than having idle Dwarves do what specialists do better. I.e. keeping those 4 idlers as miners forever whilst the project continues, and never need more miners again. I generally don't like idle Dwarves. It only takes one Dwarf to finish their job before someone decides to pull the lever, so it doesn't really make much difference with large forts.

I'd say 5% of your dwarves should be idling at any one time, if you get over 10% then you probably have too many, if you have under 2% you might find some jobs slow down a bit (i.e after wood cutting no-one takes the wood to the wood stockpile so the carpenters can't immediately access it, so slows down carpentry)

Idle Dwarves are Dwarves doing nothing. That slows down the fort more than anything.

Also, just curious, how many of you even need planters? seriously. I start an embark with roughly 16 hens and 2 roosters (sometimes turkeys instead for extra eggs, but hens are funny), this is an immediate source of ~150 eggs per year, if not more, some quite often hatch (deactivate eggs in food stockpiles) to even increase this or for chicks for you to butcher up.

Farming is the 2nd largest industry in my fort. Barely any animals, no birds (except eagles - they lay 2-3 eggs a year, I don't like birds much), loads of booze, loads of different plants, cloth items are never in short supply. It's good.
Although I hear there are those who are just happy with a 3x3 farm plot making plump helmets with a single legendary grower tending the plots.

[Kon]

I start with pop cap set to somewhere between 20 and 40. I increase it by 10 when I need more dwarves. Usually max it out around 70 or 80. Don't often mess with the child caps.

[sadron]

Due to how migrants tend to work I have it set at 105, with children at 20. It's big enough to make my fortress well populated without being ridiculous.

[i2amroy]

Normally I set the pop cap at about 150, but right now I've been trying some more generational forts. As such I have my pop cap set to 80 with a baby cap of 20:30.