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[Jarlaxle212]

So I recently got sucked back into this game and started up a new fort which i'm very happy with considering my fort is literally carved out a mountain of iron ore. But these migrant waves are killing me with over-population. First wave is always fun, 10-14 new idiots to control. But after that the waves are just painful, getting more then 20 new dwarfs gets tedious trying to find them all a niche. The past two waves I got over 60 dwarfs in each...over half which are totally useless children and babies, my beautiful fort is now a giant dwarf orphanage. So my question is 1) Is there a way to limit migrant waves so you don't get swarmed? 2) Is there a way to reduce the amount of useless children you get?

[Drazinononda]

My guess is that the huge amount of migrants is due to a confluence of a) not having had a visit from the liaison yet and b) having loads of wealth due to all the iron/steel. Set your population cap where you want it, and wait until you reach that number before you start churning out the goods, is all I can suggest.

[Mitre]

I usually take to throwing Migrants off towers as practice for my Doctors.

Find a high place, Build a bridge hanging off. You can then burrow useless migrants onto it, pull the level, and get some sweet practice which is very useful when it comes to stitching up soldiers!

[Mr Space Cat]

I usually take to throwing Migrants off towers as practice for my Doctors.

Find a high place, Build a bridge hanging off. You can then burrow useless migrants onto it, pull the level, and get some sweet practice which is very useful when it comes to stitching up soldiers!

Hey hey, a good way to take care of all those extra children, Jarlaxle.

[laularukyrumo]

Alternatively, just keep your doors shut 24/7. Maybe have an outdoor burrow and assign everyone to it, have a couple carpenter's workshops out there, have some of the new fucks making training axes, but otherwise just have them all chop wood and then haul it to a minecart or just a bridge-operated dumping zone that leads into the fort. Nobody ever needs to come inside if they're not worthy.

[ExecratedDwarf]

I have this same issue when playing some forts. My advice is to set your population cap(found in the init text files) extremely low. I set mine at 25, which generally means I get 30 to 50 dwarves. Then raise it slowly. If you have 43 dwarves, but want or need more set it to 44. Just be prepared to possibly get 2 very large waves before they stop arriving.

[Jarlaxle212]

Thanks for the ideas guys..Im feeling particularly cruel, im going to have them build their own tower of fun! Then when their done they all get a turn to pull the lever of happiness and joy Guess its a good way to weed out the extra emotional dwarves n toughen up the real population! And since my noble just mandated useless grates yet again im going to let him take the first trip(:

[Uggh]

Maybe it helps if you scare them off. I had an incident in the first years of my fort involving the death of two thirds of the population. Ever since, when I increase my pop limit I only get small waves of 3-5 dwarves dispite a very high fort value and export.

[Buttery_Mess]

If you ignore all the caravans and don't make expensive things, few dwarves will come. Having more dwarves is better so long as you can feed them, but a high population can attract sieges. Additionally you'll get fewer migrants if the death toll is high...
 Dealing with migrants is a key gameplay feature. They represent one of the few reasons to open the gate at all.

[kefkakrazy]

I usually have a job title set up in Dwarf Therapist that corresponds to less-important work. Primarily jobs that I need done but which don't check skill level for anything but speed.

For example, 20 useless migrants? Butchers, tanners, what have you. Soapmakers! Wood burners and furnace operators. I'll even allow them to do masonry if I've taken time to set all my mason's workshops to have a minimum skill level.

I tend to have a good few dwarves idle, but it means that if something incidental comes up, I have a huge labor force to attend to it. Need wood *now?* You thirty guys, grab axes from the goblin loot stash and make some elves cry. Under attack? Well, I have enough crossbows; draft the lot of them and turn the main hall into a shooting gallery.

It means I have a nice group of dwarves to pull specialists from if I need them, and they make a nice emergency militia since none of them have really irreplaceable skills.

[LittleJP]

I usually have a job title set up in Dwarf Therapist that corresponds to less-important work. Primarily jobs that I need done but which don't check skill level for anything but speed.

For example, 20 useless migrants? Butchers, tanners, what have you. Soapmakers! Wood burners and furnace operators. I'll even allow them to do masonry if I've taken time to set all my mason's workshops to have a minimum skill level.

I tend to have a good few dwarves idle, but it means that if something incidental comes up, I have a huge labor force to attend to it. Need wood *now?* You thirty guys, grab axes from the goblin loot stash and make some elves cry. Under attack? Well, I have enough crossbows; draft the lot of them and turn the main hall into a shooting gallery.

It means I have a nice group of dwarves to pull specialists from if I need them, and they make a nice emergency militia since none of them have really irreplaceable skills.

So, all these skills don't require a skill check? Hot diddly dam, I usually just made masons and skill restricted workshops due to my pathological need to build all the walls.

[Buttery_Mess]

Skill specialisation always pays off in df, but some jobs, such as butchery, don't really demand it. Butchers are disposable, so you give all your disposable dwarves butchery.

Ideally, you'll want to have your butcher be your chief surgeon in his spare time.

[peskyninja]

I come back after some months and nobody suggested magma. You have disapointed me. I miss necro

[darkrider2]

I usually take to throwing Migrants off towers as practice for my Doctors.

Find a high place, Build a bridge hanging off. You can then burrow useless migrants onto it, pull the level, and get some sweet practice which is very useful when it comes to stitching up soldiers!

HEY YOU

Jump off this cliff the doctors need to practice bone setting.

Conversely, you could just consign all your useless migrants to hauling around the ridiculous amounts of iron you have. Or you know, raise an army of wrestlers and throw them en masse at your opponents, you'll defeat a few ambushes and get rid of the migrant waves since no one will want to come to your fort of death anymore, two problems with one suicide assault, efficiency, yes?

[MasterShizzle]

Reminds me of a Monty Python sketch, the "McKamikaze Highlanders". Exploding scotsmen jumping out of planes. Very dwarfy.