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[PillarsOfSalt]

Lately I've been running low pop forts(30ish) and loving it but my newest fort has just hit 45. I just use the options on the LNP launcher and it's always worked before. I'm still getting migrants and babies.

Any idea why it's not working? Can I manually set the cap?

[Arx]

In the d_init.txt file, you can set the [POPULATION_CAP] and [STRICT_POPULATION_CAP]. The strict cap prevents births as well.

Might help you. I seem to recall having similar problems in the past too.

[Metalax]

What you can sometimes find is that, if your population is under the [POPULATION_CAP] you will still receive your next full migration wave and that can put you significantly over the cap.

As Arx noted, if your population is under [STRICT_POPULATION_CAP] you can still have births occurring that will push your population up further.

Also of note, if you manage to attract the Monarch to your fortress, he and his retinue will ignore the population caps when arriving.

Just to be safe and prevent possible oddities, I would suggest ensuring [STRICT_POPULATION_CAP] is set higher than [POPULATION_CAP], even if just by one.

[Col_Jessep]

Speaking of population cap, what's your opinion on an ideal number of dwarfs?
I want to get invasions of decent size but keep the FPS up. 50 would probably be the lowest. I like having a person with crazy demands mayor.

[smeeprocket]

I've found that as long as my world is pocket and my embark is 4 total tiles, dwarf pop doesn't actually matter too much.

[Arx]

Speaking of population cap, what's your opinion on an ideal number of dwarfs?
I want to get invasions of decent size but keep the FPS up. 50 would probably be the lowest. I like having a person with crazy demands mayor.

Unless you cut back the invasion threshold in the raws (it might be in the init files, though) the minimum size to get actual sieges is 80. Ambushes of increasing size will appear above a certain threshold of wealth, I believe, but never actual sieges. Ambushes also have the irritating quality of frequently giving you no time to seal up and move your military around.

[Urist Tilaturist]

200. Enough to be the mountainhome and get anything done with dwarves to spare.

[smeeprocket]

at 200 dwarves I was constantly having to pump out food and drink, import as much of it as possible, I had hunted and fished everything out, mined everything there was to mine without cracking the caverns. (though I should, those giant sperm whales just aren't showing up.) At that point it's time to retire the fort, nothing left to do but hope every forgotten beast in the world wanders towards your general direction.

[Arx]

200. Enough to be the mountainhome and get anything done with dwarves to spare.

A major FPS drop is almost guaranteed to occur if you get that many, though.

at 200 dwarves I was constantly having to pump out food and drink, import as much of it as possible, I had hunted and fished everything out, mined everything there was to mine without cracking the caverns. (though I should, those giant sperm whales just aren't showing up.) At that point it's time to retire the fort, nothing left to do but hope every forgotten beast in the world wanders towards your general direction.

Farming is love, farming is life. Dedicated growers, with no-one else allowed to harvest, and large fields - by the time you get to two hundred dwarves there should be plenty of seeds/spawn. Don't neglect above-ground farms, either. My most successful fort yet made heavy use of above-ground plants.

[smeeprocket]

200. Enough to be the mountainhome and get anything done with dwarves to spare.

A major FPS drop is almost guaranteed to occur if you get that many, though.

at 200 dwarves I was constantly having to pump out food and drink, import as much of it as possible, I had hunted and fished everything out, mined everything there was to mine without cracking the caverns. (though I should, those giant sperm whales just aren't showing up.) At that point it's time to retire the fort, nothing left to do but hope every forgotten beast in the world wanders towards your general direction.

Farming is love, farming is life. Dedicated growers, with no-one else allowed to harvest, and large fields - by the time you get to two hundred dwarves there should be plenty of seeds/spawn. Don't neglect above-ground farms, either. My most successful fort yet made heavy use of above-ground plants.

Yea I should stop letting everyone harvest. I should probably use potash too. I have some nice farms, just not a massive amount. I don't like the idea of my foodsource being aboveground, so my aboveground plots are small enough that I can smatter some supports around and build a ceiling over them.

[Ives]

200. Enough to be the mountainhome and get anything done with dwarves to spare.

A major FPS drop is almost guaranteed to occur if you get that many, though.

at 200 dwarves I was constantly having to pump out food and drink, import as much of it as possible, I had hunted and fished everything out, mined everything there was to mine without cracking the caverns. (though I should, those giant sperm whales just aren't showing up.) At that point it's time to retire the fort, nothing left to do but hope every forgotten beast in the world wanders towards your general direction.

Farming is love, farming is life. Dedicated growers, with no-one else allowed to harvest, and large fields - by the time you get to two hundred dwarves there should be plenty of seeds/spawn. Don't neglect above-ground farms, either. My most successful fort yet made heavy use of above-ground plants.

Yea I should stop letting everyone harvest. I should probably use potash too. I have some nice farms, just not a massive amount. I don't like the idea of my foodsource being aboveground, so my aboveground plots are small enough that I can smatter some supports around and build a ceiling over them.

A steady supply of forgotten beasts can feed even the most gluttonous of forts. I think I have 4000 units of FB meat stockpiled so far.

I've 6 max sized underground farm plots too, but they've been set to fallow for the past 8 years. I think I had around 20-30 farmers (all farming and food-related labors highlighted, only growers harvest), most of them have actually hit legendary by the time I decided to  turn off food production. So you don't really need potash, volume is where it's at.

Also you can rely on livestock. In my previous fortress I've tamed a pair of giant grasshoppers and they produced absolutely ridiculous amounts of food due to their size and short lifespan.

[smeeprocket]

well, I was trying to get giant sperm whales to show up so I slaughtered most of my animals and bridged off the sides. (that's also why I didn't breach the caverns.) I haven't had any luck with giant anything spawning in the ocean, or any of the jellyfish even bothering to meander over to my traps.

Considering I have fished out the entire ocean, I guess breaching the caverns and setting up more plots might be a good idea. You can't have forgotten beast steaks if you don't have access to them at all.

[Col_Jessep]

Well, I'm currently on a 2x2 embark with 150 dwarfs and I'm down to below 30 FPS after only 6 years. (I did not atom-smash my trash this time... (-[ ) The worst single hit was when I opened up two caverns. FPS drop from over 80 to below 50. I had set the worldgen parameters to generate wide, open caverns. Wish I hadn't done that in retrospect. The wood you can gather underground is not that big of a deal, the FPS loss is.

[smeeprocket]

yea I think my caverns only have one layer even when I do crack them open. Also, the world is a pocket island. World size also makes a big difference.

[PillarsOfSalt]

I've found over 120 is just unnecessary, my fps drops to nothing, I can't even keep them all busy. I end up with every inch of fortress engraved and massive, statue-filled pump gyms. I may not even go above 80 anymore.