Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[unknown zombie]

How many of you guys have capped the population in d_init.txt? What did you set the cap to?

I haven't been playing this game long (just a few weeks) and I'm still on my first fortress which has been going for about 3½ years and has gotten a population of about 115 dwarves. I'm not having a hard time keeping everyone fed, hydrated, and clothed, but I am having a hard time keeping everyone busy.. I have between 40-45 idlers at any given time. I just feel like these dwarves aren't contributing to my enjoyment of the game, by which I mean that they're just there degrading my FPS since I don't have a use for them.

I have two military squads and will probably make one more squad, but that still leaves a lot of extra dwarves milling around.

I wanted to play this game as vanilla as possible, but I think I will end up capping the population to about 100 dwarves. My computer isn't that great, it's a 9-year-old laptop with a single-core 2.1 GHz AMD and 1 GB of RAM. I just can't see me keeping so many dwarves busy enough to justify the lower FPS I have to deal with.

What are your thoughts?

[utunnels]

If you don't want to get a king, 80~100 dorfs should be enough.
Below 80 means no goblin siege, if you are playing vanilla.

[damnit,urist,youhadonejob]

really no goblins? why?

[GhostDwemer]

Not "no goblins,"  "no sieges," because the game requires a population of 80 to initiate a siege. Ambushes start at 20, I think.

Everyone has a population cap, some just leave it at the default of 200. Personally, I might change it depending on how I'm starting, for roleplaying reasons.

[pisskop]

Im definitely considering it.  The new version pulls no punches on my FPS.

[Goblins]

I set mine to 30ish when I start out.  Once I can afford more dwarfs I'll make a room for them to congregate in when they appear.  That room will be a gladiator arena... whoever is useful/gets out alive will be adopted into the fortress. 

[Badger Storm]

72, strict cap 84.  My forts still last around 5-6 years max before FPS starts to become unbearable.

Yeah, I'm asking for a new laptop for my birthday.

[Wheeljack]

Recently, I've been capping mine at around 30, but leave the strict cap at 200 to allow for organic growth. It's been interesting trying to get dwarves to pair off. Interesting as near impossible so far. Still my current fort is progressing well as far as infrastructure and digging go.

You really only need about 20-30 dwarves to set up. Once you hit that, you could raise the cap and get a wave or two for military recruits. Right now I just have a squad of five. Haven't had much trouble.

Yet.

[Naryar]

50-60, occasionally more if I feel ready for it.

[ptb_ptb]

Interesting as near impossible so far.

Have a small dining room/meeting hall for your dorfs, and give as many dwarves as possible time off for Winter. After two game years you will quite possibly see a marriage or two.

If you want to increase the odds, without cheating, you can arrange unfortunate accidents for dwarves that you know can't get married.

[pisskop]

Mine's a soft cap of 15 and a hard cap of 220

I might bump the soft cap up to 25 soon. After that, no increases. I want to see my dwarves grow through pure breeding.

You don't get flooded by babies?  What are your child caps?

[NullForceOmega]

My cap is usually set to 0, but I really enjoy generational forts, and I've gotten good enough at supplying my population that the hordes of children don't affect me.

[ptb_ptb]

I set my child caps at 300% of adult population. They don't get that far very often at all.

[Iamblichos]

I usually set my cap at 120, but by the time I get there I almost always have 60-70 loiterers.  Once the fort is fully set up, there isn't much for everyone to do other than hang out and wait for something awful to happen (it always does).

[ArmokGoB]

I have regular at 200 and strict at 250 for reasons of yolo.