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[Grimbot]

I'm pretty new, and I've lost maybe ten fortresses in my weeks of learning DF. Goblin attacks. Mass drowning. Starvation. The ol' Wereraccoon/Tarantula Titan Combo. I feel like I've learned the basics fairly well and I was looking forward to finally building a proper military and getting into some sort of industry, but instead I'm going to lose my current for to the most insidious enemy of all: unchecked reproduction.

My Dwarves can't seem to make it to the top of the Grand Stairway without dropping a baby. I must've had 15-20 births over the course of two years. I no longer had enough fish and started trying to quern out some nut butter, but it wasn't cutting it. I banished all of the monster slayers (except the stubborn spearman who keeps punching Dwarves but won't go anywhere near his own child so I can never be rid of him). I banished the layabouts and lolligaggers and tanners and anyone who has pets they won't slaughter. My population is down to 99, but there are around 25 babies and children sucking down food.

I know there's some setting or mod you can use to limit the births outside of the game, but is there anything that I can do from within the game itself? I know there's a law system that I recently stumbled across, so maybe it's in there?

[pikachu17]

Other than avoiding having married couples ever be next to each other, I don't think there is an in-game way to lower birthrate.
It's much easier to use the settings to limit the births.
Go into the d_init.txt file and make the STRICT_POPULATION_CAP's number the same as the regular POPULATION_CAP, and I think it will work.

[HmH]

You can always engage in some postnatal family planning.

[PatrikLundell]

As pikachu17 indicated, the strict pop cap sets the upper limit of the fortress pop, and so limit births (however, pregnancies commenced before the cap was lowered will not result in an abortion, but rather a birth when it's due). The strict pop cap also blocks migrants, but a monarch's entourage is supposed to arrive with the monarch even if it breaches the cap, and I suspect it won't have any effect on petitions (you're in control of accepting/rejecting those anyway).

I believe there's a parameter that limits the child ratio in fortresses as well (and, again, a calamity wiping out most of the adults won't result in the children suddenly croaking).

[brewer bob]

You can change the BABY_CHILD_CAP from d_init.txt.

[Shockwave07]

As a new player never had that happen...

But I have read that idle time increases chances of birth and I tend to be a bit crazy on the side of building projects and plots for wood/Stone/whatever.

If you don't want to mod you can find little ways to keep them busy.

[Egan_BW]

Maybe you could find some way to non-lethally whack all your male dwarves in the lower body repeatedly until they're no longer physically able to reproduce.

[brewer bob]

Maybe you could find some way to non-lethally whack all your male dwarves in the lower body repeatedly until they're no longer physically able to reproduce.

It's a pity that gelding dwarfs is not an option. Would love to see it in the future and make a fortress full of eunuchs.

[HmH]

Maybe you could find some way to non-lethally whack all your male dwarves in the lower body repeatedly until they're no longer physically able to reproduce.

It's a pity that gelding dwarfs is not an option. Would love to see it in the future and make a fortress full of eunuchs.

Toady probably won't allow it for the same reason as mermaid bones, feces and explicit sexual content: because then DF will become "that game where you castrate everything that moves".

[brewer bob]

Yeah, I totally get it why it won't be implemented, and it's not a big deal (after all, I can just edit the baby/child cap to 0 and RP that my dorfs are eunuchs - if I really want to). 

[Deus Machina]

Yeah, avoiding castration for the sake of avoiding accusations of eugenics...
Which, face it, someone would experiment with about five minutes after that update came out.
However, for sake of realism, I'd enjoy it if they added a 'genitals' body part.
Yeah, it would allow castration (Kind of. Issue a full iron uniform except pants and spend two minutes in a danger room), but it would also serve other amusing purposes. Tree-climbers being saved by the woodcutter, but fearing the loggers for the sake of their todgers? Cave-ins causing bruises from rocks to the jock?
And if isometric Fallout has taught me anything, it's that combat comes to an abrupt end when you put that jewel-encrusted hammer to work encrusting some jewels.

[Egan_BW]

You can feel free to mod those in yourself, it's already possible.

[Deus Machina]

Yeah, but I'm the last person that wants to try modding again.
1) I doubt I'd ever figure out how to tie a body part in to procreation and 2) if my previous mod attempts were any indicator, that act would somehow become... lovecraftian.

[mikekchar]

As far as I know, it *is* possible.  I have seen the message "It is a gelding blow!" several times in adventure mode.  Lower body slices and stabs will do it.  Daggers in adventure mode are OP when stabbing to the lower body (almost always results in the opponent being slowed), so I probably run into it more often than most people.

[Grimbot]

The fort in question starved. I invested heavily in farming on the next one, and we're doing fine even though I'm again awash in dwarf babies.

I tried to make an "all dude" fort in the beginning. It would focus on beer and leaving socks all over the place, and generally be dirty, disgusting, and mostly efficient. Unfortunately, the inability to banish parents who aren't standing right next to their children invalidated the idea. In fact, I ended up with a tempermental human spearman who likes to punch my dwarves until their ribs break. I can't get rid of him either because he insists on sleeping on the floor in the entry hall while his brat son sleeps in his bedroom.

I'm a fan of fun, but I do feel like you should be able to excommunicate a family all at once.