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[Charlemagne]

I had recently set my popcap to 7 and forgot to reset it when I started a new fortress, and the experience was an interesting an very amusing one. So far the highest population it attained was 11, it's at 6 right now after it's entire military was destroyed in a goblin attack it just barely survived. Despite this, I have to say, Deephate is proving to be my most successful fort ever.

Having the popcap at 7 didn't prevent migration, just stifled it. Migrant came one at a time, occasionally coming in groups as large as two when the population dropped below 7. I was able to build the fort at whatever pace I desired without having to worry about attracting the entire Soapmakers Guild. Fewer dwarves made things run a lot more smoothly.

On the other hand, Goblin ambushes are actually a legitimate threat. When you have two marksdwarves consisting of the entirety of your army, losing even one can be devastating. And with such a low population, every dwarf has value (unlike a typical game when there are so many damn Lye Makers running around you don't care who lives and who dies) so casualties are a much bigger deal. Also, there's nothing quite like watching two marksdwarves frantically fire bolts like machine guns at an army of goblins that, had they not driven them off, could have easily torn them and everyone in the fort limb from limb.

The whole experience made me think that the first immigrant wave comes too early. It doesn't quite make sense that two rooms and a bin full of dolomite crowns would realistically convince people to travel great distances to go live there. In the vanilla game you can't even begin to get your shit together before the first wave arrives, let alone get a chance to be actually threatened. I think the small vulnerable band of settlers stage of the game would benefit from being expanded, and this could be done by raising the minimum architectual value requirements for the first immigration.

Thoughts?

[Drunken]

I totally agree, I just happen to be doing the exact same thing. I think the whole game is too easy tbh I think it needs difficulty settings.

I am playing the following rules to make things harder:
Popcap 7
No farming (I still have far too much food from trading I think I'll ban trading for food too from now on)
Max map danger (i got magma, chasm, pit, river, underground river, underground lake)

It is sort of working only one of the original 7 is left, the casualties have been high.
From a players perspective though I am building a massive and very wealthy fort and work is processing very quickly. It seems like you get less work done with 100 dwarves than 7.

I tried to start a hardcore succession game with this model but the noob straight after me gumped the popcap and now its up to like 50 dwarves

[David Dark]

well for me the best part in building my fortress is the beginning, I always get lost with all those dwarves around, ppl say that they have 200 dwarves, WTF? I get 30 and I don't know who's who and what's going on in my fortress.

Anyway you gave me a good idea, need to try that setting with low cap.

[ikkonoishi]

I am playing the following rules to make things harder:
Popcap 7
No farming (I still have far too much food from trading I think I'll ban trading for food too from now on)
Max map danger (i got magma, chasm, pit, river, underground river, underground lake)

Switch to only vermin. With that few dwarves it is possible.

[Derakon]

I find that 7 is far too few to get everything done; I need multiple projects running in parallel to keep my interest, and it's annoying have to, say, pull my engraver away from training up to Legendary so he can go haul some goods around for a bit.

I might try a popcap of 14, though.

[Charlemagne]

Popcap 14 is pointless. The population caps aren't absolute, and the computer doesn't even consider 14 to be a suggestion. I used to play with 14 all the time and it has never once stopped an immigration wave. I'd have 30+ Fish Dissectors milling around and the game would still be sending me immigration waves in excess of 10 dwarves despite the popcap of 14.

[WCG]

I like the large number of dwarves, though it does seem to happen rather quickly. Then again, the immigrant waves keep pushing me to keep up. It adds some challenge to the game, to keep ahead of the population increases.

Bill

[LordBucket]

immigrant waves keep pushing me to keep up.

Hmm. I usually have the opposite problem. Immigration never seems to come quickly enough. If I had an extra thirty dwarves with every immigration, that would be great. An awful lot of the game seems to be simply waiting around for things to finish.

Drunken:
I think the whole game is too easy tbh
I think it needs difficulty settings.

Here I completely agree. Terrifying maps are only difficult for the first ten minutes of play. Even with no traps, no weapons and no metal armor a handful of legendary wrestlers can stop most sieges. A single farmer and a single cook/brewer can effortlessly supply food and drink for an entire fortress for years. It's trivial to completely buy out every caravan that visits.

Popcap 7

...I suppose it would be worth trying...but I have to wonder, after the first few months of gameplay, what is there left to do? After the first year or two, most of my gameplay tends to center around mega construction projects, and I wouldn't want to tackle anything big with only seven dwarves. It takes forever even with no population cap. So if you're not building mega-monoliths out of glass, and you don't need to build rooms and furniture for hundreds of dwarves...what do you do after the first two hours of gameplay? Just sit and wait for goblins to show up?

[Blacken]

So if you're not building mega-monoliths out of glass, and you don't need to build rooms and furniture for hundreds of dwarves...what do you do after the first two hours of gameplay? Just sit and wait for goblins to show up?

I usually do popcap 7 to build my dwarven citadel, then turn off pop limits and let the little bastards rush in. Then I harm them.

[Charlemagne]

...I suppose it would be worth trying...but I have to wonder, after the first few months of gameplay, what is there left to do? After the first year or two, most of my gameplay tends to center around mega construction projects, and I wouldn't want to tackle anything big with only seven dwarves. It takes forever even with no population cap. So if you're not building mega-monoliths out of glass, and you don't need to build rooms and furniture for hundreds of dwarves...what do you do after the first two hours of gameplay? Just sit and wait for goblins to show up?

With so few dwarves you never run out of things to do. There's no reason why you can't undertake large construction projects, they just take longer. The thing I like about this mode, actually, is that you can build something huge and neat, and it doesn't trigger an onslaught of faceless freeloaders.

I've kept the popcap at 7 and kept playing for a while, I'm now down to 5 dwarves (after having risen back to 9) and only one of my original 7 is left. Goblins are terrifying using these settings, it's the first game of DF I've played where goblins were non-trivial. Even with traps and sorely undermanned guard towers they can cause real damage before grinding themselves to death in the hallway of doom. I may be able to buy all the food and drink I need from merchants using goblin socks, but there's still lots to be done.

Also, I still play as though I have large numbers of dwarves, building and furnishing rooms for many times my population. I keep thinking that once I get the fort the way I want it I'll open the floodgates and let in the Soap Makers and Treshers, but the fort is now 7 years old and there's no end in sight.

[Rusty Mcloon]

This thread has me strongly considering a low population fortress.  I think it'd be intriguing.  Besides, for me starting and designing a new fortress is one of the most fun parts of the game.

Popcap 14 is pointless. The population caps aren't absolute, and the computer doesn't even consider 14 to be a suggestion. I used to play with 14 all the time and it has never once stopped an immigration wave. I'd have 30+ Fish Dissectors milling around and the game would still be sending me immigration waves in excess of 10 dwarves despite the popcap of 14.

That's what immigrant traps are for my friend.

[Blacken]

Sometimes you get completely screwed on population anyway. I've got popcap set to 1, and I still get 1-2 immigrants every year or so.

Those 1-2 are generally useful, though, so they can stay. They even get names!

[Skizelo]

I like the first few seasons of a fortress, where you can check the names, relationships and gods of every dwarf, so I often keep it that way (I've never dicked around with the pop cap though, just a bridge over lava and a lever marked "SHHH!").

[WCG]

A single farmer and a single cook/brewer can effortlessly supply food and drink for an entire fortress for years.

Really?  I'm only on my second fortress, but I've got three farmers (one legendary) trying to keep up supplying a variety of food to the fortress. Also two skilled cooks and two skilled brewers who just barely stay ahead of the demand.

Well, yeah, I sell prepared meals sometimes. I'm not down to starvation rations. But I'm not overflowing with this stuff, either. (That's with 120 dwarves.)

Bill

[Tormy]

A single farmer and a single cook/brewer can effortlessly supply food and drink for an entire fortress for years.

Really? 

Yes, correct. This is why farming must be changed somewhat. [There is a topic about this in the suggestions subforum]

Now back to the topic. Its a lot of fun playing with a low pop fort. My experimental low pop fortress was 120y+ old, when I decided to abandon it.