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[Incanus]

Simple question: have anyone found a way to STOP the migrants (another than toying with the MAX POP in the init, which didn't work for me :-( )?

I'm trying to test the new (and by the way wonderfull) version and even report one or two bugs if i could, but i can't play with so much migrants. I really can't. I care for each of my dwarf, i love to play slowly, to develop my fortress with pain and achievment feeling, so having 12 High Master dwarfs coming each season makes the game a chore, for me of course.

Thanks.

[Frumple]

Just to check, changing the [POPULATION_CAP:#] in the init file isn't working, at all, for you? I've got mine set to 20 and am not receiving any migrants once it hits that number; it can go over, but once it's equaled or exceeded the defined number I get no more. Presumably, setting it to =<7 would stop them altogether, if that's what you're looking for.

Otherwise, the only thing you're going to be able to do is mass murder and/or neglect. Drowning/magma chambers or walling off your fortress from the outside and leaving them to starve, etc.

[Lytha]

Set the population cap to 0 or 1. You will only get migrants in the first summer and in the first autumn, and these invasion waves should be bearably small.

[NecroRebel]

The population cap settings don't appear to function until the first caravan comes. In the old version, that wouldn't have been a problem since you so rarely received any migrants until after the caravan reported your wealth, but now they consistently show up during both summer and autumn before the caravan comes and leaves.

The only way to really do it would probably be to severely limit your wealth during the first 3 seasons, but that can make it a challenge to actually have enough to trade for the supplies you need from the first caravan, not to mention how difficult it is to limit your wealth when you're digging out rooms and making essential furniture to live with. You might have to rely on building a migrant-murder device early and just killing unwanted migrants as they appear, but that has other consequences as well.

[Incanus]

Hi fellow dwarf-carers,

Thank you very much for your answers :-).

I tried several things: POPULATION CAP to 0,1, 14 (my actual dwarves number) etc...It's autumn, first year of the fortress just before the caravan (and this seems to be a problem indeed, if i remember well what i did read in the DF bug tracker a few minutes ago) but i'm getting something like 7 dwarves minimum!

I should add that unfortunately i changed the POPULATION CAP parameter only at the beginning of autum :/.

I'm considering to kill them, but i fear a spiral tantrum of death, anger, and rebellion from the other dwarves^^.

If like you are saying we cannot stop the migrants in the first year, i will go with it and do what i can with them. At least, if they stop coming after that point, i think i'm able to go on and organize myself!

<this game is a severe addiction>

[tigger89]

If the dwarves already in your fort haven't met the new migrants yet, killing them off shouldn't be a problem.  Perhaps try for a meeting area airlock/drowning chamber?

[Lytha]

Never set the population cap to your current number. Set it lower, or you might enjoy an immigration wave of 25 legendary dwarves in the next season, after a raccoon killed one of your original ones.

Another suggestion of mine would be to set the baby/child maximum to something reasonable. It's just not reasonable that dwarf women pop children every 9 months, from the ripe age of 12 until they die of old age at 150. Not only do these kids block the roads, drink the booze and eat the food without doing something useful; they also overcrowd a fortress to the point where I don't really care about the little smiley faces anymore.

[Hitori]

The only way to really do it would probably be to severely limit your wealth during the first 3 seasons, but that can make it a challenge to actually have enough to trade for the supplies you need from the first caravan, not to mention how difficult it is to limit your wealth when you're digging out rooms and making essential furniture to live with. You might have to rely on building a migrant-murder device early and just killing unwanted migrants as they appear, but that has other consequences as well.

Actually, in my experience the first migrant wave seems not to care about wealth. I was doing the minimalist thing on the surface with nothing but my 3 wood from my wagon and eventually some bone crafts from my default animal, but I still managed to get around 10 migrants in summer. We weren't exactly a booming economic center.

[random51]

All the old ways of preventing migrants still work, and you even have some new ways to deal with them.

Assign them to a 1x1 burrow on the surface in a corner somewhere, for example.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

Another suggestion of mine would be to set the baby/child maximum to something reasonable. It's just not reasonable that dwarf women pop children every 9 months, from the ripe age of 12 until they die of old age at 150. Not only do these kids block the roads, drink the booze and eat the food without doing something useful; they also overcrowd a fortress to the point where I don't really care about the little smiley faces anymore.

Make their adulthood come at the age of 2.

[Lytha]

Yes and no.

If you want to care about the little smiley faces and know each personally, then it's atrocious to have them start to breed at the ripe age of 2 instead of 3.

But of course it's nice to have them actually work so early.

No. You absolutely need a reasonable maximum for the amount of babies/children in the fortress. After that is done, you can mess around with their aging.


... you know, one thing I really enjoy about the dwarven economy: children getting evicted all the time.

I guess I played too long with fortresses that had a population of 10 working dwarves and 50 children.

[Morthvargr]

This thread has inspired me to start a limited dwarf fortress of my own.

I am thinking a total population cap of 15. Including children.

Migrants and children. Enemies within and without.

I'm not messing with the cap though. I am taking care of my garbage 'the old fashioned' way.

[czolus]

Personally, the pop-cap setting in the init isn't working---nor did it work for me under the 40d line.  I've my cap set at 60, had a listed population of 69, then a migration wave to boost me over 80.  I'm guessing that children, although counted on your stats, don't actually count toward your pop-cap with regard to immigration (had >10 at the time).

[Quatch]

support my suggestion! http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=51075.0

[Lytha]

Personally, the pop-cap setting in the init isn't working---nor did it work for me under the 40d line.  I've my cap set at 60, had a listed population of 69, then a migration wave to boost me over 80.

Migrants start traveling some seasons before they actually arrive, I think. That is why you need to set it so low that you're actually already over the population cap with your initial 7 dwarves.

At least, my nobles always made it to the fortress some seasons later than I had met their requirements.


Babies and children born in your fortress will ignore the population cap indeed. That is why there is a baby/child cap in the init.