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[Scheming Koala]

Could anyone recommend me what the best number for my Population cap should be at?

[SpiralDimentia]

I wouldn't say there's a best number. To get all the cool stuff it has to be atleast 80. And I think 100 for something, but I can't remember what. I did 80 for a while, but went ahead with 100 so I could get some more troops and some more haulers.

[Agent_86]

I keep mine at 150, if only to have enough dwarves so that losing one legendary craftsdwarf isn't as much of a problem.

But generally about 100 should be fine for most forts.

[NecroRebel]

It depends on many factors, foremost of which is how good of a computer you've got. The most common cause of fort abandonment is FPS death, and dwarves are believed to be the primary cause of FPS loss. Pick a level of FPS you're comfortable with - say, 30 FPS - and figure out how many dwarves you can have before your FPS drops below that level. Your population cap should be around 20 below that number.

Alternatively, you could set your pop cap low, in the 20-30 range, so that you don't have to provide for so many dwarves while you're still working out the essentials. Then, when you've got food, drink, and rooms for everyone and some extras, turn up the population cap so you get more dwarves to do nonessential tasks with.

[FrankMcFuzz]

I set mine at 200 in the Lazy Newb GUI, but it somehow broke 270.

[Saiko Kila]

I have limit at 200, but children made it to 250, and I expect more. And I have no idlers. So everyone has his or her own answer.

[bumblepuppy]

I like to keep it below 50 to avoid the mayor being elected.

[SpiralDimentia]

I like to keep it below 50 to avoid the mayor being elected.

But then you don't get your king to come, and titans won't attack [unless you customize your world.], cause you need 80 minimum for Titan attacks, and 80-100 for a king or something.

[Mechatronic]

Personally I prefer smaller ones. It feels more like how I imagine dwarves to be: unsurpassed crafters, ingenious engineers and highly skilled warriors but very limited in numbers.

[Boogeyman]

Popcap at 100, babies/children at 0. I would go lower, but I want to have all the features available.

[Marthnn]

I always start my fortresses at pop cap 50. It gives enough dwarves for a small uber-military (3-4), specialized workers (10-15) and enough haulers to contemplate mass-dumping.

If the FPS isn't too bad and I don't feel over-populated, I then get the cap up to, say, 100. With offsprings I'm at 170 right now, FPS about 30-40 most of the time, and 60 idlers waiting to be needed.

The king conditions of arrival appeared for me at population 150.

[Quietust]

I've observed that you cannot get the King until your population reaches 140 and you become a Metropolis. This is somewhat nonintuitive in 0.31.xx because the Baron/Count/Duke only require a population of 20, but back in 40d (and earlier) they required populations of 80/110/140 so you'd always be offered a King the moment you became a Duchy.

[gtmattz]

I like to keep it below 50 to avoid the mayor being elected.

But then you don't get your king to come....

If he doesnt want a mayor, I am willing to bet that he definitely couldn't care less about attracting the king 

[knaveofstaves]

Assuming your pop cap concern is about FPS:

Try a smaller embark area, that seems to have a large impact on FPS.

[Corona688]

Could anyone recommend me what the best number for my Population cap should be at?

Set the population cap at whatever you like, the game doesn't care.  I try to keep pop around 50-60, I used to start a new game each time the pop cap was ignored until I just gave up and started murdering migrants.