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Author Topic: Population Cap, what does it do?  (Read 816 times)

barcibus

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Population Cap, what does it do?
« on: March 24, 2012, 05:46:54 pm »

My population cap is set at 200 and yet despite having over 250 dwarves, I still get migrants.  What does the pop cap do?
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NecroRebel

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2012, 05:50:26 pm »

If your reported population is above the population cap, you won't get further migrants. Note the word "reported" there; it's important. Your population appears to only be reported when the dwarf caravan or liaison leaves the map, so if you've been losing them to ambushes or sieges often, or killing them yourself, you may continue getting migrants for quite some time.
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KodKod

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2012, 05:50:36 pm »

Population Cap is a moderately useful piece of head armour, but I prefer to equip my military with Mother Hood.
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martinuzz

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2012, 06:01:11 pm »

Indeed. Population cap only stop migration after being reported, when the dwarven liaison leaves the map.

Then there's the child cap: After hitting the absolute or relative child cap, children can still be born. However, no new pregnancies will occur until the child population falls below the cap again.
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barcibus

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2012, 06:06:54 pm »

I own the outdoors in this map and all the caravans have made it through... however I'm not sure if my population passed 200 before or after the last caravan.  I'll try setting it lower next time to see if it works.
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Pukako

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2012, 08:01:23 pm »

My understanding, which may be wrong, is that children don't count as part of the population figure for triggering migration.

So, if you're like me, and have about 1/3 of the fortress as kids, then this sort of thing can happen.

Although I've got 99 dwarves in my fort, with the pop cap set to 30, but there is a complicated reason why that occurred...
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martinuzz

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2012, 08:03:21 pm »

My understanding, which may be wrong, is that children don't count as part of the population figure for triggering migration.

So, if you're like me, and have about 1/3 of the fortress as kids, then this sort of thing can happen.

Although I've got 99 dwarves in my fort, with the pop cap set to 30, but there is a complicated reason why that occurred...

That's not true. Children do count towards the population cap total
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Friendly and polite reminder for optimists: Hope is a finite resource

We can ­disagree and still love each other, ­unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist - James Baldwin

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psychologicalshock

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2012, 08:19:11 pm »

My immigration stopped at exactly 203 dwarves, 30 of them were children, 3 of them were vampires.
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Flying Dice

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Re: Population Cap, what does it do?
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2012, 08:21:14 pm »

Basically, set your popcap to ~30 dwarves fewer than you actually want, and you'll get fairly reliable results.
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