Endless mode has a population hardcap.

[Sarda]

Once you get around 650ish people the game won't spawn anymore locations that contain more refugees. You'll just get relic dreadnaughts and once those are 15/15 then you get nothing at all. I got my last location of people around day 20 and I had literally nothing to do but fast forward for 90 days straight doing nothing but directing scouts around getting relics because I had no people to grow the city any further then using like 1/5th of the crater. Seriously what is the point of the huge crater if there's nothing to put in it.

[Malagon]

I thought it was just me, but I noticed the same thing. I was at 690 people and went through five more storms without sighting any people.

[ErBaut]

They said (not sure if it was in a video dev diary or a patch note though)that the max population you can have is around 700 since having more people will cause serious troubles with food.

[PhailRaptor]

Originally posted by ErBaut:

They said (not sure if it was in a video dev diary or a patch note though)that the max population you can have is around 700 since having more people will cause serious troubles with food.

It might on the Canyon or small Crater maps, but certainly not on The Flats. There is a truly ridiculous amount of space available to use, but you have nothing to put in it. A fully self-sustaining city of ~650 doesn't even fill all the space to the 2 spot Coal seam. That same Coal seam is about half way from the center to the outer wall.

[test]

Huh I guess it's not so endless after all

[Prophet]

I was at 600 exactly in serenity/extreme, and 645 in endurance, and no survivors have poped up since then. I think pop hardcap is 600. In serenity you can get 100+ survivors in the cycle when your pop is just below 600, then you can have over 700 pop and the achievement.

[Chicken Bear]

I have 704 and about to hit day 75 but haven't seen new folks in a long time. Funny thing is I've maxed all my resources including food so we could definitely house more people. Send your refugees my way! I'm Tom Bodett and I'll leave the light on for ya XD

[biochimera]

Yeah it took a long time to get the full house cheev, I conked out at 690 in endless mode, had to make automatons to make up the difference.

[Medvezhak]

So is it possible to do that achivment? I'm on day 130 and have 630 people. Extreme, Endurance.

[GameMaster]

The thing is that it isn't because of food production that the pop is capped, it is the engine that is the problem. On the larger maps, people have crashed because the engine couldn't take all the buildings and people. By ~700 people, the game starts to lag because of not only the required infrastructure but also all the 'under the hood' programming that needs doing.

[Alcator]

Under ideal conditions, it's possible to get to around 750 population. This requires you to find a Storm Shelter full of people when you have <600 people. Storm Shelters won't show up if you have 600 people.

[GameMaster]

That sort of condition is rare however...

[Alcator]

Originally posted by Alcator:

Under ideal conditions, it's possible to get to around 750 population. This requires you to find a Storm Shelter full of people when you have <600 people. Storm Shelters won't show up if you have 600 people.

Originally posted by GameMaster:

That sort of condition is rare however...

OK, what I meant to say is this:
If it happens that you got 610 people and thus no longer discover any Storm Shelters, and would like to have 700+ people in your city, switch off the heating for a few nights and let couple people die - or send scouts into the Frostlands just before a storm, causing them to die while investigating far areas. This will bring population to <600 and during the next cycle, a Storm Shelter will spawn.

[annapuu]

I got 701 people on A New Home scenario, but didn't get the achievement. You get this achievement only on Serenity Endless.

[Medvezhak]

Originally posted by annapuu:

I got 701 people on A New Home scenario, but didn't get the achievement. You get this achievement only on Serenity Endless.

Is it possible? Are you sure it wasn't 10-15 Automatons you had? Because they don't count.

[ihsoft]

Same here. Managed to gather 786 people in the endless mode and that's it! Seriously?! I've built my city to accommodate at least 1,400 people and... I never found anyone! The endless mode has literally no challenge after the last of the 15 archives found (the temperature drop with each storm doesn't count). This mode could be really good if it would allow you endlessly getting people. You either get them and struggle to support the city, or you pass them and have a "death record".