can you prevent new settlers?

[C-Thatch]

So say i'm not ready for more dwarfs to join my fortress. Can I hold off on new settlers for a while?

[gobeers]

yes, go into settings and there is a way to limit population.

[Duuvian]

Yes, look for population cap in the settings. Strict population cap is separate and will keep babies from being born. I set my population cap to 30-50 and strict population cap to a wildly ambitious 200-300 so babies can be born to make up most of the fort eventually.

You might want to raise attack triggers at the same time so you can expand the population from births and visitors instead of swarms of migrants to the fort. That way you won't have to seal the fort early on, though you'll still be attacked by undead (and possibly others) so you can't neglect defense entirely.

[C-Thatch]

Originally posted by Duuvian:

Yes, look for population cap in the settings. Strict population cap is separate and will keep babies from being born. I set my population cap to 30-50 and strict population cap to a wildly ambitious 200-300 so babies can be born to make up most of the fort eventually.

You might want to raise attack triggers at the same time so you can expand the population from births and visitors instead of swarms of migrants to the fort. That way you won't have to seal the fort early on, though you'll still be attacked by undead (and possibly others) so you can't neglect defense entirely.

Can all this be changed in game or only a setting in the main menu for starting a new game?

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by C-Thatch:

Originally posted by Duuvian:

Yes, look for population cap in the settings. Strict population cap is separate and will keep babies from being born. I set my population cap to 30-50 and strict population cap to a wildly ambitious 200-300 so babies can be born to make up most of the fort eventually.

You might want to raise attack triggers at the same time so you can expand the population from births and visitors instead of swarms of migrants to the fort. That way you won't have to seal the fort early on, though you'll still be attacked by undead (and possibly others) so you can't neglect defense entirely.

Can all this be changed in game or only a setting in the main menu for starting a new game?

That should be a setting you can change on the fly.

[dimm_ddr]

Originally posted by C-Thatch:

Originally posted by Duuvian:

Yes, look for population cap in the settings. Strict population cap is separate and will keep babies from being born. I set my population cap to 30-50 and strict population cap to a wildly ambitious 200-300 so babies can be born to make up most of the fort eventually.

You might want to raise attack triggers at the same time so you can expand the population from births and visitors instead of swarms of migrants to the fort. That way you won't have to seal the fort early on, though you'll still be attacked by undead (and possibly others) so you can't neglect defense entirely.

Can all this be changed in game or only a setting in the main menu for starting a new game?

Population cap can be changed any time. Attack triggers I believe only in advance world creation and even there they are quite vague. But by default you should be fine unless you try to play without military at all or build fortress out of pure platinum with only copper weapons or so. Just don't go overzealous on wealth creating without also building traps and training fighters and you should be fine for the most part.

[Duuvian]

Attack triggers can be set in the settings menu after embark in a different menu from popcap IIRC without doublechecking. I think difficulty tab? I don't know if changing it once embarked has different results though.

An attack is triggered once a season rolls over and a timer counts down, so it might not work for the current season at the least though I don't know.

[C-Thatch]

Thanks for the information definitely lowing the cap for now so I can get my bearings with this game and learn how things work.

[DTA]

Personally, I remember the first time I got mobbed by a Goblin raid fondly. I highly suggest it, if not just for the schadenfreude of seeing your little Dwarves being ripped to little giblets. Remember, Dwarven lives are an infinite resource!