Capacity · demand · the over-capacity penalty
Housing sets the ceiling. Everything else fills the room.
Each region can only support so many working buildings. Housing raises that ceiling; every other building pushes against it. Cross it and your whole region slows down.
Updated ·patch v2.0.5
Every region has a population capacity and a population demand (shown as "Used" in the region's Population panel). Capacity comes from Housing. Demand comes from everything else you build. When demand climbs past capacity, the region takes a production penalty until you make room.
New save? Your first producers are already at −25%
A region with no Housing and any other building in it counts as far over capacity. Your Headquarters already uses 1 population, so the moment you build a Lumber Mill, Quarry or Farm in your home region, it runs at −25%. There is no grace period on a new save.
What to do: build anyway (75% of something beats nothing), then add one Housing as soon as you can. Level 1 Housing gives 4 capacity: enough for the Headquarters plus three producer levels. The base setup guide explains what Housing needs (an Architect, a Residential plot, gold, wood and hide).
Two different "caps": don't mix them up
- Member Slots (roster cap)
- A Housing building also grants extra faction member slots on top of your rank cap, speeds injury recovery, and cuts recruit cost. That is about how many champions you can hold, shown on the building itself.
- Population capacity (this page)
- A separate number about how many working buildings a region can run. This is the "Total capacity" on the Population panel. The two are unrelated: a maxed roster does nothing for population, and vice versa.
Capacity per Housing level
Only Housing buildings add capacity, and the jump per level grows as you go. You can build more than one Housing in a region (any Residential plot takes one), and their capacity stacks.
| Housing level | Population capacity | Gained this level |
|---|---|---|
| Lv.1 | 4 | +4 |
| Lv.2 | 8 | +4 |
| Lv.3 | 14 | +6 |
| Lv.4 | 22 | +8 |
| Lv.5 | 32 | +10 |
| Lv.6 | 44 | +12 |
| Lv.7 | 58 | +14 |
| Lv.8 | 74 | +16 |
What uses population
Every non-Housing building in the region, your Headquarters included, consumes population equal to its level: a Level 7 Quarry costs 7, a Level 8 Warehouse costs 8, and so on. Add those up and you get the "Used" figure. This is why regions creep over capacity quietly: every time you upgrade a producer, its population cost ticks up by one, while your Housing stays put. Each building's current cost is shown on its detail screen as "Population Used".
The production modifier
The grace window (older saves only)
Saves that existed before the population system arrived were given a one-time 7-day grace window when they were updated, followed by a ramp from −5% up to the full −25% over the next 7 days. During that window the Population panel shows a "(grace active)" tag. New saves never get this window: the full −25% applies from the first moment a region is over capacity, even though some in-game warnings still mention "after grace".
How to raise capacity (fixing the penalty)
- Build your first Housing. If a region has none, this is the fix, full stop. It needs an Architect on your roster and a Residential plot.
- Upgrade your Housing. The per-level jumps grow quickly (Lv.7 to Lv.8 alone adds +16 capacity). Usually one upgrade clears an overage outright.
- Build another Housing. Any free Residential plot takes a second (or third) house, and their capacity stacks.
- Accept migrants. Each migrant you accept adds +1 capacity to that region and costs at least 250 gold. Migrants are a living world event, so you cannot summon one on demand.
- Or ease demand. Spreading producers across other regions, or holding off on an upgrade, lowers "Used". Rarely the best move, but it works in a pinch.
Worked example
A region shows Used 77, Housing 58 (one Lv.7 house), Migrants 4: Total capacity 62, over capacity −25%.
Demand (77) sits 15 above capacity (62). Upgrading that Housing to Lv.8 raises it to 74 + 4 migrants = 78, which clears the 77 demand in a single move and removes the penalty. Adding a second house would do the same with room to spare.
Rule of thumb
Keep the sum of your other buildings' levels (Headquarters included) at or under your Housing capacity. Every few producer upgrades, put a level into Housing (or add a house) to keep pace.
Population capacity is a region-wide production modifier. It stacks with a separate district happiness modifier (±10%). For that, and how Temples, Taverns and Monuments next to Housing raise residential happiness, see Districts.