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 v1.3.0
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.
Two different "caps" — don't mix them up
- Member Slots (roster cap)
- A Housing building also grants a few 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 — so two houses stack their capacity.
| 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 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
The over-capacity penalty doesn't bite the instant you cross the line. There's a 7-day grace window (in-game days) where the penalty is zero, then it ramps from −5% up to the full −25% over the following 7 days. During grace the Population panel shows a "(grace active)" tag. So a brief overshoot while you build the next house costs you nothing — it's sustained over-capacity that hurts.
How to raise capacity (fixing the penalty)
- Upgrade your Housing. The single fastest fix — the per-level jumps are large (Lv.7 → 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.
- Welcome migrants. Migrants add a small bonus on top of Housing, but they only arrive when the region is "alive" — through Pulse activity, alliances, or a chosen patron. Helpful, but not something you can buy 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 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 to raise residential happiness with Temples, Taverns and Monuments, see Districts.