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[Techhead]

I support this idea only if goblins will scale upwards.
And do not make them scale upwards proportionately to the military, but at least make them look like they are trying to put up a fight compared to the 50/50 army/civilian fortress.

[Joseph Miles]

Well, sieges in general don't make much sense right now, as stated above they have no real way to figure out how much wealth or military strength you have. Before military strength comes into the equation, I'd like to see some sort of goblin spy or something, somebody who scouts out the place to figure out how much wealth and such they have first. After that, then adding military strength into the equation of how much military they send would be perfect, but wealth should still be the driving factor. Why attack someone with great military but no wealth? Why NOT attack someone with everyone wearing adamantine clothing encrusted with black diamonds, green diamonds, and red rubies with each ruby encrusted with a dwarf striking down a goblin? All in all, being based solely on the military makes it too easy to stop sieges.

[Techhead]

Which is why your fortress's military strength would only make seiges scale upwards.

[Derakon]

Before military strength comes into the equation, I'd like to see some sort of goblin spy or something, somebody who scouts out the place to figure out how much wealth and such they have first.

Goblins already have spies. They're just very, very good at what they do.

[Footkerchief]

Don't kobolds start ramping up their ambushes when their thieves are successful?

[L0rd_ZOD]

Hmm how bout Goblin Raiders?

Sorta like the mongols.

They come in riding mounts (wolves,deer,etc wateva)
and depending on how many warriors they find gold,
fortifications, they launch an 2nd assult based on the info.

This could be good in determining the size of goblin sieges.

Just a surgestion

ps.So far i have not seen goblins riding deer, why have'nt I? this is heresy!!

[Neonivek]

In the most advanced Goblin seiges (That take a long time to happen apperantly) Goblins will seige you on Beak Dogs, numbers in the 100s, and about 20 Trolls.

Of course like MANY of the goblin resources it simply was spawned from thin air! Just like their Iron and Obsideon

[Chthonic]

Goblins might have a number of ways of getting information about your fortress other than scouting around . . . loose-lipped merchants who they capture and interrogate--or just buy information from.  Depending on how deep into the fortress a merchant has been, goblins might be expected to know a lot about your fortifications, traps, wealth, and soldiery than the random goblin scout might get from sniffing about the hinterlands?  So . . . the more interaction a player has with the outside world, the more information might be available to adversaries, while the fortress tucked away in the mountains with "KEEP OUT" signs and merchant skull totems out front might be . . . completely top secret.

[Reasonableman]

So, so so so so so so so. We don't want goblins coming after fortresses with little value, we don't want goblins attacking a vastly superior force. However, there must be a mechanism to explain how they might know about your fortress. Well, how does information flow in a medieval style world?
Politics is one: the collection of tribute up the ol' feudal system ladder. Tax collectors and nobility and such would all be rather intricately connected, with couriers and similar folk the world over. Also, diplomats and negotiators would be rather well informed of goings-on. Goblins, however, would have no access to these sources of information, seeing as they are shunned from all 'civilized' races that dwarves might have contact with. They could still intercept couriers and such, torturing and bribing them for information, but well-guarded and morally upstanding people would be significant impediments.
Another possible avenue of information would be merchants: not exactly the most honorable of folk, it is conceivable that many could be corrupted to take goblin bribes, at the risk of being found out and executed for treason. Also feasible is that merchants could act as citizen-level couriers, carrying mail from the peasantry to their families abroad. Such mail could be intercepted and would be filled with information about the happenings at any fortress, but it is doubtful that the goblins would have the literacy required to understand any form of written correspondence. Far more likely is that the goblins would 'inspect' the outgoing shipments of goods for quality and quantity and base their assumptions on that.
Lastly, there remains a single other possible form of information transportation: emigration. While immigration is already quite well implemented, no fortress has yet had a single member leave out of disgust at living conditions, out of sadness, or even out of a lack of food. Still, such a system would provide a means of keeping the people's happiness at the forefront of fortress management, but that is for another suggestion thread. Let it suffice to say that emigrants would be a far more valuable source of data than any other, were they captured by goblins. And from each successful emigrant's newfound home would blossom many tales of your fortresses wealth and strength at the time of their having left.
In any case, this sort of micromanagement of data about your fortress would lead to such an extraordinary processor strain as to melt it, dragging FPS to single digits without a pair of cats in sight.

[Mephansteras]

I think the idea of goblin spies is sufficient. Or, well, any hostile race for that matter. They scout out various fortresses, taking note of the size of the fort, it's defenses, the number of people wandering around. Probably viewing any merchants coming and going, looking for amount of goods traded and possibly the quality of the goods visible.

Obviously, once caravans can be attacked on their routes, any wagons hit after they leave your fortress would give the goblins quite a bit of information about the wealth of your fortress. Both with the actual goods taken and any information gotten from prisoners.

And to the comment about Goblin literacy: remember that these goblins are more like Tolkien's goblins. These goblins are more akin to deformed, evil elves then the stupid warlike savages of, say, Warhammer 40k or D&D. So you're dealing with beings who have lived centuries, studying the various races and learning their languages. They would be VERY good at determining how promising a target is, and how strongly defended it is likely to be. Besides, goblin master thieves show up before any invasions, and if you don't have a really good sentry system set up they can sneak all the way into your fortress in search of children. Any of those who escaped would be able to provide an excellent picture of the fort and its defenses.

I sometimes think of the goblins in DF as being kind of Borg-like, with their babysnatching. They seem to have a goal of all beings being part of the goblin collective under the malificent oversight of the demons.

"I am Tornskin of Gob. Resistance is futile, you will be snatched!"

[snelg]

Maybe goblins (or others) could use ropes to get down z-level cliffs. Maybe even using them to climb up a lower cliff.