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Author Topic: Mercenaries & Inter-racial employees  (Read 2450 times)

10ebbor10

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Re: Mercenaries & Inter-racial employees
« Reply #30 on: November 04, 2012, 08:37:34 am »

No, you didn't. I was confused because you just didn't address the stuff about them being machine-like at all. I suppose the biggest question is just how sentient antmen really are.
It all depends on this. Not all creatures can learn everything. You can learn a gorilla sign language, but so far they have only managed to repeat, not to form their own sentences.

As for frogmen being good fishers. Frogmen are obviously, a semi aquatic animal folk. As such, they will always be found around rivers and swamps. One usefull food source near rivers is fish, and considering their affinity with water, it's logical they will exploit it, and on general be better fishers than dwarves, who panick when they stand in kneedeep water.
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Mercenaries & Inter-racial employees
« Reply #31 on: November 04, 2012, 08:45:44 pm »

No, you didn't. I was confused because you just didn't address the stuff about them being machine-like at all. I suppose the biggest question is just how sentient antmen really are.
It all depends on this. Not all creatures can learn everything. You can learn a gorilla sign language, but so far they have only managed to repeat, not to form their own sentences.
It's different in DF. All sentients are sentient. They're all pretty much equally so. Differences seem to be more cultural than physiological.

Quote
As for frogmen being good fishers. Frogmen are obviously, a semi aquatic animal folk. As such, they will always be found around rivers and swamps. One usefull food source near rivers is fish, and considering their affinity with water, it's logical they will exploit it, and on general be better fishers than dwarves, who panick when they stand in kneedeep water.
Technically, it's closer to chest-deep water...and that's a cultural difference, which I agree with, not an unexplained inherent difference, which I don't.
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Apollo Densin

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Re: Mercenaries & Inter-racial employees
« Reply #32 on: May 24, 2013, 12:58:36 am »

I think stopping and focusing on the major races first would be the best idea. The minor races being made available later on could be viable.

From what I can see is that humans would probably be the best people to get as Mercs/ Interracial employees. However they would not like working underground and would have a negative thought if they do. Essentially you would divide your fortress in half with humans working and defending the surface and dwarves working underground mainly. Also Humans have no non foreign weapons so can master any weapon you give them. Your humans have the additional disadvantage of not living as long as dwarves and can not go into a martial trance. You can not also have them wear the same clothes and armor as a dwarf so you have to have a separate stock for them. They will also rarely produce artifacts. Benefits would be a decent above ground defense force without worrying about cave adapted dwarves puking everywhere. Can drink water mainly and have no negative thoughts

Elves would give you the benefit of fast troops and great bowmen. They would be able to shoot a little farther than the other races. Their workers can also make wooden armor for your elves and dwarfs to wear. However elves do not really like metal armor and weapons (with the exclusion of arrows). The side to this is that elves actually improve the armor/ weapons they wear unlike other races. So a certain type of wooden sword can be as good as iron. Elves would also give you access to the druid profession which can be used to improve wooden items and harvest trees without cutting them down. Elves live longer than your dwarves as well although their birthrate is poor and it takes 15+ years for a child to become an adult. They are also good farmers. Elves have certain  restrictions on weapons treating them as foreign such as crossbows. Like humans they prefer to be above grounds. They will mainly make wooden artifacts at a higher rate than humans but less than dwarves still. Can drink water mainly and have no negative thoughts

Kobolds would give you access to stealthy troops so you could have a unit that sneaks around the map and can surprise an enemy force. They do not really make good workers however and can not equip a lot of armor having a limit amount a space so really no layering armor with them. They are perfectly fine under ground and actually prefer it similar to dwarves. Have a decently high birthrate as well. Never produces artifacts but might steal some from another fortress when you can send out units to other places. Can drink water mainly and have no negative thoughts

Goblins would have to be kept separate from your dwarves most of the time as they will get into fist fights if kept around each other much. However have it that they will never try to kill each other since that might end up in a little too much Fun. Like humans they get a wide variety of non foreign weapons. Can wear the same type of clothes as dwarves. They have no preference on living underground or aboveground. They also are more martially bent so never will have negative thoughts with patrol duty. Of the major races they produce artifacts the least. Also will have the problem of actually leaving the fortress if they are unhappy enough and might actually take some of your kids with them when they do.

Trolls have to be trained first before they will be useful. (will never become wild after words can also capture them from the enemy to train for yourself and might be the only place you can get them from) When trained they have 2 options of use. As livestock in the fact you can shear them or the military. If in military can not be sheared. You can put armor on them but it has to be specially forged for them IE troll armor which costs more to make. They will not use weapons but can gore people on their horns and wrestle and can get better at it. Trolls will only bread if they are not on active duty.

This also addresses a need to change how foreign weapons work. Having the skills increase slower while using a foreign weapon would be a factor along with never becoming a lord with it.

Mounts would also be a factor if they are used. For instance it can work like this for what mounts you can use. Goblins can use the most variety of mounts while elves get a few more exotic ones like unicorns and tigers. Humans can really only mount horses however they can armor their horses. Dwarves and kobolds will never use mounts.

In order to use each of the races you must be on good terms with the parent civ (excluding kobolds and trolls) so at war with elves then your elves will stop working and just sit around all day eating and drinking.

This was just a quick write up of ideas
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"Man I just survived an attack by 90 goblins with no loses. I feel so unsafe, time to build more defenses." My typical response to this game
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