It seems sensible that goblins who have been very active snatchers/slave breeders who have large non-goblin populations do develop rather sizable slave farms to feed their masses.
Yeah, that was my thought on the matter, as well. It's not like the goblins have to start plowing the mud themselves. Slaves and all.
I think this is relevant:
Can you say a bit more about what sort of flavour each of the races will have? E.g. humans being similar to ancient Greece or Rome or to medieval times or the Renaissance or whatever; I hope you know what I mean
I'm trying not to do it like that -- ideally humans will end up with enough parameters to end up like various different civilizations, and the other civilizations will probably become more alien to humans as humans take up more of the slack.
Since having farms worked by slaves was a common characteristic of historical human civilizations, I imagine it would still not seem "alien" enough to fit with Toady's ultimate vision for goblins.
then something game mechanic-wise needs to be done to address starving snatchees. kobolds have shown that things that must steal food tend to starve. that'll prolly change when the economy gets further developed and actually activated.
but on that note, after many, many worldgens, i find that goblins often get relegated to undesirable areas, far from other civs, which may or may not make stealing food that much more difficult.
this is, of course, assuming we are abstracting in the terrible things that happen when you have severe nutrient deficiencies for a long period of time. after all, slaves with severe cases of, say, scurvy do not work very well.