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[Ribs]

Dear Toady:
When the War Arc finally begins are there plans to allow us to control a militia commander sent on the siege of the hamlet like an adventurer?
Also when shall you fix the extremely slow training of warriors? The only efficient way to train a squad of 7 or more dwarves is to throw them in a danger room which is an extremely broken way of training anyway.

The slow training does kind of make sense, if you think about it. It would take a good decade or two of intense training for a normal person to "master" a weapon or fighting style. If anything, dwarves get experience too fast for most things. Achieving legendary status at any skill should be rare. So maybe some of it is intentional? You shouldn't expect to have a legion of +5 legendary axedwarves after a few seasons of normal training.

[WillowLuman]

Or after a few hours of taking intentional "impossible" shots at a single gopher in adventure mode.

[snpaa]

Storytelling wise I've always thought that Goblins not needing to eat or drink and basically live forever if not killed was just lame. It heads towards that black n white classification of good and evil, and makes you scratch your head wondering why they would even start a civilization in the first place. They apparently don't like each other and they don't need to take care of basic needs to live.  you'd think there'd be more lone goblins just chilling out in some deserted area killing vermin for fun.

[WillowLuman]

Unless they're motivated by a misguided desire to raise the world's children in their "superior" way of life.

[monk12]

Storytelling wise I've always thought that Goblins not needing to eat or drink and basically live forever if not killed was just lame. It heads towards that black n white classification of good and evil, and makes you scratch your head wondering why they would even start a civilization in the first place. They apparently don't like each other and they don't need to take care of basic needs to live.  you'd think there'd be more lone goblins just chilling out in some deserted area killing vermin for fun.

Actually, IIRC this is basically what Toady wants to do with goblins. The only reason they hang out is because a demon or particularly powerful goblin forces them to, and even then they don't do much in the way of cooperation. I know when people were asking about how it was going to be possible to sneak through Goblin towers, Toady mentioned that one of the big factors in favor of the infiltrator was that the goblins wouldn't help each other or raise the alarm, and if they weren't important/dutiful they'd likely just ignore you.

[Valtam]

Dear Toady:
When the War Arc finally begins are there plans to allow us to control a militia commander sent on the siege of the hamlet like an adventurer?
Also when shall you fix the extremely slow training of warriors? The only efficient way to train a squad of 7 or more dwarves is to throw them in a danger room which is an extremely broken way of training anyway.

If you want Toady himself to answer this, you should change the font color to lime green (or really, any other of it's shades). However, actually there is no 'arc' development system, or at least not definite beginning or end. Features are being implemented on the go, as far as I'm concerned, and while the goal system is still used on account of the features that will be implemented (or the ones we know that will more likely make the cut) it's not so reliable.

Also, fixes come as other features get implemented and they request these fixes, right now there are lots of ways to kill creatures that don't involve warriors, and most of them are merrier, if not a bit "broken", expected from a game that is not even halfway through it's expected goal.

[snpaa]

Actually, IIRC this is basically what Toady wants to do with goblins. The only reason they hang out is because a demon or particularly powerful goblin forces them to, and even then they don't do much in the way of cooperation. I know when people were asking about how it was going to be possible to sneak through Goblin towers, Toady mentioned that one of the big factors in favor of the infiltrator was that the goblins wouldn't help each other or raise the alarm, and if they weren't important/dutiful they'd likely just ignore you.

I understand that it's intentional, it just doesn't blend together right to me , I mean if you're some impenitent being that's not tied down  by the basic needs of the common man/creature. Why would you listen to this lone demon, what's to stop every single goblin from running for the hills and living the rest of there lives as hermits that occasionally kill some innocent/or guilty pedestrian, animal, monster.

It's just one demon, he'd have to hunt you all down one by one. Also seeing how a demon can be murdered by some random low level goblin in legends mode, why don't they all disband after  casually killing the the demon that was keeping them all together?

 I can understand the demons not needing to eat or drink because they are Omnipotent beings with an agenda to boot, but making goblins demon lite's just makes them uninteresting in my opinion. It's just undercuts there whole society they've bothered to build, it's like what's the point  other then being evil for the sake for being evil.

[Richards]

So... 2014 dwarf fortress release then?

[WillowLuman]

Also makes it sound like they'd be pretty easy to wipe out, as a military threat. After several of these huge, failed seasonal invasions, you think their flimsy society would dissolve from mutiny.

They must have some kind of ideal of order, though, otherwise they wouldn't punish treason with death.

[DG]

I imagine that the theory is that goblins will eventually need to eat, but Toady will first have to code it so that they can raid towns and villages for prisoners and use them as a food source.

Toady specifically stated more than once that they're not intended to ever need to eat.

one area i intend to diverge from vanilla.

perhaps, being magical minor demons, gobboos feed of of emotion?  it would explain much.

Except how to use emotion as a food source. I doubt that people who are disatisfied with the current idea would be cool with emotion as a food.

[darklord92]

Goblin description says they are "A medium-sized humanoid driven to cruelty by its evil nature." Thus we can safely say goblins enjoy inflicting pain,agony,etc on their enemies.We can also gather goblins are smart, they can built towers of slade and forge weapons, they also have a language unlike kobolds. Wouldn't it come to mind even if they ARE evil creatures that they would not band together because a group can over power others(birds of a feather flock together)? Another thought to this argument would be if they are driven to violence would it not be a pack mentality where the strongest becomes the leader? A demon would certainly be able to kill many goblins(aside from the lucky ones) thus becoming "pack leader", the alpha goblin as it were.

[snpaa]

Goblin description says they are "A medium-sized humanoid driven to cruelty by its evil nature." Thus we can safely say goblins enjoy inflicting pain,agony,etc on their enemies.We can also gather goblins are smart, they can built towers of slade and forge weapons, they also have a language unlike kobolds. Wouldn't it come to mind even if they ARE evil creatures that they would not band together because a group can over power others(birds of a feather flock together)? Another thought to this argument would be if they are driven to violence would it not be a pack mentality where the strongest becomes the leader? A demon would certainly be able to kill many goblins(aside from the lucky ones) thus becoming "pack leader", the alpha goblin as it were.

But this contradicts there lore, toady himself has stated that goblins don't like other goblins, so why would they band together with other goblins they don't like for purposes other then the occasional mating act?  People form societies in fear of hunger, thirst, and ultimately death, but a goblin has no need to worry about any of these things(unless he gets murdered, in which he'll most likely have a higher life expectancy by not being in a goblin settlement ).
 
 They should should all  just be acting like  night trolls and kidnap and kill people without  a civ backing them up. A sentient creature truly evil wouldn't bother wasting it's unending life to feed the evil agenda of others, but instead go with his own agenda. They should be total anarchist ,because they don't really need a civ to live. 

  If I was a creature who didn't need to eat , drink, and could live forever I wouldn't bother getting a getting an occupation and contribute to the community.  In fact if I may be so bold I would recede from society and I would just walk the earth and do "WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT, AND HOW I WANT IT". Big red would not be enough to deter me from going out on my own, he could be satan himself and I'd still give him the green middle finger. I mean what can he do to me that won't happen if I stay anyway? He's got nothing to threaten me with because I'll be killed if I stay anyway, either by the hands of another goblin or on a suicide siege on Uristmctraplover's fortress. 

[DG]

Not liking something does not stop people from doing it in order to achieve a goal. Goblins may be like people in that respect. You're simplifying goblins to make an argument against their lack of eating requirement.

[hermes]

Re snpaa... I think you're missing the 'evil nature' part.  Yes goblins can be independent but they like doing bad things, so there's a large incentive to band together under a demon or similar such entity to maximise the one thing they do need; death and chaos.  As was posted before, there is some exposition of goblins in Threetoe's stories, where you get the impression that gobbos are in equal measure mean and unempathetic because they have no afterlife, thus no future.

And happy new year everyone!

[Broken]

Dear Toady:
When the War Arc finally begins are there plans to allow us to control a militia commander sent on the siege of the hamlet like an adventurer?
Also when shall you fix the extremely slow training of warriors? The only efficient way to train a squad of 7 or more dwarves is to throw them in a danger room which is an extremely broken way of training anyway.

The slow training does kind of make sense, if you think about it. It would take a good decade or two of intense training for a normal person to "master" a weapon or fighting style. If anything, dwarves get experience too fast for most things. Achieving legendary status at any skill should be rare. So maybe some of it is intentional? You shouldn't expect to have a legion of +5 legendary axedwarves after a few seasons of normal training.

I think that the problem with training is that it takes to much time to train a recluit into
a decent warrior(say, caravan guard level). While legendary warriors should need extensive training and combat experience, a year of
training should be able to give you a competent soldier, and now it can't without micromanagement.