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[Williham]

Looking at a few genned worlds and the kind of leaders gobbo civs end up with; a though struck me:

How grand would it not be, if megabeasts like bronze colossi turned up early on; but rather than going on a rampage, they make your fortress a simple offer:

"Worship me, or be destroyed."

Essentially, they would require a 3x3 to 5x5 workshop with (semi-)random materials like statues (made from specific materials?), blocks and stone to be built within a certain time frame; and if they were, they would join your fortress on a permanent basis, providing, like other nobles, mandates; but dispensing their own "justice".

Of course, in the event of invaders turning up at the fortress gates, they would go straight ahead and fuck some goblin shit UP.

Denying them means fighting them, of course, so a young fortress could choose to use the time afforded to simply isolate themselves from the frienemy at the gates.

The megabeasts might also require that a certain amount of time be spent worshipping them; making the noble position of "priest" at least moderately useful.

[NW_Kohaku]

Dragons still can't avoid cages, right?

We could get dragon eggs early...

[Williham]

You make a valid point.

Should their demands not be met, a more relevant answer might be "Your are not worth the time it would take me to crush you."; with the beast leaving.

And at the same time, adolescent dragons would hopefully be wise enough to make modest demands.

Edit: I think I see what you're getting at, but let's face it; dragon eggs are pretty worthless unless you have a male dragon around to impregnate them.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I like the idea of megabeasts demanding worship instead of just being killbotz. Perhaps they'd visit larger forts, too, although more as a sort of "Worship me, and I will bestow gifts upon you!" kind of deal.
Perhaps similar deals, although with very different outlooks, could be set up with captured megabeasts--e.g. "We'll let you live if you let us take your eggs and if you roast incoming goblins."

Oh, BTW, dragon eggs make delicious omlettes.

[Williham]

Delicious?

Yes.

Numerous?

No.

[Khym Chanur]

Of course, in the event of invaders turning up at the fortress gates, they would go straight ahead and fuck some goblin shit UP.

Seems like that would be too useful, at least if it was guaranteed.  If it didn't hang around, but only visited the fortress site infrequently to check up on its shrine and pick up tribute, then it could fight invaders.  Or it might decide that it doesn't want worshipers so pathetic they can't fight off some goblins, and never come back again.

[Williham]

Well, there are many ways in which the beasts could act, and perhaps having all of them in the game, depending on chance and type of beast would be a good idea.

Naturally, the degree of intervention the beast provides would be related to the number of mandates and demands they'd levy on the fort.

A hands-off bronze colossus might show up once every three years, yelling "MAKE ME 3 BACKPACKS; OR I WILL DESTROOOOOOOY YOU!", and once satisfied, will walk off into the wilds for another three years.

A more hands-on beast might take up residence in the depths of your fortress, and make demands for hundreds of items per year; but if gobbos or titans or what have you turns up, they're *THERE*, man.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Why would a bronze colossus want backpacks? More realistically, it'd be a dragon or something that wants some cut gems of at least X value for its hoard, or Y gold coins, or something.

[Williham]

I don't know why, but the image of a bronze colossus having a fit over backpacks popped into my head, and I found it funny.

So that's what I'm going with.

[Jeoshua]

Intelligent megabeasts that can demand tribute?

I like the idea actually.  But it would have to be set up as a token in the raws of the creature.  We wouldn't want to see deep crows demanding that we build them furniture.  So the type of demand would have to be able to be chosen in the raw of the creature.

[Detoxicated]

I think a bronze colossus would want an upgrade to his shrine, so you'd eventually have a huge statue garden.

A minotaur would want a maze of course.
Necromancers would want towers...
Dragons would move into the caverns and demand gold and access to lava.

Also dwarven sacrifices to the great roc tyrant.

[Corai]

Okay, heres your backpack-OH GOD SOMEONE BREACHED HFS-Oh wait nevermind. The 52 titans we have living with us are slaughtering them. You go Roc!

[Splint]

I don't think Rocs can speak.

The only gamebreaker I see is the sheer balls-out ass kicking a megabeast could dish out.

Although the ones that have "An aura of giving and kindness" sound more like they'd come to help thinking the poor little drunk people need protecting from all the other big bad critters. If the fort has a poor military (Badly equipped, barely skilled) They'd offer to be a guardian untilt he fort could defend itself, inexchange for a shrine or something to recognize it's kindness. Whent he fort has x number of Skilled fighting dwarves, it will bid you farewell and assure you it will return to check up on your fort from time to time, and resume guardianship if things have gone a little.... wonky.

On the other hand, a Bronze Collosus flipping shit over backpacks does sound really funny....

[Corai]

I still hold firm as to what I said. This basically kills military, you just turn your army into statue makers and your invincible. Unless titans come to fight over who owns what fort, or have very.......very......bad side affects, this makes HFS more like a kobold thief army.

[Splint]

A literal clash of titans sounds epic! Until the dwarves get kill ed in the crossfire of webs and extracts, and a stray firball blows up the booze stockpile and sets the mess hall on fire, alone with Urist, Obok, your miners and kitten.