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[Halnoth]

So a migrant wave came and with them was a tame stray gremlin. That is sorta cool all by itself, but what made me say wtf out loud and consider an army of stray gremlins is that this little guy has a crossbow equiped and is laying waste to kobold theives and goblin snatchers.

When I first saw this thing firing I thought it was a monster attacking the goblins. Imagine my surprise when it was a pet of mine.

[thegoatgod_pan]

awesome. Armed slave army. does it pick up more bolts? Does i pull levers? Did you mod gremlins to be pets? Any modding at all?

[chairo]

Gremlins have [CAN_LEARN], I believe. The wiki says that when they grow to be adults, they become Gremlin Hunters, and they'll go out and hunt game with a crossbow, then bring it back like Dwarven hunters do.

[Scruffy]

Does i pull levers?

I think that only the wild ones pull levers. (the wild ones are a bit like stealthed kobold thiefs and give you a message when spotted.

Since they can learn, can they learn social skills by idling in the meeting hall like children? If they do then things might start getting more interesting.

Edit: I remember someone mentioning that they tend to starve to death a few months ago. They have [bonecarn] so they need to feed?

[Halnoth]

Ya they pick up more bolts. They pretty much act like normal hunters. I didn't mod anything so this is vanilla DF.

I'll post back after another in game year passes to let you guys know if they starve or not, so far though the little guy is doing fine.

[Halnoth]

So this is a bit odd. The gremlin went missing. I figured it had died, but when I looked at corpses in the stocks and zoomed to its location all I found were clothes. No body, no blood, no meat, no gremlin leather, nothing. I can only conclude his own awesomeness vaporized him.

[zazq]

... or he got hauled to the refuse pile, or got buried in a pet coffin?  Carve a memorial and dedicate a room to his honor.

[Eric Blank]

Yeah, I have modded the game to permit gremlins as pets, and now they're ALWAYS available. It's pretty neat.

1) If they arrive with migrants, they will bring a crossbow and have the hunting labor enabled (I don't think you can see their labor screens to play with it right now, though), and soon they'll go hunt game. However, they don't seem to reload after running out of bolts (or maybe I just never have enough bolts to go around!) and they never carry back kills; they immediately go find something else to kill. I don't think gremlins born in your fort will go hunt. I've never seen it happen...

2) All sentient pets need to eat, drink, and sleep, unless they have the tags that disable these. [BONECARN] effectively makes a creature both a carnivore and able to eat bones (and maybe also bonemeal?) Therefore, gremlins must have fresh meat available, a water source (NOT a well; pets can't figure out how to use wells for whatever reason) and they'll basically crash wherever they're standing when they declare nap time.

3) like other sentient, CAN_SPEAK pets, gremlins will talk to each other and make friends, but not with dwarves or any other species. They can also get elected mayor, which is always awesome.

4) They can live for up to 1000 years. They can also reproduce, and their children develop a the same rate as dwarves. However, their mothers don't pick up babies, and so they can get in a little trouble occasionally.

5) Because they grow up slowly and you usually don't have many available females to start with, it's almost impossible to have problems with a gremlin-explosion. Once they max out at 50, the women will stop getting pregnant (but their current pregnancies will not be aborted.)

6) Without modding, they by default only cost 1☼. That means you can import as many gremlins as you want, or bring hundreds on embark, for very little cost to you.

7) They're only 1/6 the size of a dwarf as adults, you can't exactly arm or armor them, let alone train them. They don't exactly make very good melee infantry. However, if you've got enough hunters with crossbows and ammo they could easily make good auxilliary marksmen.

[G-Flex]

Gremlins have [CAN_LEARN], I believe. The wiki says that when they grow to be adults, they become Gremlin Hunters, and they'll go out and hunt game with a crossbow, then bring it back like Dwarven hunters do.

So it's like having a weird cat who can use weaponry. Amazing.

[wolfwood296]

Gremlins have [CAN_LEARN], I believe. The wiki says that when they grow to be adults, they become Gremlin Hunters, and they'll go out and hunt game with a crossbow, then bring it back like Dwarven hunters do.

So it's like having a weird cat who can use weaponry. Amazing.

"war kitten shoots copper bolt at goblin striking him in the head and shatering the skull"
"goblin has been shoot and killed"

[Loud Whispers]

"goblin has been shoot and killed"

Said like a true gremlin

[Iosyn]

I see your gremlins and raise you... giant scorpions.

Any takers?

[Darkening Kaos]

Any takers?

Yes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Iosyn]

Any takers?

Yes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nooooo... However scorpions can smack your dwarves over the head with their own weapons, also neurotoxin.

[Darkening Kaos]

Nooooo... However scorpions can smack your dwarves over the head with their own weapons, also neurotoxin.

So?  GCS has neurotoxin and don't need any training (or weapons) to be deadly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)