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[Footkerchief]

Question: I know alot of things are getting overhauled to make for better sieges and whathaveyou, but will attacks ever become more sporadic and unpredictable? In the current version, they're a tad predictable, such that one could easily prepare for them.

Definitely.  When this dev_next item gets implemented:

#  III.A.2: Making dwarf mode sieges come from actual armies on the map (part of Core26)

the timing and manner of sieges will depend on many more factors than it does currently.  To give a mundane example, a goblin army moving to siege your fortress might clash with a human patrol on the way, arriving late and under-strength as a result.

Also, can sieges ever become nonstop? Like, a goblin army just sending wave after wave and continually attacking and bringing in more reinforcements? You know, like an actual siege.

This was discussed in some detail in DF Talk 2:

Toady: [...] So ostensibly you should be able to send out thousands of people and arrange them in lines and then siege a goblin tower with different approaches and so on. The main problem would be that you'd be restricted; if you ever zoom in you'd be restricted to having just a smaller number of people, while at the same time a fight could be raging on off-screen with further people. The main problem area this ties back to is fortress mode; what happens if twenty thousand goblins are knocking at your door, what exactly is going to happen there? And we've thought about that quite a bit in terms of ... we're talking about a fortress that's very old, that's had large numbers of things popping up around it, and you've got control of thousands of people outside the fortress and so on, and of course there's a million things that need to be considered that we don't really have time to talk about, just in terms of your industries and so on. But, say that these larger numbers came up; you'd first be able to contest them outside your fortress with larger numbers, with larger army battles; but if they did make it to your fortress and sieged the actual fortress where you've only got your hundred, hundred and fifty guys running around, then they'd have to keep their numbers lower too to keep things fair, or just to keep things running with the CPU. But they could send in two hundred guys or something and you could have your standard sieges, and now if they had twenty thousand people they could do that a hundred times, but we just have to artificially set things up so that that's not how it works, or if it does maybe supporting their supply lines would be what causes them to leave if you keep winning, or just being depressed would cause them to leave if you keep winning and so on. There are things to be figured out there, and things to watch out for when you inflate the numbers like that, so we're not 100% exactly what's going to happen, but we would like to have large battles with tactical and strategic elements, and so on.

The upcoming siege improvements were actually the primary focus of that DF Talk episode, so listening to it or reading the transcript linked above would probably answer your questions much better than I could.

[darkflagrance]

It's a bit of a shame, considering that if the goblins who siege and ambush you are limited, eventually you can scour the world of goblins from your fortress. On one hand, that's awesome. On the other hand, it would get boring.

[Kittah_Khan]

There will probably be a lot more goblins once that comes around.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Not to mention that unless goblins are warlike to the point of absurdity, they will never be exhausted by virtue of only attacking. Their civilians will remain, and there will eventually be more armies heading your way.

[mendonca]

Also, if you are talking about a limited pool of Goblins in the world, it would only be fair that your dwarves are limited, and your migrants would come from the world.

It might mean that your dwarves are a lot less expendable, you have to work harder to attract them? the war motive / dynamic would be different for both sides ...

[Neruz]

Also also; the next version will have endless infinite invasions of underground animal-men and other monsties (Forgotten Beasts are still limited, but there's alot of them, so you should take awhile to work through them all. Clowns are probably unlimited as well, being a constant threat once you go for the good stuff and dig into the Funhouse.)

[Rictus]

Also also; the next version will have endless infinite invasions of underground animal-men and other monsties (Forgotten Beasts are still limited, but there's alot of them, so you should take awhile to work through them all. Clowns are probably unlimited as well, being a constant threat once you go for the good stuff and dig into the Funhouse.)

Man, every time people bring up the Funhouse/Clowns thing, I can't help but get this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH0n7HvnKpg in my head

[Shoku]

In the future we might see DF doing a few frames of number crunch each season to adjust how other place's populations have changed.

Also if you've got multiple Goblin civilizations in your world doesn't only the closest one attack you? When we get the option to send out units to attack we might kill that one off and then have to deal with several more, or just be able to send armies after them.

If supply lines ever factor into that it might take exponential resources to keep you champions a slaughterin at the furthest goblin outposts so actually clearing the map could be unfeasable except in the extreme megaproject sort of way.

[smjjames]

Yea, usually only the closest attacks you at first, but I've had a few games (with at least 20 year old forts) where another goblin civ enters the fray. I don't know how often this happens, but the fort would have to have had lasted long enough to fight alot of sieges and kill most (or all?) of the notable civ members on the civ screen.

[van]

I have a question, what are toady's plans regarding over-sea transportation i.e. boats?  Because I'm sure he has some plan if your civ is located on a small island, but I don't think it was ever mentioned.  I would guess that it would start off something like bronze-age Greece ramming boats and develop into medieval pig-tail sail boats with balista where cannons would be.

[Footkerchief]

I have a question, what are toady's plans regarding over-sea transportation i.e. boats?  Because I'm sure he has some plan if your civ is located on a small island, but I don't think it was ever mentioned.  I would guess that it would start off something like bronze-age Greece ramming boats and develop into medieval pig-tail sail boats with balista where cannons would be.

Toady has posted some thoughts on ships and boats here.

[van]

I have a question, what are toady's plans regarding over-sea transportation i.e. boats?  Because I'm sure he has some plan if your civ is located on a small island, but I don't think it was ever mentioned.  I would guess that it would start off something like bronze-age Greece ramming boats and develop into medieval pig-tail sail boats with balista where cannons would be.

Toady has posted some thoughts on ships and boats here.

Ok, thanks.  If I may make a suggestion, I think Toady should make a Dwarf Fortress Talk regarding vehicles (land/boats/mounts), or at least have it be one of the main points.  Also, something just came up in my head, what if there was a single-tile mount that could fly or swim?  Just a thought.

[Footkerchief]

Also, something just came up in my head, what if there was a single-tile mount that could fly or swim?  Just a thought.

People in the next version will sometimes use flying mounts:

11/04/2009: Getak Twigracks was a human warlord ruling the town of Spoongrizzle. After four peaceful years, he decided to make a journey to a nearby mountain range called the Belted Tooth, and in the manner of the legendary stories, he managed to tame the giant eagles that lived there. Eight years later, he traveled west, befriending the jaguars that lived in the hills there and bringing some back for his personal menagerie. Many more years drifted by, and the aging warrior thought perhaps he would be able to live out the end of his life in harmony with his many beasts. However, this was not to be -- because I forced a human assault on my fortress with a debug command. Several squads of foot soldiers came, as well as a group of trained jaguars running along with them. Getak was escorted by his personal guard, all riding giant eagles. The seven dwarves milling around by the wagon put up a modest defense.

The elves still have a great advantage in the use of beasts, but there can be a bit of variety now. As in fortress mode, the historical dwarves can now take advantage of certain underground beasts (not that you fight dwarves yet), and the goblins should have a greater variety available as well.

[Neonivek]

Though it won't be until the Combat Arc that we will likely see enemies using a flying advantage against you other then possibly pathing over obsticles.

Another issue is that flying isn't as easy as walking when it comes to carrying or raming things. Though for some reason I don't think "Flight Strength" will ever become an issue due to overcomplication. (No implications). Some creatures though have no explainable way to be able to fly and I wonder if that should mean they should have relatively low flight strength or insanely high i it ever happened, though it won't (No implications).

Hmm I had something else to say but I probably should keep it to myself. Mostly because it is rude to others and wrong anyhow. Though my ability to ignore it is getting thinner

[Lancensis]

I wanna know!