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[Rysith]

Currently, invaders from the first goblins to sully your newly-founded fortress to the goblins that attack your decades-old fortress filled with the finest in all things come to you barely out of whatever passes for goblin military academy, with barely the skill to hold a sword by the handle and hardly a stat increase to their names, their crudely-forged equipment barely clinging to their bodies.

These goblins, then, are sent against the legendary warriors of the dwarves, equipped with the finest polished steel, trained since the dawn of adulthood in the ways of war. It is no wonder, then, that the average "mature" fortress can afford but a handful of guards (a handful simply to reduce the chance that they are all eating, drinking, or asleep at the same time), since a single one can slay an entire goblin siege without breaking a sweat.

Thus, I propose that in addition to sending additional goblins, the skill of the warriors sent should also rise with time. More slowly to be sure, the first wave being nothing more than a scouting party. But soon, when word of the wealth and power of the fortress spreads, goblin generals will begin to plan more than simply rounding up the first eighty goblins they see and marching them off to war. More skilled goblins, trained under the harsh eye of their generals or drawn by tales of glory and plunder, will compose the armies. An advanced fortress might even expect to see a legendary goblin or two among their foes, warriors able to confidently challenge a dwarven warrior to single combat in melee.

The flowery language aside, it's kind of ridiculous that the gobins that siege and ambush you have less than a month of training (based on dwarven training rates). I propose that once the sieges cap out at 80, the skill levels of the invaders start rising instead, so that they continue to provide something other than comic relief once you have your first legendary solider. While it doesn't do anything to address the problems posed by traps, magma, drowning chambers, atom smashers, or engineered cave-ins, I think that it would do something to make goblin sieges more of an event.

[Yolan]

I like this idea very much.

On the same topic, how about these better quality armies also bring their own siege weapons?

I am thinking siege of Gondor here... hmm...

Actually, come to think of it... how about when a really massive army attacks, and if you have just sealed yourself up, they set up a campsite with tents, start hunting the local wildlife for food, and bring in wagons of supplies from outside. Would look pretty cool.

[Neruz]

Mobile Siege weapons with the ability to damage and\or destroy constructed walls would be awesome.

And sappers later on that attempt to tunnel into your fort from below!

[sonerohi]

Moar marksgoblns too. It would be suicide in the midevil times to march on a castle without bows and crossbows on your side to attack & distract the enemies marksmen who had the advantage of walls and fortifications.

[Pilsu]

Personally I'd fix it from the other end first. Sparring should be far less efficient and elite status should require skills and special training from other elite troops visiting from back from the mountain homes. Legendary status should require at least 50 kills. All this would combine to make skilled troops a lot harder to get and balancing the enemy around that comes after

Wouldn't hurt if the stats didn't max out so easily either. As is, dwarves never tire thanks to toughness. The stats are completely out of hand. Superdwarvenly tough individuals shouldn't be a matter of carpentry, they should be a matter of extremely good potential. Your average troop should barely reach Extremely Strong during their entire career. Carpentry shouldn't even give stats


All NPC equipment should probably be at least -items- or +items+, they are handcrafted after all

[Sunday]

Siege engines are kind of beyond the scope of this suggestion, since they have been suggested many, many times before and are indeed on the dev pages.

Still, the OP's suggestion really is a good one (apart from the fact that sieges already do send champions after a while, I'm pretty sure.  Or maybe I just got lucky).

However, I'm pretty sure that skills and such are changing for this upcoming version, so it may very well be a lot harder for a dwarf to get super-scary skilled as quickly.  If this is the case, then this suggestion is moot, since the issue is solved in a different way.


Edit: Basically, I think Pilsu's suggestion might already be incorporated into the next version.

[Rysith]

Personally I'd fix it from the other end first. Sparring should be far less efficient and elite status should require skills and special training from other elite troops visiting from back from the mountain homes. Legendary status should require at least 50 kills. All this would combine to make skilled troops a lot harder to get and balancing the enemy around that comes after

Despite delays that are introduced by that, you will eventually be able to have legendary warriors in your fortress, as you should, and there will still be a problem. I'm proposing that the invaders continue rising in difficulty rather than plateauing at 80 unskilled goblins. I'd also argue that allowing them to increase in skill is a probably-needed, fairly quick, change to make, whereas adding in visits from elite mountainhome troops and so on is not (what about early worlds, for example, when there are no elite mountainhome dwarves yet?)

To answer Sunday, world-gen goblins can achieve champion status (rarely) and elite status (more frequently), but they only lead squads, and the rest of the squad always has only no-adjective skills. I'm proposing that the skill levels of rest of the squads begin rising once you reach 80-invader sieges, so that (for example) by year 15 or so you might be facing sieges of 80 experienced or professional invaders lead by elites, rather than 5 elite goblins and 75 mild inconveniences.

Siege weapons have come up many times in the past, and there are good threads about them. This suggestion is not about siege weapons, just a small tweak to try to keep some difficulty in late-game sieges.

[Lymojo]

I don't know about requiring visits from the mountainhomes; that sounds kind of difficult to incorporate and, as someone said, impossible in early world gens. Also, sort of strange; it's not like the only way to learn something is for someone to teach it to you.

However, I really like the idea that sparring should be drastically toned down, and that dwarves should require actual combat in order to level up in any significant way.
That would also give a real tangible benefit to setting up an elaborate dwarven arena to deal with goblin prisoners.

[Craftling]

If an invader kills someone or encounters a building the invader should pillage the body or ransack the building, because thats what most invaders would do.

[Foa]

Here is an idea for an entering device, but exiting is a whole new problem... Anyways, using the 'super see saw' from Mythbusters, you could launch an entity into, and over enemy walls.

Another point is that there should be different types of battalions, in their/your armed forces, like an aerial cavalry, and  mounted archers.


Pillaging should depend on the entity's culture, and personality, so there could be no pillaging to hypo-kleptomania.

[Pilsu]

I don't know about requiring visits from the mountainhomes; that sounds kind of difficult to incorporate and, as someone said, impossible in early world gens. Also, sort of strange; it's not like the only way to learn something is for someone to teach it to you.

You will need a proper instructing to become great via training alone. Dwarves rubbing each other for a few years and becoming super strong Champions is fairly stupid. I guess there's no need to stop exp gain from real combat seeing it'd be slow and dangerous. You could eventually have your home grown battle hardened Master+ skilled instructor to train your recruits if the mountainhomes don't have any! Legendaries aren't necessary for gameplay either way

Personally I'd lower the elite status threshold to Professional. Makes sense, no? Even with no battle Experience, your troops could become Experts. More than sufficient to repel attacks. Reaching even that should take a long time though. Diminishing returns and all that. A skilled instructor could speed it up

It would have the added benefit of making it feel like you're an outpost, a part of something greater. Ties in with other kinds of apprenticeship as well

That would also give a real tangible benefit to setting up an elaborate dwarven arena to deal with goblin prisoners.

Fighting naked goblins to powergame yourself some elites is cheating

[Peteł]

Requiring 50 kills, for that matter, would feel way too arbitrary. I'd just hunt horses with my squads all day. And why is a legendary dragon kill worth as much as a puny goblin again?

Personally, I'd like to see the siege cap increase (and decrease!) according to your population, maybe with a bit of randomness strewn in. A 200 dwarf fort can easily afford 40+ quality soldiers, and those are absolutely devastating to 75 fodder goblins backed by 5 elites.
Also, it would make you think about trapped hallways some more.. what if 60 weapon traps suddenly aren't enough anymore?

So, yes, I fully support the skill increase over time.

[Craftling]

If your fort manages to really piss off another faction, they would come and kick your ass no matter how small your fortress is, thats what the persians did to rhodes.

[Pilsu]

Requiring 50 kills, for that matter, would feel way too arbitrary. I'd just hunt horses with my squads all day

I was referring to named creature kills

I don't know what to do with the fluffy wambler training issue. Named creatures should probably give dramatically more exp. Either that or add more thresholds than just 2

And why is a legendary dragon kill worth as much as a puny goblin again?

You in all probability dogpiled it. It's a kill for the community