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[Schmoe]

From the current development logs, it appears that kobolds are consistently slaughtered during world-gen.  I had a couple ideas that might help.

First, you could have kobold civilizations randomly, spontaneously arise in otherwise unsettled parts of the world at varying times.  This might be capped by a maximum number of kobold civilizations for the entire world, but it would allow new threats to appear and harass the other races.  Kobolds should also grow their numbers by the value of goods stolen, rather than conquest of other territory.

Second, you could have kobold civilizations be migratory, so that instead of fighting invaders, they have a good chance to move to a safer spot.  If they did sneak away in the night, this would cancel any wars previously declared against them.

Third, you could give civilizations or settlements a stealth rating.  In order for a race to launch an attack against another civilization or settlement, it would first have to overcome the stealth rating.  They could periodically re-check to be able to attack, but stealth ratings for kobolds could also increase based on their power level.  This could lead to situations where the dwarves declare war on the nearby kobold civilization, quickly destroy one nearby kobold site, but then spend the next 200 years searching for the last annoying group of kobolds.  All the while, the remaining kobolds are still harassing and stealing from the dwarves, growing more powerful.  It would be good if a civilization had to actually commit its warriors to a search for the kobolds.  This way, if they sent 200 dwarves to look for the kobolds in year 586, those dwarves wouldn't be available to launch an assault on the nearby goblins, but they may come back after a year without having found anything.

[mickel]

Sounds like a good idea to me. From what I've gleaned from the dev notes, kobold civs seem to get wiped out fairly easily all the time. This'd give them a better chance of being a nuisance.  

[Mephansteras]

Another thought which might help: Make kobolds a low-priority entity to attack. Since kobolds are really more of a nuisance then a real threat to any civ, you could just make it so that no one really cares about them enough to attack unless things get boring for a while.

Also, Kobolds really ought to avoid starting wars, since they don't have a prayer of winning in most situations. Although a massive kobold army taking out a weakened enemy does sound kind of amusing.

[SirPenguin]

I really think Kobolds have the opportunity to be the "hit and run" race. Have them attack, then flee, then attack again, then steal their equipment, then attack again. After all, they live in caves, so they can afford to be more "nomad" like.

Kobolds could fulfill the role of the race that's always being beaten upon, but you can never fully wipe them out.

[Draco18s]

If we've learned anything from Kobold Quest, kobolds are doomed to extinction. ;P

[Capntastic]

For every one you kill there's always three more; but you gotta start somewhere!

[Kagus]

You see, it's all just the first step on their journey to higher places.

[Mikademus]

At some time in the future, the civilisation generator will acheive the complexity for self-awareness and independent thought.

[PTTG??]

Actually, that's not bad! It sounds like mobility would definitely keep them alive longer, as long as it takes time for opposing empires to find each other's sites.

[Neonivek]

The thing is that a Nomad trigger also VERY much powers the Elves who are balanced to be on par with everyone else

[Vactor]

I've been mulling over this issue, and i keep coming back to empire earth skirmishes vs the computer on the largest map.

My friends and I would play massive multiplayer games of us vs the computer, the computer's starting bases would be sacked about 2 hours into the game, but it would take another 8 hours before we would finally clear the map.  This was because minutes after the AI had set up a new town center it was already sending workers out to far flung reaches of the map.  Even if you destroyed all their buildings you would never track down all of their workers, each of which was able to start a new base at any time anywhere on the map.  Some function of this would work very well to keep a kobold civilization easy to beat in battle, but nearly impossible to exterminate.

Just as a follow up: we finally resorted to massive walling projects across the entire map to prevent workers from coming into newly cleared out areas once our military moved on.

[ May 01, 2008: Message edited by: Vactor ]

[Fieari]

I think what the kobolds need is a combination of an extremely low maturation rate, high birth rate, and a tactical option in battle to run away, perhaps with diversionary squads as well.  So the kobolds that are met in battle will die, but they die so that others can run away.

It might also help if traps and siege defenses are coded in.  If exterminating kobolds means going through layers and layers of nasty traps, that would not only give them more time to run away, but also might be enough to keep them safe where they are!

At the same time, the system could also allow for other forms of siege defense in world gen, such as town walls, moats, and other such ilk.  Make those Goblin Towers useful for something as well!

[Grek]

A better option, I think, would be to have the early early kobold civs try to ally (and move in) with a local megabeast or semi-megabeast (semi-megabeasts should also be a bit buffer). They could raid for cattle and steal food instead of trying for loot.

Later on, skilled kobold thieves can declare themselves master thieves and start up minor kobold civs that behave more like they do now and work like bandit camps rather than city-states politically.

[mickel]

I like the trap idea. Perhaps make the kobolds fiendishly good at traps - even better than dwarves? They could have specialised trap options for them... Since they're so light, having trap doors with balanced counterweights would work extremely well. They wouldn't have to make pressure plates that can be avoided like the dwarves have to, they can make pressure plates that cover the entire floor but that won't trigger for just a single kobold. That way they only have to remember to only walk one and one over the floor in certain places.

[LumenPlacidum]

Now that we can re-build walls, let kobolds dig.  They could form little sapper raiding parties that appear on the edge of the map, but immediately make a ramp going down.  They dig down until they get to the right level and dig directly toward some objective.  Then, they'd just act like normal thieves, they'd grab something and run.  They'd be REALLY annoying because of the fact that they could create alternative ways into your fortress.