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[Neonivek]

I am mostly dropping it Footkerchief because I know I can complain about the goblins ability to get all their nutriance from the particles in the air pretty much forever.

Actually... technically the scientific reasoning for Goblin's lack of need to eat... is that they eat the air.

If I was REALLY vindictive and a horrible person... I'd give the Goblins the name the "Air Eaters"

Which to admit isn't that far off from historical mythology. Snakes ate dust for example and Fish spawned from nothing.

[Cruxador]

Will cursed areas have physical effects on dwarves? Like randomly bursting in hives, starting to vomit from nausea, bleeding from the mouth, or something more serious like a dwarf suddenly going blind in one eye or both? These would be rare events, maybe similar in frequency as artifacts.

Effects like this would be cool in spheres. Assuming spheres will not be binary, the frequency and severity of such effects could be dependent on the strength of the sphere.

I am mostly dropping it Footkerchief because I know I can complain about the goblins ability to get all their nutriance from the particles in the air pretty much forever.

Actually... technically the scientific reasoning for Goblin's lack of need to eat... is that they eat the air.

If I was REALLY vindictive and a horrible person... I'd give the Goblins the name the "Air Eaters"

Which to admit isn't that far off from historical mythology. Snakes ate dust for example and Fish spawned from nothing.

Consider the following points:
Goblins are green.
Goblins do not eat.
Plants do not eat.
Plants are green.
Plants are green and do not need to eat due to photosynthetic organelles which convert solar energy into ATP.
Conclusion:
It is possible that goblins are green and do not need to eat due to photosynthetic organelles which convert solar energy into ATP.

[Neonivek]

But Goblins would still need extra nutriance in the form of minerals (which is the same as plants)

So are you suggesting that Goblins eat dirt or that they absorb dirt through their skin?

[thvaz]

Goblins eat fear. This is why they attack your fortress and take your children.

If goblins won't need to eat, they will need to feed the kidnapped children somehow. How you will deal with this problem?

[PTTG??]

Maybe they eat the children?

Or maybe they don't realize everybody else needs to eat, so they don't feed them, and sooner or later they have to go out and get more.

[tps12]

They feed kidnapped children goblin meat.

[NW_Kohaku]

Goblins eat fear. This is why they attack your fortress and take your children.

If goblins won't need to eat, they will need to feed the kidnapped children somehow. How you will deal with this problem?

If they eat our fear, then I somehow suspect that goblins that attack most player forts, ringed as they are with deathtraps and legendary warriors, would starve if it weren't for the brutally short span of their lives.

I don't know about the future plans, but goblins start farming right now when they get other humanoids in their civilization in order to feed their captives.

Remembering a Toady quote on the subject, I went searching, and came up with an amusingly out-of-date (but only half a year old) quote:

Considering that the goblins snatch a lot of non-carnivorous folk, have you considered adding in slave-run farming villages for the goblins?

They don't snatch any strict herbivores, so the most simple option is just to force their captives to eat hunted meat as the goblins will themselves.  This wouldn't be practical if the captive numbers got way out of control as they do now, but I don't expect that to last in the new system.

Of course, since some of the assumption that the response I'm quoting relied upon has now changed, it's completely valid to ask the question again.

[thvaz]

Indeed, I remembered this answer. The assumption goblins eat meat isn't valid anymore, but the main factor why I am making the question is because they (the Adams brothers) think it isn't appropriate for goblins to farm or to raise livestock anymore. Maybe they will hunt to feed the captives.


edit: silly change of names

[Untelligent]

goblins are green n' stuff

Not all goblins are green. Some are grey. Grey skin is the dominant skin coloration trait in goblins actually, IIRC.

The monsters are all undead/ghosts, the global church conspiracy is run by ghosts, the villains are all undead, Bruce Willis was a ghost all along, and the total global population of actually living people shrank down to about 50 while nobody was looking.

Way to spoil Final Fantasy X for me. e_e

[Neonivek]

Goblins eat fear. This is why they attack your fortress and take your children.

If goblins won't need to eat, they will need to feed the kidnapped children somehow. How you will deal with this problem?

Either goblins will stop raising children

Or children of Goblins don't need to eat because they are being taken care of by goblins.

Those are my guesses

[Cruxador]

goblins are green n' stuff

Not all goblins are green. Some are grey. Grey skin is the dominant skin coloration trait in goblins actually, IIRC.

Presumably they have both chlorophyll and some degree of other pigment.

[Appelgren]

Or the best of both worlds: goblins are magical monsters that don't need food to survive, but they'll feast on trollflesh once in a while just because they feel like it.

Yeah! While they don't need food, I imagine the goblins are driven by bottomless hunger. That way they don't need to farm or herd cattle and will never starve - but they might still devour you if they get the chance.

[hiho216]

Goblins that herd meat animals are insufficiently scary to us. 
[/quote]

Dwarves, elves, and humans are meat too.  Goblins are already snatching babies, why can't they designate some of their booty to be cattle instead of forcing them all into slavery?  Sounds scary to me.

[EnigmaticHat]

Will goblins have some other survival condition to make up for the fact the don't need to eat?  For example, they physically need to beat other humanoids to death every so often or they die.  Or, will their ability to survive without food have some sort of source (such as a god or a demon) that has to be appeased?

I ask only because it seems so illogical to me that goblins are so aggressive yet they have no need for resources.  As it is, all they would have to do to take over the world is just hide in one place until their population grows to insane numbers.  I feel like goblins would be more believable if it were somehow in their best interests to constantly pick fights.

[EmeraldWind]

Dwarves, elves, and humans are meat too.  Goblins are already snatching babies, why can't they designate some of their booty to be cattle instead of forcing them all into slavery?  Sounds scary to me.

Maybe the goblins simply let the kids starve until the kids get too hungry to resist eating each other. The strong ones will survive and be more useful to the goblins. Plus, the psychological damage from doing this might make them easier to handle and take charge of. That is scary...