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[Korva]

Hello everyone. First time poster, been playing this infernally addictive game for about a month now. My biggest problem is a massive case of restartitis around the 3rd or 4th migrant wave, most commonly caused by wishing I'd designed something differently -- or feeling lonely because the little green guys aren't dropping by to provide a distraction. So I'm curious, what beside "play longer and wait for sieges" can I do to entice them to visit more often?

When I first started playing, I came to expect the first ambush with the first human or second dwarven caravan. But it's not happening anymore. Even when I make sure that my world has a good number of goblins, even when I all but embark on the doorstep of a goblin fortress, they have taken to ignoring me. If I haven't had am ambush by the end of the second winter, I tend to get bored and abandon. Could it be related to my new habit of walling off a good chunk of land early on, as a safe surface farming and woodcutting area? Once that wall is up, the dwarves really only leave to re-load strategically placed cage traps which I like to put up to capture the local wildlife. Could a lack of "exposed" dwarves cause the goblins to think there's nothing worth attacking? Or is it pure dumb luck?

Dealing with the goblins is half of the fun for me, so I don't just want to slog on until I maybe get a siege a couple years later.

I also seem to get fewer forgotten beasts lately. Odd.

What attracts ambushes? I don't want to add mods with new, more, tougher enemies because that'd probably go over my head. Just more plain goblins would be nice.

[Ragingpantsless]

Start an embark close to the goblin civ. That should get you some tears fun!

[ZaDoktor]

Relative location to a Goblin tower is one factor. I believe another is relative biome (so if you're surrounded by a huge mountain range or in the middle of an arctic wasteland it may be a bit longer before goblins show up.)

I also think it has to do with Fortress Wealth, the more you have, the stronger the attack. This is pretty easy and there are plenty of ways to make wealth fast, one of the simplest just to make tons of rock crafts and engrave everything.

There's also random luck thrown in. I have a fort on a glacier, and only had a few goblin thieves and snatchers, then one ambush of about 6. Then suddenly I had 3 ambushes simultaneously that included the Goblin general!

Overall just try to make loads of money in an accessible area and make sure Goblins show up as neighbors on the embark screen. You can also mod the game to just make goblins have a bit more bulk or produce more offspring so they expand more easily.

[Shoku]

Fortress value has some impact. If you play until you've got 80 dwarves they can siege you with an army of.... some proportion. Being close to them on the map should make that happen quicker after 80 dwarves and maybe bigger sieges.

Also if you want to increase fortress worth a lot faster than you already can just get your dwarves to mood artifact weapons and armor. That stuff is worth tons more. You can't directly control moods but the dwarves rush off to do whatever skill is highest, provided that it is an artisan type skill. Ex: If you have a legendary plant gatherer who has no other skills except for the tiniest bit of experience from making one copper boot then his mood would send him off to make armor.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Mood
At the bottom of that page is a chart of all the skills that can get moods. You would just want to have all your peasant and farm types without any of that experience go forge some weapon or armor, also made easier if you have a dwarf assigned as manager.


To further increase the value of this kind of thing you will want a record keeper set to high precision. Then when a mood pops you can go in and forbid all the tin and copper and so on only leaving expensive metals (and maybe expensive materials of other types.) There were some other tricks to it in 40d but I don't know if they still apply (and obviously unforbid that stuff if the dwarf gets stuck needing something.

Moods only happen after you have 20 dwarves so if you save shortly after migration pushes you over that number you can hard quit and reload your save to try for another mood.

And you can give the thieves a little boost to frequency by leaving out junk for them to get away with. pigtail socks stockpiled at the map edges should do it easily enough-

[Korva]

Thanks everyone. I had three goblin forts visible on the Region screen with the last fort, no difficult terrain in between them and my spot, and a second goblin civilization about a screen away (and World Viewer said each civilization had a population close to 300) so I was sure I'd get some action, but all I saw was two thieves in the first autumn, then nothing at all in the second year. I never really check produced wealth, maybe some playstyle changes, i.e. trying to find magma early and extensive surface wall-building as opposed to making the dwarves comfortable ASAP as I did before, did have an effect on that.

[FleshForge]

That's not actually very unusual to not be slammed immediately, if you got thieves in the first year that's actually a pretty strong indicator you'll be getting large, regular attacks.  Keep in mind there is still a lot of randomness.

[Alogism]

I'm not sure what it is, But I have never gotten a siege, Ever. In my entire time off playing DF I've been ambushed 3 times. I have never gotten a Forgotten Beast, Titan, Or anything similar, My forts usually last 6ish years and have values that are like 2 million. The game hates me

[FleshForge]

Are you getting defeated, or are you getting bored and restarting?  Have you ever had population over 80 (the standard minimum for titan attacks)?

[Alogism]

Are you getting defeated, or are you getting bored and restarting?  Have you ever had population over 80 (the standard minimum for titan attacks)?

Usually getting bored, Tired of the mehish FPS, And having several sets of steel masterwork armor and nothing to kill, And yes

[TheDrunknBunny]

You aren't immediately alerted to ambushes either.  If you have your fortress locked up tight with no way for your dwarves to see the ambushing goblins you won't know they are there. 

[Kregoth]

I have heard the exported wealth has a factor as well. If you want something challenging piss off human caravans just make sure to remake you'r traps after they leave, or they will just sit at the edge of the map when sieging.

And yes seeing a thief right on your first year is a good indicator that you will see lot's of goblin action soon.

[lolghurt]

pave the map with adamantine roads. if that gets no reaction, there's something wrong with your game.

[Korva]

I (almost) always have at least one way into the fort open so that can't be it either. This last fort is having the same "goblin forts in spitting distance but no attacks in the first two years" problem. Only a lonely thief. *sigh* I'll stick with it anyway and see what comes in year three.

[LilGunmanX]

Well, if you get bored, you could always go look for... the "hidden fun stuff"...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And by "hidden fun stuff" I do, of course, mean Hell, the demons, and adamant ore. I developed a method to farming adamantine with a pretty good degree of safety, and it doesn't involve using fortifications to see into anything, so I can try to get super high-level weapons and armor early on.

[Lemunde]

This might explain why things seem to get a little more hectic after I start making adamantine disc traps. Those discs are expensive!