#Hobgoblins - A playable civilization

107 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

hard temple
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This is my first mod for any game, much less Dwarf Fortress, and I'm glad to have finally released it.

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Special thanks to @hexed musk for inspiring me with their Nillians, and answering a question or two of mine.

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There's a lot more detail on the steam page, including pros and cons, and I'm sure it could stand a little fine-tuning. For anyone who tries it out, let me know what you think!

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I made the thumbnail art myself.

hexed musk
hard temple
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Seeing that as one of the first playable civ mods, and with such a strong identity/personality to the characters, really left a mark with me!

hexed musk
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Thanks!! I'm super excited to try your hobgoblins out, they look wonderful

hard temple
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Good lord. Thank you so much, to everyone who's given it a try!

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gaunt beacon
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Hello!

hard temple
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Continuing from #kitfox-fan-art -
Thanks again to @dire viper for posting all of that incredible fanart, by the way.

As for @gaunt beacon - I appreciated the comment! Feedback is great, it helps me keep an eye on things and know what to tweak or fix, so I'm glad I got the chance to clarify that in the description.

Plus, it's always fun to hear stories of how feisty the hobs can be sometimes. They still get defeated in combat just as often as they wreck things, so I hope it doesn't feel overtuned - it just goes absolutely one way or the other with little in-between. They're intense little critters!

Two of my own personal favorite stories so far:
-A badger tried to attack a chief medical hobgoblin once. They dodged, got it in a chokehold with its arm, knocked it out and then went back to work.

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More or less just went "I'm a healer, but..."

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-A Ratfolk (enemy civ mod) snatcher snuck up on some pups who were outside the fort walls.

"Snatcher! Protect the children!"

I quickly pan over:

The snatcher is sprinting away.

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Turns out four-five children saw one snatcher and decided they liked their odds.

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If I remember correctly, that fight turned out with the kids catching up and punching it into the floor for several minutes before the military showed up to finish the job.

gaunt beacon
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Alas, for my best story I have no pictures or videos, so you'll have to take my word for it.
So. For some inexplicable reason, Emu's have utterly despised me in every game I've done. Doesn't matter what race; Dwarf, Nillian, Hobgoblin, they just can't stand my peoples existence lol. For the most part this has been fine, as I have proven my superiority to the Australians and won every conflict.
Except for one time when an Emu managed to somehow drown one of my Pups, and when the corpse couldn't be retrieved the mother went mad due to having to deal with the rotting corpse of their child, started to attack random people, and triggered a full blown loyalty cascade that killed everyone.
That was pretty good lol.

hard temple
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Oh, good lord. I've had a similar issue with yaks, of all things.
The local yak population usually has a more devastating effect on my forts than the actual invaders.

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Good to hear tantrum cascades still happen, my forts have been pretty happy and I've been getting worried I overtuned them. 🤣

gaunt beacon
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xD

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Nah don't worry it's all good :)

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Oh, as a side note btw, I have no idea if you intentionally did this but I've noticed that the majority of Hobgoblins HATE purring maggots. Like 50% I would say. Idk if this is just coincidence, but it is pretty funny lol.

hard temple
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😯

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I'm... almost certain it's a coincidence. I might take a look sometime, but now that you mention it, I've seen that a few times, too.

gaunt beacon
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Probably is lol. Still, if for some reason it is something that actually happens, please leave it in its so funny xD

hard temple
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I can only wonder why they'd hate them, because having a reason is almost even funnier.

gaunt beacon
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Yeah lol

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Oh right, one last thing, this one I almost certainly think is coincidence, but in all my playthroughs with hobs I have never seen a single hobgoblin civilization at war with...anyone. Probably just me though lol

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If you plan on continuing to update the mod, perhaps make it so there's a higher chance of hobgoblin civilizations to be at war with other nations? Just a thought, I think it'd be interesting. (I'm the kind of person who enjoys a challenge lol)\

onyx nymph
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This is going to be a good channel, I can tell

gaunt beacon
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Evening!

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All credit goes to Shep, of course lol

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I'm just a guy here xD

dire viper
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love it

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Right now, not doing to much, only have a small village of 54 hobgoblins, but whole thing i have going, goat farming village\

onyx nymph
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I play vanilla DF, so far

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But I think I might try this out for my next fort!

dire viper
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a lot of fun

onyx nymph
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I'm only on my second, after poor planning on my first annoyed me too much, lol

dire viper
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well how are you liking it so far? the game?

onyx nymph
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I'm mildly obsessed

hard temple
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If you do, let me know how it goes! I hope they feel distinct enough from dwarves. It sounds like they've been pretty feisty!

onyx nymph
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It is, for me, on the same level as the board game Root, which is high praise indeed, lol

onyx nymph
hard temple
hard temple
onyx nymph
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Oh maybe that's much better then

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My dwarves running away is driving me crazy

gaunt beacon
hard temple
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They won't always win, of course, especially if the wildlife is on a rampage, but it looks like they prefer "fight" over flight", haha

gaunt beacon
onyx nymph
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I mean we're all here, and then in a mod channel, lol

dire viper
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Had a hobgoblin punch a ogre to death

hard temple
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I like to picture it that, especially if they're a craftsman gathering materials, they're usually more annoyed that something is interrupting them than afraid, haha

gaunt beacon
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I wish Dwarf Fortress was multiplayer lol

dire viper
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He headbutted it then straggled it

hard temple
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"I had this whole train of thought going. Get out of my way, this is important."

gaunt beacon
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And also that this discord had vc's, confused as to why not lol

hard temple
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entire civ of grumpy engineers

dire viper
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but right now, is a hobby, who has been training all my war dogs, so i just nicknamed him The Houndmaster

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New husband to PortalPlate's

hard temple
onyx nymph
gaunt beacon
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Yeah true.

onyx nymph
hard temple
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What a family

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Is Portalplate your fort's Champion? They seem like it with all of the cool art, haha

gaunt beacon
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I like to play with many races, and so far I've really wanted to have an alliance between Hobgoblins and Nillians, even if its just make believe in my head lol. Idk, if you think about it, wouldn't they be drawn towards each other? Their origins could not be more different - Hobgoblins originated from Goblins, unnatural beings from deep beneath the earth, while Nillians were originally Elves, creatures who are arguably the most in tune with the world. And yet, they've come closer together really. By leaving the goblins behind Hobgoblins have become more connected to this world, and Nillians in contrast are now less natural, less in tune. Their origins are different, but where they are now is rather close really. Plus, I'd imagine both would receive a bit of prejudice, Hobgoblins due to their Goblin ancestry, and Nillains for being descendants of those god-fosaken tree people.
...Idk, something I've been thinking about xD

hard temple
gaunt beacon
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I guess its a mystery for the ages lol

dire viper
dire viper
hard temple
gaunt beacon
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Mhm

hard temple
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something something "The material is beautiful!" versus "look at the ANGLES on this bad boy. Uzor, grab a level and come over here I wanna measure this"

gaunt beacon
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Yeah xD

onyx nymph
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Lol!

gaunt beacon
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Is it weird btw that when making a fort, I try to come up with like a story for it, one usually not related to the game? For example currently I have a few hobs in a Joyous Wilds desert, extremely close to an absurd amount of goblins. I mostly did this for the challenge, but in my head I like to think the hobgoblins chose to live here to defend the region against the goblins, a last bastion of the Joyous Wilds. They do this to prove that they aren't their ancestors, and that they've changed.

onyx nymph
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Nahhh

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DF has a lot of storytelling to it

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My first fort didn't have an origin story for it, but it did for the first FB I had

hard temple
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It's a lot of fun, honestly! Coming up with our own stories and motivations can make things way more interesting, and help lead us to more engaging goals than "uh, survive".

onyx nymph
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Yeah!

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Although I'm starting off with "figure out what's happening here"

gaunt beacon
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Lol yeah

hard temple
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oh sick

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gaunt beacon
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Ooh, nice!

gaunt beacon
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Oh btw, I was definitely wrong about the war thing, as recently I had a Hobgoblin Civ at war with some Stella Elves. Sorry about that!

hard temple
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So, here's a hobstory from Osokasne, Crowlight:

We're in a fairly contested area - dwarves, elves, nillians, ratfolk, nagas... possibly gnolls or goblins? Our contact has been surprisingly limited. But most certainly, a dark tower on the far side of the mountain range we call our home.

And, in the second year of our founding... they finally found us.

First, it was a couple of scouts. Months later... a small invading force of a dozen or so.

A hob caught outside - our original militia commander - stood no chance against their strongest warrior, an undead naga. But we were able to safely usher the pups inside from the fields.

Quickly, we closed up all the gates as they began the siege, slaughtering our entire defense crew of horned war turtles. As it drew on, we tunneled into our pasture-barns and converted parts of them into aboveground farms, as the crop fields beyond our gate were now very unsafe.

The siege lasted half a year. We couldn't go outside. Our fuel supplies ran low, though our scattered cage traps in the fields to deal with wildlife caught a few of them. The deadly naga actually snuck into our waterway - the channel we used to fill our cistern.

But that time... we spent preparing.

Hidden away from the world, we began to forge iron, then steel, then armor and weapons - and our meager military trained.

Still shrouded in blizzards, when the new year began, the gates opened, and the hobgoblins charged.

Two of our own fell, but in turn, the rest of the invaders were mangled beyond reanimation or captured.

The second of those two fell when we realized the naga had managed to slip through our floodgates, and despite surrounding our wells, it pulled a crossbowman into the water.

But, now... here we are, stronger and wiser. We survived. And we dealt with an ambush of ratfolk, too.

hard temple
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Further update: We were under siege from a necromancer... for like, one frame. Then they left.

Then they came back with their army... of two freshly-raised capybara skeletons.

Then one of those wandered into a cage trap while my military was gathering by the gate.

Seeing that their mighty military was suddenly halved, the necromancer fled.

...So there's that.

dire viper
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Love it

gaunt beacon
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Can’t wait to read it! Have to finish up some schoolwork right now, but I’ll give it a look as soon as I can!

hard temple
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The necromancer returned again way later. They walked in, saw a mangled zombie skeleton in the grass, then turned around and left again.

In his personality:
"He doesn't stick with things if even minor difficulties arise. He cracks easily under pressure."

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Their minions seem... far more threatening than they are.

gaunt beacon
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xD

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Just read through it all, very interesting!

gaunt beacon
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In what is my probably my most successful fortress yet (Which is run by Hobgoblins, yay!) quite a few...peculiar things have already happened lol.
-Got attacked by a were-hyena wielding a an artifact bronze hammer, but he died instantly lol
-Grossly underestimated a webspitting forgotten beast, and watched in horror as it slaughtered eight of my military, all of whom were legendary warriors and armed to the teeth in steel gear
-Have achieved such a degree of wealth that I have not only expanded out onto the surface, I am building a massive outer wall entirely out of silver bars. Won't do much against a dragon, but will look very cool. Also working on a tower as well.
-Was visited by an Erinys "Sage"...only she was completely naked and running around babbling lol
-Acquired a necromancer tome on a raid, and so far three people have read it without anything happening...somehow?
-Was invaded by some goblins, they were dealt with in seconds
-Was also invaded by a single undead dwarf. Not really sure why, they also died fairly quickly lol.
-The fort is located in an Untamed Wilds region, near hostile goblins and a necromancer tower, intentionally as I enjoy higher difficulty. However I have been forced to declare war on all of nature, as agitated animals keep attacking me. To make my intentions clear I had a masterwork steel statue of a hobgoblin butchering goblins, giant sparrows, deer, ravens, amphibian men, giant hamsters, and an undead dwarf. I've placed the statue in front of my golden gates, so its the first thing anyone sees when they enter.

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Oh, I named the fort "Shaderevere", since its in the shadow of a volcano. In my mind they see the volcano as a protective guardian, since it hides them from the dangers of the world (Goblins, necromancers, etc). Until recently, anyways.

hard temple
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Hobgoblin infant sprites are going to be pretty low on my priority list for awhile, life's been pretty busy.
I'll update the mod when I get the chance.

gaunt beacon
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No worries!

hard temple
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Oh, I haven't even really had a chance to play. TIL there aren't even dwarf/human infant sprites to even base code off of yet anyways. Nothing to worry about yet, then. hellmo

hard temple
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Hello! Been awhile. Sorry, I've been pretty busy and have been working on other projects.
I have a small balance patch in the works, I just haven't gotten around to playtesting it. Mostly:
-Fixes the fact that hobgoblins won't enter rage in combat like they're supposed to.
-Slight nerfs to physical capabilties and stress vulnerability, both to compensate for rage, and in response to feedback.

I want hobs to be pretty reliable on average, but still have a potential for the spark of drama. Forts that go too perfectly sometimes aren't as fun, you know? It's nice to have memorable events.