With October (too rapidly) approaching, I thought it might be helpful to post an update on this project. For the sake of those who are interested, the next seasonal race (which also involves a class) is the Goblin Raider. The Raider class is something of a Berserker/Thief hybrid... but with bows... and mounts. I have in mind a future expansion for the Goblin into the Artificer sub-class of the future Enchanter class, but Raiders seem like a reasonable introduction. Goblins will have the ability to choose between being part of the Clan, or being outside the Clan (and thus being able to join a cabal). Being the lesser cousins of Orcs, they face a unique obstacle in that they can only rank to level 40. A similar restriction will be placed on Witch Doctors, should we decide to move forward with that class for Orcs and Goblins alike.¹

Mounts, it turns out, involve a lot of tedious work. Dissertations, likewise, involve a lot of tedious work. Between the two, the latter has devoured the lion's share of my time. Since I'm the only one working on the Goblin Raider code, this means we're taking a scheduling hit--unless we open up the race/class without mounts and then open that up later. So the release date is still TBA.

On a more positive note, I invite players to submit ideas for a unique Goblin skill that they feel would be great for a Raider to have. I would be happy to incorporate the best idea(s?) into the release if possible. Extra consideration will be given to skills that particularly complement the skill set of Orcs (and thus encourage their cooperative efforts).


¹ Witch Doctors have been on the drawing board for many, many years. I would eventually like to see them implemented, but again, resources are an issue.

They won't ingest, I'm assuming, but it fits the 'raider' idea, and makes a class other than bedouin have stash, which is an interesting skill, but so niche as to be nearly unused, at least for me.

Ow! My ovaries!

Something like slave catcher / tender. Basically the goblin would keep the slave from running off if the orc was asleep or fled until they both fled or some such. Would definitely encourage orc/goblin cohesion on that alone.

Would add a morale boost, and maybe an edge could allow other sorts of effects from it, maybe dependant on the race of the corpse. They would be bound tighter to orcs this way, because there would be some quid pro quo between them over the raw material vs finished product.

Goblins vs wild..

Think outlander could be an option cabal wise?
(I understand probably up to outtie Imms)

But I am not really up on goblin lore as far as creation, etc..

But I don't necessarily see them as more defiling then any
other reaver..

Or do you just think about cool stuff to put in CF all day?

These are awesome by the way. Though I can't even conceive of the mount code not taking FOREVER. Good luck?

Also, if you are taking advice for goblin skills/abilities, I'll throw a few out.

'PATHETIC WHIMPER'
Using the natural pathetic state of a tiny goblin that is over-matched in combat, a raider who uses this skill will find himself NOT auto-attacked by NPC's that would normally attack adventurers. Finding the raider to be particularly weak, these NPC's will find destroying the raider in combat to be a waste of their time.

Skill given at level 10. Works on a sliding scale (works as a function of current hp ie if hp < 300 skill fires). Certain mobs (dragons and the like) aren't affected.

Basically, a skill that is the opposite of a skill like bully yet similar.


'GNAW'
Goblins are known to be a barbaric, vicious culture. In battles between goblins to prove strength, raiders have been known to actually bite their opponents to cause grievous wounds. A goblin using this ability on someone wearing a lot of metal armor will find themselves in a bit of pain though.

Skill given at level 25. In combat skill, lags 3 rounds for success, 2 rounds for miss. If skill lands, has 3 possible effects (that opponent can save against...maybe make the save CON based?).

Effects:

Gnaw lands, but saves are made - Straight damage
Gnaw lands, first save is misssed/criteria is met - Gain a tiny bit of health (like energy drain health), + morale, - morale on opponent
Gnaw lands, no saves made/all criteria met - Chance to poison/disease opponent, cause arterial hemorrage bleeding, small - str/dex affect (like -3/-3 at 40)

If raider attempts GNAW on a character with primarily metal armor will take damage from gnaw success (like a missed grappleweapon or something; also, damage from gnaw on opponent will be halved)

Damage on sliding scale based on skill and size v opponent size. Can hit up to ***DEMOLISHES*** on a reduced gnome with no protections (conversely, damage is max MUTILATES on an enlarged giant with no protections.


'BLOOD DANCE'
When a goblin raider is known to defeat a foe, there has been rising evidence that the raider will then spread the cooling blood of his victim all over his armor and body. Hooting wildly in the gutteral language of goblinkind and dancing wildly over their fallen foe, these raiders are known to seem more fiercesome and able to inspire more courage other goblins.

Skill given at 33. Most have PC corpse. Gives a combination of Warcry/Warpaint-type affects (-svspell, +hit/dam, -morale on opponents). Also gives +morale, enrage-like affect on any goblins/orcs in group at time of Blood Dance for a time (like 6hrs at 40).

I suppose I could come up with more but you have enough work already

Ubi est mors victoria tua--ubi est mors stimulus tuus?

Vigilate state in fide viriliter agite et confortamini.

Oh, and Εγώ ποτέ δεν κοιμούνται για ύπνο είναι ξάδερφος του θανάτου.

How does this play into Empire, can they join Empire? And if so, which sect do they fit in to?

That is a good question! I'll have to see what the imperial Immortals think of this.

using the momentum of his mount, a goblin can throw himself toward his enemy, rolling upon the ground in hopes of either breaking his opponent's ankle or knocking him to the ground

while mounted, a goblin can rush at great speed and propel himself from his mount, striking one of his opponents and knocking them both back and into an adjacent room, separate from the party (or both parties). only used outdoors, similar to rush skill or orcs

goblin propels himself past the defenses of foes larger than him, squarely planting the crown of his head in the crotch area of his opponent. a damaging attack regardless of gender but especially painful to males. causes myopia, disorientation, inability to attack (similar to sword cross skill), and may even cause vomiting in extreme cases

Let the goblin raiders join the chieftain's horde and temporarily make the upper end of their PK range to match the orcs.

That might be interesting with Overrun. Would a non-40th level Goblin actually do this I wonder? (And to what benefit?)

>That might be interesting with Overrun. Would a non-40th
>level Goblin actually do this I wonder? (And to what
>benefit?)

Sure, you're going to get rolled against a lot of characters, but I'd take the opportunity to dirt kick, disarm and get kicked around by heros in the 30s. Not so much in the 20s.

I read the helpfiles for both raider and goblin but wondered if you could provide insights into possible roles and backstories for goblins. Where do they fit in the CF world, why are they seldom seen/seasonal etc.? Just blabber about what goblins are all about and what they do and how they interact, if you would.

Orcs aren't resist poison, which the goblin helpfile sort of implies might be the case. It should be of course, but last time I checked they don't get the pure resist that gnome and dwarves get.

Regarding race relations: in the taxonomy of races Goblins are probably most competitive with (and thus most malevolent toward) Dwarves and Gnomes--races which they see as similar but in some ways superior. Dwarves are skilled at metalcrafting and mining, have overall thrived on those efforts, and are skilled in battle. Gnomes, while weaker than Dwarves on the combat scale, have become quite successful in magical endeavors and in craftwork of different kinds. In the same way that Humans view giant races as "other" and generally feel more passionately (good or bad) about more similar races, Goblins have nursed their enmity toward Dwarves and Gnomes.

They are seldom seen because most Goblins live at level 5 or lower. Few have the skill or aspiration to rise above the fodder and enter into the world of combat and adventure shared by the more influential races of Thera. (That said, if the experiment works well, they could just become a fixture in the Clan and Goblin Village rather than a seasonal race.)

Shover:
A goblin not taking blows can shove either an orc or his opponent from behind. If succesful, the two collide, causing each a round of lag and an opportunity for savage feeding to fire.

These could be edges or passive skills

Escape accomplice:
On a failed fallback by a grouped orc the goblin seizes takes advantage of the agressor's distraction to deliver an attack. This is an unpredictable skill that can deal damage, apply lag or small maladictions. An optional edge gives this skill the chance to make an otherwise failed fallback work, with the goblin in front (essentially a rescue on failed fallback)

Slavemaster's helper:
The goblin help an orc with its attempts enslave other creatures. This increases the maximum level of mob the orc can enslave, and reduces the opportunities for the slave to escape.

Spinebroken sadness
Goblins are known for demoralizing a spinebroken foe with taunts, posturing and doing gross things.

Wretched Flatulance
So goblins and orcs are relatively filthy creatures. How about an ability that makes a cloud of stink in a room. Passing through the cloud essentially nails people with the Stink affect from skunks (faerie fire with scan penalty) and maybe causes puking while they are in the cloud. Give it a short duration as a cloud and a timer on re-use. This could be huge in helping defend orcs/goblins from those rangers always sitting outside the village. It might make more sense to have something like this as part of a witchdoctor skill set though as well and make it magical stink instead of doo doo butter based.

Play Dead
Goblins are basically the runts of the orc village and its a cruel cruel world out there. They often survive by laying low. A goblin can play dead which makes them look like a corpse, takes them off of where and who pk and people can look at them as a corpse. If anyone tries to take anything from "the corpse" it breaks the ruse and if the goblin uses any commands at all it breaks the ruse.

Grapple prog --

The goblin has a chance to, when an orc uses grappleweapon: auto-pick up the disarmed weapon (similar to strip by a whip spec), attempt a disarm on the other weapon slot of the enemy (based on goblin's disarm skill or something), or break the enemy's weapon by stomping on it as it hits the ground (add the broken flag similar to weaponbreaker).



Fieldgoal: if a shigru PUNTS a goblin while the goblin is in combat with someone - the goblin is sent FLYING at his currently aimed-at target - Causing damage/savage feeding/lag something like that. But basically it lets goblins be punted at enemies, so both the goblin AND the enemy take damage. Why this one? Because it's punting a goblin at someone, and that is the meaning of life.


Goblins who hear an orc's warshout are pushed into a frenzy - Gaining a few bonus hits that round and maybe some +dam +morale stuff.



If a goblin is following a rushing Shig-ru - they have a chance to leap on the rushed enemy with their mount, causing additional lag/damage.


Goblins could have an improved track prey - maybe one closer to the Ranger skill, given that their mounts could perhaps sniff an enemy out?


I like the idea of goblins having some bleeding-causing skills that mesh up with orc things, but I'm not sure exactly on what. Like, say, during an Orc doing X they dash in and they, or their mount, bites the enemy's legs.


Goblins, if with a bow, could perhaps have something similar to the orcish "pin" skill on a successful bash - where they get a bowshot in that could do some minor assorted effects dependent on where on the body it hits.


Man I could do this all day.
And all day they'd be bad.




Obviously they could tie into the rare-used overrun skill, because that'd be awesome. Maybe a goblin in a group could make the crushingassault skill work like a mini-overrun or something so the idea is more prevalent.

PS: mount idea is awesome

Perhaps like the assassin darts, let the goblins create a crude potion of different types: healing, movement regen, cure malediction. Every potion has a random unintended malediction included and the benefit of the potion increases with skill/level. Perhaps it could be a racial skill that has a timer on it.

This might be better geared toward the Goblin version of the Artificer (though brewing is under the Alchemist sub-class). I like that addition of unintended maledictions--Goblins never do pay attention in Chemistry classes.

When grouped with an orc and the orc spinebreaks and enemy you jump on their back to add extra excrutiating damage to the enemy.

nt

Gratias tibi iterum ago.

The quality of your work is always so amazing. Thank your for adding this new spice to the CF stew.


I like Tacs idea for a mount call.

I could see them riding a dire wolf and find a restriction like, no swimming. Or give them the skill 'Wolf Call' at like level 35 which could give them a level 35 NPC that fights with them. It would be neat to not give Goblins trip, but have the NPC do random trips?(just thinking about Pine forest dire wolves)And then at level 40 give them mount where they can ride the wolf AND the goblin can make the wolf trip. Something else could be to have the wolf or mount die first before the goblin takes direct damage in melee other than riposte depending on wields. So, an invokers pillar would be a goblin mount bane.


I love this idea for the race:class addition. Thank you!

Mounts impact combat a lot, which is one reason it is so time consuming to implement. For example: currently, you cannot trip someone riding a mount, but you could (with difficulty) trip the mount; or, someone riding a mount can't pick items up off the ground without first dismounting (and doesn't this make disarming someone interesting); etc.

~

Enchanters and artificers, SO many role options burning through my head as I just hear those two classes mentioned! *DROOL*

And goblins, sounds awesome! Wish I was a coder so I could offer you some help with stuff.

Always shoot first and then call whatever you hit the target.

Yea I tend to agree not only the time you all put into the game but then to take time to answer these questions or ask for our input is a really nice touch!

The skill set for Enchanters (the two sub-classes are Artificers and Alchemists) has been slowly growing for years now. The design does, unfortunately, have a lot of underlying substructure. To give you an idea of how long it's been floating around in a state of partial completion, Valguarnera coded parts of it.

Feedback should probably be moved to gameplay to keep announcements clean. Just a suggestion.

Raiders (mounted combatats):

I've often thought this would make a great 5th orc adapt and even had some skill type thoughts for it. I'm going to put them here and you can use what you wish for Goblin Raiders.

Call Mount: Calls a mount. Dire wolf/War pig/Imagination. Might depend on terrain what you get. Mount initial level is Raider level x skill %.

Feed Mount: Used on PC corpse gives mount the veteran of battles effect, allowing it to grow beyond initial level. Carry's on over logout? Mount death resets.

Bonus to Ranged(ish) weapons: Obviously this fits with bow, but I was originally just envisioning spears and polearms. Allows you to make good use of pin. Chance for mount to cheap shot/trample. Bonus to charge/drive. Savage feed based on mount (bashing done with mount really, the rider can't get his mouth there.)

Mount Death: Big -morale (like bear), and crushing damage as mount falls on rider. Boneshatter-ish effect.

Ride: Ride in a direction quickly (shifter run-ish), potentially with some ability to combine with a target for a ride + charge combo. Lower mv cost. Inabilty to fly while mounted, but mounts are harder to trip/bash.

Attacks: Mounts do some basic attacks while riding (1 per round) and maybe 2 if you aren't riding them. Mount's can't rescue while riding, but targeting rider vs. mount is difficult and you will generally hit both sort of randomly.

Protection from environmental cold: Wolf keeps you warm. War pig?

Clan collaboration:

Bonuses for holding cabal items (give you a reason to action... you know, raid). Some thoughts on what those could be off the top of my head...

Fort: Resist light or remove light vuln.
Battle: 10 - 20% dam redux?
Scion: +200 hp
Empire: Disciple (orc guards behave more like Centurions, blocking people from entering clan village)
Tribunal: Extortion: Mafia payoff money going to logged in orcs.
Nexus: Some of the vanguard protect against big damage goodness or prot vs. good or something?

Other reasons to join Clan vs. join cabal... Not coming up with much here.

Specifically goblin skills:

SmellPrey: Some ability to sniff out PCs nearby. Think where from the skys, but with a return that lists maybe PC race and number of them nearby instead of actual names. Orcs don't care what elf it is nearby, just that there is one.

Bow cheat shot: Shooting an enemy that's been tripped or bashed seems to fit in with orc skills nicely. Probably not added lag, but purely damage like pin, but from a goblin that isn't tanking.

Distract/Circle (but with a bow): Some ability to circle an enemy (on your mount) and sending distracting bow shots to keep them from attack with as much efficiency as usual against their target. Something feint-ish or damage-ish. Like existing circle options + maybe something specifically to counteract swing or whatever it is called when an NPC/PC (AP) attacks all that are fighting it.

Set Snares: Ability to use the good versions of orc set snare and set them in wider variety of terrain. Lower timer on setting them/resetting them?

War Drums: Something to inspire goblin and orc alike. Personally I'd rather see a half-orc class of warsingers that are bard-ish, but I'm throwing it out there for you to do with what you wish.

All I got for the moment. I'm sure there are more ideas bouncing around the skull that will find their way to the surface again as this news reaches into the cobwebby corners of my mind over the next few days.

Call Mount: Calls a mount.

The current implementation involves the Ululation skill; Goblins can call two types of mounts, depending on where they are.

Heh. did you get my pray a couple months ago, where a character I had accidentally used this skill?

Very neat

Things occasionally creep out, don't they. At least you didn't call the Arachnarok and take out Galadon.

How about mug? Automatic skill that when you bash someone, there's a small possibility that they grab something out of your inventory.

Goblins don't Bash, BUT, I like the general idea.

~

They would get bonuses to combat when with a mob/group, much like felar group attacks, but for any groupmates they're with. Attributes to the mob mentality.

Construct - Kind of like a shapeshifter form or druid form, but it's a mechanical construct and takes time to build. Different constructs have different qualities. Defensive construct would be like a defense form, offense, etc. Success of the construction (or the "tier" if you will") would be level, skill, and stat dependant, so you could get different tiered defensive constructs or offensive constructs. This would scale the skill somewhat like shapeshift, and speed of construction could be %skill based. This could be a choice you make at the beginning of the goblin's creation (like a shapefocus) but you can only pick one, and it's perma.

SUICIDE BOMBER. Massive massive damage (to both) with a chance to fail that leaves you dead or at the mercy of your opponent for a long lag time. checks con like a leader when used, has to be prepped before hand. Sort of like the bracers of retribution, but can be detonated when you think you're gonna lose and want to take the sucker with you. Would put you to 0% health (if you're in perfect health, otherwise you'd just die) and three ticks where you'd be incapacitated with a small chance of surviving.

TINKER - tinkering with pieces of armor allows them to be improved or modified. This could have small effects like a 0 tick blind because the goblin put a shard of mirror on his breastplate, small bleeding effect because he put spikes on his armor, reinforced for +ac+hp. Tinkering would be a once only per piece of armor with a dwarf forge like timer and the possibility that your tinkering will do nothing at all and prevent further tinkering. These items would be able to be worn by anyone, so the flag would stay even if it was looted from the goblin. Item would show up like:

<worn on body> a black breastplate (spiked)
<worn on head> a midnight dragon skull (mirrored)
<worn around wrist> a charred leather bracer (reinforced)

This touches on the type of skills I would imagine a Goblin Artificer having (rather than the Raider). For example, you may have noticed some of the Artificer constructs-in-progress located in laboratories in Thera.

but it sounds like I need to. Now I just want to wait to play an Artificer!!

How about since they are going to use bows and be a thief ranger type combo giving them an area ambush just putting it on a timer like a half day type deal. I mean really a bow is the most ranged weapon in the game but it really has no benefits of a real bow and i think being able to ambush from anywhere in the same area or a similiar skill would be nice.

an echo something like "You line up a perfect shot and close in on your target as he recovers from his wound."

I am hesitant to make a Raider's archery skills better than those of Rangers.

Yeah that is understandable i think i posted the same thing about hunters for Santa Zulg. I would like to see that looked at and maybe implemented for hunters, because i really like the hunter class and its almost deer season! I think it adds a viable kill sealing ability for hunters and brings a different dynamic to the class all together, but i understanding not making a seasonal race/class more awesome than an existing.

How will the level cap for goblins work vis-a-vis distention?

Will there be a goblin chief or subchief similar, or will they be equal?

How will the level cap for goblins work vis-a-vis distention?

The two most viable options seem to be: (1) let distention do its work as normal, such that a successfully PKing Goblin will eventually fight more powerful opponents; or Nreykre's idea to (2) give Goblins an edge that allows them to up their PK range if they so choose (e.g., to enter cabal fights with heroes). I see advantages to both.

Will there be a goblin chief or subchief similar, or will they be equal?

From HELP GOBLIN: "they can join an Orc Clan, but they cannot rule". Currently there is nothing in place for them to be any kind of chief, though I could see the advantage of something like that for Goblins living in the Goblin Village.