[D'sP] Goat Cost Comparison - Chapter 348 (Patreon)

With the bird’s situated, that left figuring out where the kobolds would go. Doyle paused and looked over the landscape. The natural place to put a settlement would be at the bottom of the mountain valley where there was the most flat ground.

Except the kobolds weren’t going to be alone. Now, if they were just going to have some goats, it wouldn’t matter. That wasn’t the case, though. The kobolds would also have Axebeaks to act as mounts

Once it all connects in his mind, Doyle realizes the only place he can put the kobolds. Halfway up the side of the valley. Why? Simple enough, really. If they’re using axebeaks as mounts, it is better to have a bit of space to pick up speed as they attack.

Plus, they’re kobolds. It isn’t like they need flat land to build a home. They aren’t humans looking to farm. They’re kobolds on a mountain, of course they’re going to dig in and mine for ore. So, as seemed to be the theme for his dungeon, Doyle decided to place some ore veins in each settlement.

More specifically, the kobold settlements would be located partly within a mostly “played out” ore vein that they’re in the process of extracting the last bits. Of course, that is just set dressing to make any attempts at invading the kobold settlements a nightmare. Would it be strange that every kobold settlement in the area was mysteriously almost out of ore to mine at the same time? Sure, but this was a dungeon so a little strangeness needed to be allowed or you’re simply feeding the delvers way too many resources.

Sure, mining the ore would make sure the resource extraction wouldn’t result in a loss. The problem instead comes from the fact that dungeons want repeat customers and not sporadic visitors. Sure, fools will always be willing to throw themselves to their death for even a possibility of strength, fame, or fortune.

With too much ore or really too much of any one resource, the value of it drops locally. So sure, a group might do a mining expedition every once in a while, but if during that trip they gather more than enough ore to last awhile? They won’t be back as often. It would be as if the cattle on floor six instead of dropping a steak or two, just left their entire body. The town can only process so much meat, even if other places would love to buy it.

Right now, there is a small group of people in town who have the timing on when the ore respawns on floor three and they strip mine the ore as soon as possible. And yes, having bigger deposits of ore deeper into the dungeon would attract people to try for it. However, it is all a balancing act and it is as if Doyle was blindfolded while attempting it.

When the ore veins were first found, Wolf’s Rest wasn’t even capable of smelting it. Though with such a ready source of ore, they quickly set up equipment to do so. Then, as more ore came in, their capacity increased in spurts. There was simply no way for Doyle to judge how much was too much, especially this deep into the dungeon, and so he could only add more with great caution.

At least, not all of the kobold settlements needed an active ore vein in it. That could be spread out through the entire floor, with which place gets the ore in any particular run being determined by chance and respawned once a day.

Happy with that plan, Doyle focuses on the actual design of the kobold settlements. They would vary in size from a handful of kobolds and a goat working a tiny vein, to a large settlement with an entire herd of goats, numerous axebeaks, and a convoluted maze of a large ore vein that had been mined out. Also, the smaller camps wouldn’t have their own smelting set up, instead using the goat to transport ore to the bigger places.

The question is how to layout the settlements? Well, not really. Doyle has an idea already. What is bothering him is the random aspect he wants to inject so people can’t just go straight to the correct settlement every time. See, he wants each “mountain” that makes up this valley to have its own kobold society, with one or two big settlements and multiple smaller ones that feed into it. Except, if he does that, then the ore becomes a lot less random.

Doyle shakes his core and refocuses. Random is nice, but randomization for the sake of being random is pointless. The current set up is fine and if it isn’t completely random, things will work as they are. Anymore would be simply wasted effort as the delvers likely wouldn’t notice in the first place, at least not consciously.

Now what mattered was figuring out how many monsters would be on the floor, so he can actually place the ore and what not. The floors spending limit is 81,480 points, of which he was going to reserve ten percent for the farm and an additional bit so that the number is even, which comes out to 8,480 points. This leaves 73,000 points to spend on the floor. Though he leaves a mental note to himself that there is 332 points spare he can dip into if needed.

Satisfied he has the numbers on that side worked out, Doyle pulls up his monster options, because even with a limited pool, there are a few variants to work with. The kobolds and the hexku are simple enough at fifty a pop. And sure, the kobold has a variant, but Doyle doesn’t exactly need a void kobold and they cost the same, anyway.

What was more interesting was the goats and axebeaks as both had variants with differing costs. For the goats, there was the standard model at 4, wooden goats at 14, and grassen goats at 25. Then the axebeaks only have the normal one for honestly quite cheap, weighing in at 60, and the much more expensive windcutter axebeaks for a whopping 900 points.

The variety axebeak was almost too expensive. Then again, when he first got them, Doyle had thought the normal axebeaks had been pricey as well and now they seemed cheap. No, the biggest problem with the windcutter axebeak was their purpose. It was clearly a variant focused on detection and being cleverer than a box of rocks rolling down a hill.

That pointed towards them being something of the pack leader. More definitely wouldn’t hurt a pack of axebeaks and you could certainly have a pack of just them. However, the best bang for your buck, at least from a dungeon core’s perspective, is to use them as the leader of a flock that isn’t under the control of something else. The kobolds don’t need a windcutter axebeak because they can guide their normal axebeaks just fine.

Doyle would only need a windcutter if he was going to have a wild flock of axebeaks, something he hasn’t decided upon yet. As for the goats? They can definitely afford the extra variety. Though the small one goat camps would be sticking with a normal goat as in his head, Doyle was designating them not only as a beast of burden, but source of milk as well.

Not to say the two variants can’t produce milk. Doyle stops as he thinks about this. He had been assuming they wouldn’t produce regular milk, which might be true, but would that matter? So, he goes and checks what the actual facts of the matter are.

Wooden goats were easy to figure out. While they do produce “milk”, it is more like plant nectar, which would make sense. While still an animal, that is more because magic is screwy and so their kids need milk formulated to help plants grow. From there, magic probably just grabbed onto nectar as the obvious choice. On the upside, it is dairy-free, as it were, but it was also very unhealthy to drink. Sort of like a flat herbal soda.

How did he know that? Well, of course Ally had to try some. And in her opinion, Doyle should place some around just so they can see what sort of booze the town comes up with.

While interesting, this wasn’t what Doyle was looking for and so turns to the actual milk made by the grassen goats. Which makes sense as they’re literally just regular goats with a special herb growing from them. Though that doesn’t mean it is regular milk.

Rather, the plants growing in the goat also have an effect on the milk as well. This seems to have two effects. It sweetens the milk a little, likely to help the newborn plants get a head start as well. Though more interesting is that it makes the milk herbal.

Ally can’t quite place the herb it tastes like, but she can tell it isn’t some average herb, like lavender or dill. Whatever the plant happens to be, is more in line with true mystical herbs. Not necessarily of the medicinal sort, but over the years, the plant’s parasitic nature has been blunted and turned at least partially beneficial to the goat. Which in turn is passed into the milk.

It was an odd drink and the closest thing Ally could compare it to was milk tea. Something Doyle had never tried while alive as tea and milk hadn’t exactly been his preferred drinks. Either way, it changes his plans for the small camps.

Instead of a normal goat, they would get a grassen goat. Sure, they lost a point of Agility compared to regular goats, but that amount was negligible. And besides, they gained in Strength and Constitution, which would make them better at hauling ore. Plus, with photosynthesis, the kobolds don’t need to let them stray too far from their camp to graze. In fact, the more Doyle thought about it, the more using them for this made sense.

That did bring up a question. Would the bigger settlements have regular goats at all? When grassen goats covered everything, what was the point of not using them? Sure, regular goats are less than a third of the price, but when the cost is so small already, it is much easier to bear. Not like the axebeaks and their variant that was clearly better, but clearly way too pricey to just replace the old ones.

Doyle put down a handful of the two goat types and watched them. There has to be a reason the grassen goat didn’t cost more. After all, they have some sort of incredible pedigree to them and everything. Some sort of downside must be hiding that Doyle simply hadn’t paid close enough attention to notice it yet.

Well, he wasn’t wrong, just that the problem wasn’t really hiding all that deep. For all the improved Strength and Constitution, the plants growing from the goat were still at least partially parasitic. Instead of those stats being focused on what most classically assigning to them, they were instead focused on keeping the goat healthy.

All that Strength? To make sure the body held together despite the roots that invaded every aspect. And the Constitution was needed as any less and the goat would soon become sickly and die. Of course, the plants wouldn’t survive this either as at this point they are too adapted to and intertwined with the goat, so much so the system doesn’t even recognize them as a separate entity.

What this means, is that the grassen goat isn’t actually all that much stronger than the regular goat. In fact, if you don’t count the highly developed camouflage skill, the regular goats give Doyle more bang for his buck. Though obviously the totality of the creature makes it worth the cost, just not as a direct replacement for the regular goats. They had their niche and their potential might be worth investing in later.

Low Hanging Clouds - Chapter 347

Finishing Fifteen - Chapter 349