It can be difficult to strike a balance between base-building and exploration (since base-building keeps you backtracking to one position). It might be interesting to give the goblin a mobile base, like a Romani vardo or a Baba Yaga hut, so that as the player moves further afield, they don't have quite as far to backtrack.
It could even be made a part of the general progression (like the overall need is to move your home, while the intermediate steps serve to move it to the next position). Like in the first position, your home is in danger and you need to move it, so you have to give it wheels. Then you roll to the second position, which is in a new biome with new things to get, but there's a chasm and unlike you, the base can't climb trees above or go in the mines below to avoid it, so you have to craft a bridge for it. In the third, you have to prepare it for a harsh winter, in the fourth you have to turn it into a boat, etc.
