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[Seraphim342]

So just started a new fort and I'm having problems getting my military off the ground.  Made a squad, 2 marksdwarves, gave them crossbows, leather armor and shields and set them to active/train with minimum of 1 dwarf training.  Firstly, they didn't turn into military dwarves for a long time, eventually got them to do so by issuing a kill order on some local wildlife.  No problem there.  However, when they ran out of bolts they immediately charged in with their featherwood crossbows until I cancelled the order. 

Next problem is getting them to train on targets.  After they killed the animal, they still refused to reload.  They'd get "Go to archery practice" job, but wouldn't move at all.  They'd just stand there in one place until they got hungry or thirsty and moved on.  I made sure hunting was disabled on them, and it was.  Made sure they had ammo assigned, it was, then removed all ammo from hunters.  No effect.  Targets were facing the right way and active, and I had plenty of spare bolts.  Setting them to inactive got them to reload and occasionally train when I turned hauling labors off, but resulted in a lot of sitting around.  Unfortunately they seem to never reload when on any schedule other than inactive.  Not so much of a problem with these two because they're fairly skilled right now, but if I start conscripting peasants the activate/deactivate spam just to get them to reload is a recipe for a tantrum spiral.  Oh, and interesting note, sometimes when I give them a kill order on wildlife they'll start shooting at it from wherever they are when I give the order if they've got a clear line of sight.  Had a giant turtle man get shot in the brain from 100+ tiles away by my militia commader with a featherwood training bolt.  Not bad for a Competent...but still broken.   

Anyone know what's causing these problems?  I've had problems with marksdwarves in previous versions, but so far this version I've not had a single problem with them up until now.

[GreatWyrmGold]

So just started a new fort and I'm having problems getting my military off the ground.  Made a squad, 2 marksdwarves, gave them crossbows, leather armor and shields and set them to active/train with minimum of 1 dwarf training.  Firstly, they didn't turn into military dwarves for a long time, eventually got them to do so by issuing a kill order on some local wildlife.  No problem there.  However, when they ran out of bolts they immediately charged in with their featherwood crossbows until I cancelled the order.

Make silver crossbows, or give them a backup melee weapon. Sure, it seems strange, but what are you gonna do, try to stop dwarven stupidity?
Or use Station and Defend Burrow commands.

Next problem is getting them to train on targets.  After they killed the animal, they still refused to reload.  They'd get "Go to archery practice" job, but wouldn't move at all.  They'd just stand there in one place until they got hungry or thirsty and moved on.  I made sure hunting was disabled on them, and it was.  Made sure they had ammo assigned, it was, then removed all ammo from hunters.  No effect.  Targets were facing the right way and active, and I had plenty of spare bolts.  Setting them to inactive got them to reload and occasionally train when I turned hauling labors off, but resulted in a lot of sitting around.  Unfortunately they seem to never reload when on any schedule other than inactive.  Not so much of a problem with these two because they're fairly skilled right now, but if I start conscripting peasants the activate/deactivate spam just to get them to reload is a recipe for a tantrum spiral.  Oh, and interesting note, sometimes when I give them a kill order on wildlife they'll start shooting at it from wherever they are when I give the order if they've got a clear line of sight.  Had a giant turtle man get shot in the brain from 100+ tiles away by my militia commader with a featherwood training bolt.  Not bad for a Competent...but still broken.   

Well, if they're not training but still kill stuff, what's the problem?

Anyone know what's causing these problems?  I've had problems with marksdwarves in previous versions, but so far this version I've not had a single problem with them up until now.

No clue. I never use marksdwarves until I start getting goblin problems, so I'm pretty much just making stuff up when I can't make a mixture of what I've heard and what is common sense.

[Seraphim342]

Using featherwood deliberately because my first marksdwarf squad's going to become the fortress guard when I get to that point.  Beatings won't injure my dwarves, but the guard will still be able to deal with any goblins they run into.  My frontline marksdwarf squads will use silver crossbows.  Also, I can't use deend burrow commands because if I set them to anything but inactive they refuse to reload. 

The problem with them being able to kill stuff but not train is that it takes much more micro-management than I'm used to or feel like tolerating.  I haven't even had a kobold show up yet so I don't have any live targets but wild animals, but even with a bunch of armored gobbos as training dummies I can see this being a real pain in the ass when it shouldn't be, especially when I get multiple squads of marksdwarves.  Furthermore, I plan on eventually getting all my non-military dwarves trained at least a little in marksdwarf and carrying crossbows all the time to give them a better chance if they get jumped or my defenses get breached.  Having to make them all reload manually each time would be a nightmare.  Plus, broken stuff needs to be fixed not just coped with in my book, no matter how minor. 

[Fredd]

Its cause you set them on ACTIVE schedule, which by default is Train every month, which requires a Training barracks so they can give demonstrations, spar, individual combat. A marksdorf is not going to spar assigned a crossbow, though they will give demonstrations on their other military skills.
 An archery target is as the name applies, a target to fire at, not an assigned barracks. Now if you assign no orders for each month on the active schedule, they seem to go to target practice more than on the Inactive schedule.

[weenog]

I say train 'em to be badass hammerdorfs, then take 'em out of the military and make them hunt until their marksdorf skills are where you want them, then disable the hunting and put them back in the military as full-time marksdorfs.

If someone dies of a beating, they probably had it coming to them.  Don't cross the fortress guard, and don't suffer nobles with silly mandates to live.