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[Xen0n]

Apologies if this already exists; couldn't find it on the forums, devlog or votelist. 

Basically 90% of my hassles with my military (once I understood it and got it up and running) can be traced to the "Pickup Equipment" task.  Either they haven't done it when I expected to already, or they wait to do it at the worst moment.  Even using the 'Station' trick to get them to pick up their uniform doesn't prevent my marksdwarves from deciding, midbattle, that the -leather armor- a goblin just dropped is better than their current set, and they run outside to get it. 

It seems currently the militia is very lackadaisical is equipping / upgrading their uniform, until you issue a squad order, when they suddenly decide it's the most important thing in the world.  Typically when I issue a move / kill order, it's because there is something there that needs to be dealt with right now.  I don't care if they have +Copper leggings+ while *Copper leggings* are in the stockpile, there's a troll in the dungeon!

I'm not sure how big a problem this is for other people, but it seems every other siege I'll notice a lone figure running out of the fort to upgrade to a better iron gauntlet left laying outside or something.  It may happen more often since all my uniforms accept Partial Matches, but trying to be more specific is endlessly slow.  The closest my fort came to !FUN! was all started when 2 recruits broke rank to go grab some cloaks outside during a siege.

So my suggestion would be to make "Pickup Equipment" an option of "Pickup Equpiment at will" / "Pickup Equipment when told" on the schedule screen, like sleeping is.  Then add a "Update/Pickup Equipment" command to the squad screen.  So, if you wanted, you could have your militia set to keep whatever they are currently wearing, until you issue the "Pickup Equipment" command, then they check to see if their uniform matches what they're wearing, and whether there is any available armor to go get.  Or leave it at default as "Pickup Equipment at will."  Basically a way to control when they do or don't choose to update their uniform, so it doesn't happen too late / when you least expect. 

[Di]

Quite good and laconic suggestion. However I've never encountered such problem myself, and Toady might probably decide to complete more urgent things first, even if this doesn't seem to require much coding.
There are some workarounds with your problem, though:
1. Those soldiers who are active when equipment becomes available set off to upgrade immediately. So if you have them training in barraks they should be geared up by the time of fight.
2. Set all combat related items to be forbidden on death via "O"ptions menu.

[Xen0n]

Quite good and laconic suggestion. However I've never encountered such problem myself, and Toady might probably decide to complete more urgent things first, even if this doesn't seem to require much coding.
There are some workarounds with your problem, though:
1. Those soldiers who are active when equipment becomes available set off to upgrade immediately. So if you have them training in barraks they should be geared up by the time of fight.
2. Set all combat related items to be forbidden on death via "O"ptions menu.

Yeah, I definitely understand that given the grand scope of this game, there is a lot of ground to cover for new features, not to mention any pressing tweaks and edits, especially if this is an issue that not a lot of people have had any problems with.

1. Hmm perhaps because my squads have a 'time off' month every few months, they aren't properly upgrading?  (I keep uniforms set to replace clothes and wear while inactive.  I can't even begin to imagine the logistical nightmare of having those 2 options set otherwise!)  Every once in a while I'll notice someone upgrading, but usually I just issue 'move' commands from time to time now in order to get them to upgrade.  If it's been a while since the last command, or I made some more armor or edited the uniforms recently, usually this results in everyone getting the "pickup equipment job" immediately upon issuing the move command.  If a siege hits and I haven't given a 'move' command in a while, though... better hope they can suit up quickly!

2. Yeah I have the 'forbid death items' set in "O"ptions, is there a separate one for comabt items?  Often though it's items that I unforbid from the siege 2 years ago that hasn't been hauled yet or some other result of my rampant messiness.  Manually mass forbidding the outdoors whenever a siege hits usually works in keeping them from running outside, but can get bothersome. 

Thanks for the tips!

[fractalman]

BUMP!
only reason I haven't run into this very often myself...is that I use "no uniform" and rely on cage traps and quick wall-building to do the heavy lifting...specifically to avoid this issue. 

[Matoro]

I haven't ever met that problem, even I use completely militia-based defences. Just keeping soldiers active and in training most of time should do the job. Does your soldiers spar normally?

[Deepblade]

This seems like a pretty good idea. Even for upgrading armor too. Maybe I wanna melt that expertly crafted armor back down until I get masterwork.
Though, once you get an Armor smith that produces quality work this issue largely goes away.