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[Shiv]

How do I keep my military sane?  I lose just as many to going insane as I do to the undead/goblins/dodging off ledges.  I know at a certain point the legendary soldiers take joy in being called to battle, but the lesser ones don't live that long, and thus go insane, and as a result can't live that long.  I've built statues in the barracks but that's evidently not enough. 

[Catsup]

shell shock for dwarves. You need more happy thoughts and perhaps less non-combat related unhappy thoughts for your military.

try giving your best rooms to the military, keep prepared foods near the barracks and a semi-automatic mist generator near the barracks as well. Also try to remove dwarves with specific dislikes for common vermin from your military (preferably from life too, using a smasher room). Remove all your military dwarve's children by sending them to the smasher and perhaps their spouse too if they are legendary and are a keeper. Remember slabs for smashed dwarves or ghosts will appear and ppl will know they died.

[Xinael]

Also there is a bug whereby the bad thoughts from long patrol duties accumulate regardless of how much time not patrolling the dwarves have. Dfhack or a binary patch can fix it.

[Shiv]

Also there is a bug whereby the bad thoughts from long patrol duties accumulate regardless of how much time not patrolling the dwarves have. Dfhack or a binary patch can fix it.

How would I go about fixing this?  I've no idea what either of those things are.

[KroganElite]

Also there is a bug whereby the bad thoughts from long patrol duties accumulate regardless of how much time not patrolling the dwarves have. Dfhack or a binary patch can fix it.

This is so annoying and hope it gets patched. I set my military on permanent training/duty before I knew about the happiness. I took them out of the military for about 4 years and they're still unhappy due to a long time training. The highest they go is just content now.F7U12

[Em3rgency]

How would I go about fixing this?  I've no idea what either of those things are.

Get DFhack, a google search "Dwarf fortress dfhack" will get you there. Once properly installed, every time you launch the game, you'll get a console you can enter commands to. Some are rather cheat-y (fastdwarf 1), while others merely fix the game

[Shiv]

So it's not actually a fix, just setting their mood higher?

[smakemupagus]

No, one of the features of DFHack is that it allows use of a binary patcher that in fact actually fixes bugs, but alternatively you can download an executable that has the patches applied.

such as

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6741

these patches are community created so no guarantees etc etc

[greycat]

Some additional background: Toady often leaves bugs unfixed, because he considers the addition of new features to be a higher priority than fixing old bugs in code that he knows he will eventually rip out and replace with new code, or because he didn't have an easy way to reproduce/fix the bug, or other reasons not readily discernable.

However, some of the player base have managed to fix these bugs by disassembling and analyzing the game, and have produced fixes of their own.

There are two ways you can get these player-fixes in your game.  The first is to download a new executable that has been patched, as smakemupagus points out.  The second is to download DFHack and then either issue commands into its command-line interface, or write a dfhack.init file containing those commands so that they will be executed each time you start it up.

It's also worth mentioning that many of the major player-made "mods" have started using DFHack to implement part of their feature set.  In addition to fixing bugs, DFHack allows mod writers to do things that weren't previously possible.

[moki]

My method of keeping the military sane consists of several parts.
First, there are only male soldiers (it's easy to pick them with Dwarf Therapist), so there are no mothers who carry their children into combat and use them as shield/weapon which almost always ends deadly. Second, in the schedules I set "sleep in room at will" and assign everyone a royal bedroom, which counters all but the very worst thoughts. And third, when setting patrol/guard orders, I always set the minimum dwarves to one less than there are soldiers in the squad, so one can always rest a little while the others stand around in the rain, waiting for goblinite to occur.
When a soldier dies in battle, the others get a bad thought, because they are all friends (can't avoid that), but with all the countermeasures, the mood rarely goes below unhappy.

Also a justice system can help, though most people consider it annoying. If a particularly emotional soldiers throws a tantrum and destroys some furniture, he can go to jail for a few weeks to calm down and gather positive thoughts from great food and sublime engravings while not being able to hurt anybody. Unless he's an extremely difficult case, he'll be fine afterwards and can continue his duty. Of course, the jail must contain chains in engraved rooms with a bed, chair, table, food and drink stockpiles to get the full effect. 

[CaptainLambcake]

depends on their personality.  combat may keep them sane. good food and booze.  depending on skill level, more or less patrol time.  time with family, or a very nice room for them. 

[Id Utalrisen]

I know I would wait until my female soldiers with kids were ecstatic, then impale the kid. It's better to lose it when they're happy then during a seige when she snaps and goes on a killing spree.

One of my soldiers had about 4 or 5 kids and kept having to lose them. Weirdly, she would still be pretty happy after they were impaled on a spike in front of her, because she had a nice bedroom. :\

[weenog]

One of my soldiers had about 4 or 5 kids and kept having to lose them. Weirdly, she would still be pretty happy after they were impaled on a spike in front of her, because she had a nice bedroom. :\

"No matter. I'll wear something lacy when Urist gets home, and we'll make more."