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Author Topic: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?  (Read 1618 times)

Roblakov

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Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« on: September 26, 2014, 08:22:46 am »

Every time I assign a squad of marksdwarves to train at an archery range, no matter how many targets there are, only one dwarf will ever be shooting at any given time. I read somewhere that each target must be designated as its own individual range. So I tried assigning my markdwarf squad (which has 5 dwarves in it) to 5 different targets. Then nobody trained on any of them.

How do you get a whole squad of marksdwarves training at the same time?
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shlorf

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2014, 09:15:13 am »

You will have to make sure that the rooms designated from the targets don't overlap and are big enough so the dwarf can stand at least 5(?) tiles away from it. Make sure the firing direction is set properly on each target, and that you have enough bolts assigned to your squad (via m->f) and stockpiled.
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Larix

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2014, 09:34:22 am »

Did you accidentally remove their barracks designation? All military dwarfs will stop active training if they have no barracks to do their organising in. Each target must be defined as archery range and training-enabled for the squad(s) in question, that's correct.

If you only care about archery and don't feel like your marksdwarfs need defensive/melee skills, you can de-activate them, disable their barracks assignment(x) and make sure they have no civilian labours enabled. They'll spend all their time shooting at the targets (apart from the pathologically lazy). Make sure you have a large supply of bolts, and that the squad has enough ammo allowed (30+ per dwarf).

(x) this keeps _inactive_ military from spending time on individual combat drills, but completely breaks _active_ military - the latter cannot train at all without a barracks, no matter what military profession they follow.
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Ostar

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2014, 11:57:24 am »

You will have to make sure that the rooms designated from the targets don't overlap and are big enough so the dwarf can stand at least 5(?) tiles away from it. Make sure the firing direction is set properly on each target, and that you have enough bolts assigned to your squad (via m->f) and stockpiled.

So you can't make a line of targets right next to each other, but have to spread them out like 5 tiles apart? Because the room is square when designated by default, so 5 length = 5 width...
Or is there a way around this that doesn't require spreading out the targets so wide?
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khearn

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2014, 12:26:23 pm »

I always make my archery ranges overlap and have had multiple archers shooting at once. Yeah, I'm looking at my current fort, started in 40.12 and now running in 40.13, and I have 3 targets, each 2 tiles apart in the same room, with the archers 5 tiles away from them, so they are definitely overlapping. And I have 2 archers in there right now shooting.

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But if this was a requirement, you could always dig parallel rooms, with walls in between. So your targets would be one every 2 tiles, which is how I space mine now. Only instead of walls in between, I have channels to catch bolts that miss.

I do have a barracks built from an armor stand for the squad as well. Their schedule has them set to have 2 train, 2 defend my "Walls" burrow (to spot anyone approaching and avoid cave adaptation), and the rest are free to do as they please. This is a squad of 8 archers, so 4 are free to come to the range and practice. I should expand my range so there are 4 targets available.

   Keith
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Bumber

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2014, 05:47:13 am »

You don't need space separating the targets.
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khearn

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2014, 04:32:32 pm »

I just have the space so I can have channels in between, like the gutters in a bowling alley. But just channeling along the wall behind the targets would probably work about as well.

    Keith
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Max™

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Re: Training multiple marksdwarves at once?
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2014, 09:13:53 pm »

I like to build a wall near where I want the barracks, one wall tile per range, and then extend a floor out to it from about 6 or more squares away, though I learned sadly that even if you designate the range using the floor to extend it back along to a safe square and then remove the floor, they won't use it anymore. Was hoping I could have all the arrows that don't hit the target fall instead of getting some scattered along the floor between the target and shooting position.

Amusing results from experimenting with this coincided with the machinegun xbow period so I had one dorf run up the entire length of the range and stand one square from the target, BUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDA, out of ammo, time to reload.
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