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[CatKate]

Hey guys,

I'm reviving my question from the DF2014 Question and Answer Thread, since I fear it will be forgotten otherwise.

The initial question:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am currently hunting a Giant Slug with my crossbowmendwarves. I find it hilarious that the slug in fact can "jump away from the flying <highwood bolt> ... but to my question:

The fight is happening in the great outside, no walls, no nothing, except a few trees. My dwarves open fire while they are quite far away ... but continue to approach the thing until they are in melee range! While this is no real problem against the slug, it will be against anything that is able to strike back. Is this behaviour normal? Or how can I stop them approaching that closely? They all have bolts left in their quiver, and they are NOT doing any melee attacks, but getting so close seems not the right thing to do ...

Thanks for your input!
Cheers,
Cat
{watching a poor dwarf hauling a corpse <Giant Slug> to the butchery, moving one tile every five seconds or so ...}

The answer by pisskop:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They may not all have bolts, may have run out of bolts, or may feel they have more skill smashing things with their hammer skill than shooting.

They also may not be properly equipped (i.e. you gave them a second weapon, and they picked up that before their crossbow, causing them be be unable to fire)

---

Check their inventories, esp their quivers.  If they have bolts review their uniforms and if they dont all have bolts consider allotting more bolts for them. 

My findings:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The dwarves after combat:
#1:
Novice Marksdwarf, Adequate Discipline, Dabbling Archer, Skilled Dodger, Novice Animal Caretaker, Novice Animal Dissector, Novice Ambusher, some social skills, no melee skills. No melee weapon, one crossbow, one quiver with 17 bolts left after combat.
#2:
Novice Marksdwarf, Dabbling Discipline, Dabbling Archer, Adequate Dodger, Novice Animal Caretaker, Novice Animal Dissector, Novice Ambusher, no melee skills. No melee weapon, one crossbow (in left hand, but AFAIK that shouldn't matter), one quiver with 19 bolts left after combat.
#3:
Novice Marksdwarf, Dabbling Discipline, Dabbling Archer, Adequate Dodger, Novice Animal Caretaker, Novice Animal Dissector, Novice Ambusher, no melee skills. No melee weapon, one crossbow, one quiver with 17 bolts left after combat. Carrying her infant child into combat, but besides from being completely crackbrained dwarfish this shouldn't influence combat behaviour, should it?
#4:
Competent Marksdwarf, Novice Shield User, Novice Armor User, Novice Discipline, Novice Observer, Dabbling Archer, Novice Dodger, Novice Fish Dissector, Novice Fish Cleaner, Novice Fisherdwarf, Novice Tracker, Novice Climber. No melee weapon, one crossbow, 15 bolts left after combat.

So no hammerers at all, the only melee skills with No.#4 dwarf and these only defensives, all had bolts and none had melees weapons. Maybe some trees obscured line of sights so the dwarves felt compelled to approach with each loss of LOS?

Cheers.

Due to Frame Rate Fun I started a new fortress and am, surprisingly, again hunting a Giant Slug. Same behaviour ... :-(

Any more ideas out there?
Thank you very much for your input!
Cheers,
Cat

[PatrikLundell]

Probably not it, but there is the issue with combat and training bolts. If they have training bolts only I think they will use melee, but you indicate they did indeed fire. Personally I've given up, so they'll have to use bone or wood in combat as well (not that I've had much of that, though).