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[Footkerchief]

Basic idea: instead of creating a patrol route for a single squad, create the patrol route independently and then assign one or more squads (or no squads) to that route.  To make a guard post, create a route with only one waypoint.

This could possibly mesh well with the duty schedules mentioned in the dev log, or even simplify it.  Say you create a patrol route and assign 3 squads to that route.  You can then select one of the following options for the route:

• All squads (all 3 squads will follow the route whenever they can)
• One squad (the 3 squads will alternate patrolling)
• One dwarf (a single dwarf from any of the squads is always on duty, useful for sentry posts)

Another advantage: if you need to take a squad off patrol duty, you can do it without destroying the route and having to re-create it later.  Helpful if you create complicated routes like me.

Some examples of how you could use this:

• You want to make sure there's always a marksdwarf squad on your castle walls.  You create a patrol route and assign all of your marksdwarf squads to it, and set it to "One squad."  After a siege arrives, you change the setting to "All squads" so the walls are fully manned.
• You want to make sure the entrance is always guarded by a pair of champions.  You create two sentry posts flanking the entrance and assign both to a champion squad with the "One dwarf" setting.

That said, here's a possible problem and how to address it:  You should be able to assign a squad to multiple patrol routes.  If you have 4 guard posts, you shouldn't need 4 squads -- a single squad of 10 dwarves should be able to handle them.  But what happens if you try to assign a squad to two all-squads routes?  They can't patrol both at once.  Maybe the squad could intelligently choose the route that needs them more, or maybe the game could disallow it.

And finally, all this raises a question: what should dwarves do if they're "on duty" but aren't needed at any patrol routes?  They should train, of course!  So we need a new in-between level of "on duty" that puts dwarves on patrol and lets them train when idle.  The highest "on duty" level should be for direct squad control only -- it should disallow training and patrolling.

Thoughts?

[Duke 2.0]

 If dwarves must leave halfway through their posts(Damn, an arrow got me in the heart!), the replacement must go to the last waypoint the replaced dwarf went to, and continue the route. Thus less of a chance of enemies sneaking past patrols.

[Footkerchief]

^^^ Agreed, that makes sense.  Something else I hadn't thought of -- dwarves and squads should probably stay on station until their replacement arrives.

[Manchild]

i can see it now though....if you have an injured dwarf forced to stay on his patrol until his replacement came then would he not die?


and if healthy units are to continue their route until their replacement arrives...would that not mean that you would have a problem with the replacement chasing the on duty patrolling dwarf?

[Footkerchief]

i can see it now though....if you have an injured dwarf forced to stay on his patrol until his replacement came then would he not die?

Yeah, naturally survival instinct would have to take over.  That'd be part of the hazard of only assigning one dwarf to a patrol or post.

and if healthy units are to continue their route until their replacement arrives...would that not mean that you would have a problem with the replacement chasing the on duty patrolling dwarf?

Good call, I can definitely see that happening.  Perhaps during a changing of the guard, the patrolling dwarf/squad could wait at one of the patrol points so the replacement can rendezvous.  The game could even be smart enough to pick a rendezvous point that's as close as possible to directly between the patroller and the replacement.

[Sukasa]

Another option would be to have the dwarf automatically wait at a specific point, e.g. the first point in the route, somewhat like (Afaik) The Changing of The Guards at Buckingham Palace always occurs at the same place- the guard house.

[EverybodylovesTJ]

For the Two All Squads paths, maybe the squad could try to split itself evenly between the two. Or, an even amount of squads patrol both paths.

[Footkerchief]

For the Two All Squads paths, maybe the squad could try to split itself evenly between the two. Or, an even amount of squads patrol both paths.

Splitting the squad might be the best approach.  Otherwise you'd have to deal with this kind of situation: say you have 3 all-squads routes, each with a squad assigned only to that route, while a fourth squad is assigned to all 3 routes.  Should the fourth squad rotate among the three routes?  How often?  Stuff like that.

[Pilsu]

I'd like to be able to disable sparring though, masterwork steel doesn't really mix well with off-duty soldiers


Unrelated to patrols, a mess hall designation would be nice so they an actually get happy thoughts from eating in a nice place. That and it should be able to be used to separate off-duty soldiers from the squeamish civilians who throw a hissy fit spiral should even a handful of soldiers heroically lose their lives defending their home

[sweitx]

For the Two All Squads paths, maybe the squad could try to split itself evenly between the two. Or, an even amount of squads patrol both paths.

Splitting the squad might be the best approach.  Otherwise you'd have to deal with this kind of situation: say you have 3 all-squads routes, each with a squad assigned only to that route, while a fourth squad is assigned to all 3 routes.  Should the fourth squad rotate among the three routes?  How often?  Stuff like that.

Perhaps we should not have a choice of "All Squads".  Instead have an order at each route to try to maintain a certain number of squads on it at all time.  So when one squad leaves the route (for food, drink, or just gone off duty), the route will request another squad (preferably the most "rested" one) to start their patrol.