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[morilac]

(I haven't read the entirety of the details of the Army Arc, so maybe this is already covered or obsolete, but) I think the game would benefit from a Discipline Skill for Soldiers, to reflect their general ability to withstand the demands of military service and the horrors of war.

The Skill would be trained either by any other form of Barracks training (at a slower speed than the Weaponskill, probably), or by a specific, dedicated form of Barracks training, like marching back and forth.  This could be assisted by the presence of a dwarf with high Discipline, but there are certainly many ways to implement a Drill-Sergeant-like effect.

This Skill would have two main kinds of effect:
It should protect the dwarf from becoming overcome with fear on the battlefield.  A dwarf who is overcome with fear should run away from the source of fear, and possibly back into the fortress.

• It should be checked whenever the dwarf considers attacking a new foe, and be proportionate in difficulty to the fearsomeness of that monster.  This should be an easy check, so that a drafted Miner has no problem killing a Kobold with a pick; but there should be a good chance that any non-hardened Soldiers will turn and flee from that lumbering undead Megabeast.
• It should be checked whenever the dwarf is injured, or a nearby dwarf is killed.  Dwarves are couragous folk, but they should still have the potential to rout in the face of the enemy, especially when unDisciplined.
• Marksdwarves and any dwarves with ranged weapons should check for fear whenever enemies get too close.  Its one thing to be courageous from behind a fortification, and an entirely different one when theres a Troll about to smash you.  If this was a pretty hard check, it might keep the crossbow-butt-whack from being such an effective weapon, except for hardened Soldiers.

It should determine how willing the Soldier is to do things his profession demands that he doesn't want to do.

• High Discipline should keep a Soldier fairly close to his post, if his settings say he will not pursue enemies.  Low Discipline Soldiers might chase a fleeing enemy against orders, and stumble into a fresh ambush.
• Discipline should determine how long a Soldier on active duty goes Hungry or Thirsty without leaving his duty.  Novices will wander away at the first grumble in their stomach, while dwarves with Legendary Discipline might actually be in danger of dying at their post with food a few rooms away.
• Discipline might also affect how long Soldiers are willing to train for, with rookies slacking off fairly quickly, and veterans burning the midnight oil honing their skills.  The problem with this is that it would seem to make it harder to train up fresh troops, and increase the gap between good soldiers and fresh ones.

My fondness for this idea comes from its potential for memorable moments and roleplaying feel.  All the best moments in Dwarf Fortress are when things go either A) better than you could have imagined, or B) worse than you could have imagined.  This skill adds the potential for both:

• Your Legendary Champion standing his ground in the middle of the passageway to your fort, singlehandedly beating back wave after wave of cowardly Goblins despite the grumble in his stomach and the surrounding bodies of the few idiot Fortress Guardsmen who didn't run.
• Your last ditch effort to save your fortress against the Dragon ending before it begins as the 12 dwarves you drafted and gave crossbows to get off two bolts before scattering and stumbling over themselves in their hurry to flee.

One curious note about this Skill is that for half of the applications (resisting fear), being drunk should help; and for the other half (following orders), being drunk should hurt.  I don't know if Alcohol should give a bonus to one and a penalty to the other, or just be ignored.

[Neonivek]

What will the Discipline skill do for Adventurers?

[tsen]

Involuntary fear effects?

[Lear]

I think it should also do something about your soldiers running off to grab some lunch just as the goblins reach your front gates.

[Capntastic]

Seems like this would already be handled by the personality traits.

[Walliard]

I think it should also do something about your soldiers running off to grab some lunch just as the goblins reach your front gates.

This is being fixed somewhat in the next release.

[bjlong]

Some other things that we should take into consideration:

First, discipline should affect how quickly orders are "processed" and carried out--if you give an undisciplined soldier an order, he should take longer to do it than a disciplined soldier.

Second, if a soldier is needlessly endangering his/her life in a non-combat situation (i.e., starving at a guard post) the soldier should forget the order.

Third, the tendency to get fearful should be handled by the personality unless quelled by discipline.

Changes in this area should let a the following hypothetical dwarf exist: the dwarf, in a time of crisis, formulates a plan according to personal goals and goes about carrying it out, regardless of his/her safety, or the safety of others. This dwarf should either not be disciplined, or have been out of military for some time. The dwarf, if drafted, would shirk duties to accomplish his/her personal goals.

(For a real life example, think of the gang members in New Orleans who stayed behind to further their goals, or the civilians who tried to dig people out of the 9-11 wreckage despite orders otherwise.)

This started me thinking about military command and such. I'll think about it some more, then post what I figured out later.