Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Elvin]

Right now I have four marksdwarves, of all abilities from novice to legendary, who are sitting behind my fortifications in my tower and starving themselves. They are all hungry ( one is starving) thirsty and one is drowsy. What am I supposed to do about it? They already had food and water, but its all been used. I've ordered the mto move, i've tried standing them down, i've tried breaking them into their own squads.. no luck.

I know lots of people use towers, so I'm guessing this has a simple solution. Problem is, i'm out of ideas about it 

Thanks

[Slogo]

I'd say they're clearly blocked off from leaving. Check that they have a usable exit with non-forbidden doors/hatches. Also take a look at any ramps and make sure they're usable. It's possible to build a ramp that you can go down but not get back up I believe.

[Elvin]

The tower is using a staircase. They've gone up and down it before, and there are no doors/hatches between them and the food area below them ( it's build ontop of my farms)

[Slogo]

Hmm.. What 'job' do the dwarves have when you deactivate them? Have you tried restationing them elsewhere in the fortress then deactivating them?

[Stargrasper]

This is one of those cases where an image would be helpful.  Either a direct image(in spoiler tags if it's large) or a link to it in the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive.

If you're sure the path to food/water/beds/etc is clear, I'm not sure what to say other than it's really not and you need to look harder.  Give us an image and we'll help you look.

[Elvin]

Never mind i've worked it out. They didn't move because they couldn't path to the enemies... as my drawbridge was raised...

[Albedo]

(edit - posted anyway for future advice.)

Right now I have four marksdwarves, of all abilities from novice to legendary, who are sitting behind my fortifications in my tower and starving themselves.

I bet Slogo has it.  Doesn't matter what they've done "before", test if they can do it now.   Activate another dwarf and send him up to where they are - if they don't respond, you know it's a path problem.

Broken paths are often hard to see visually.  Worse if you're using ramps, which have been known to go buggy if you're using multiple levels of them, even if they are technically correct.

[Quietust]

I once had 2 squads of marksdwarves stationed in guard towers during a siege and they wouldn't do a thing, just staring at the goblins down below. I tried stationing them in different places, even taking them off duty, and they wouldn't budge. Looking more closely at the squad view, I saw that they had been set to chase enemies, and when I switched it to "stay by station", they immediately snapped out of their trance and made short work of the siege.

[Jhoosier]

I'd say they're clearly blocked off from leaving. Check that they have a usable exit with non-forbidden doors/hatches. Also take a look at any ramps and make sure they're usable. It's possible to build a ramp that you can go down but not get back up I believe.

I have this same problem in my current fortress.  One of my champions starved to death because he wouldn't go downstairs to eat.  He'd just stare at the orcs through the fortifications after he ran out of bolts.  No pathing problem, because other dwarves were doing the entrance dance at the staircase (soldiers only allowed outside, the marksdwarf area is outside/light).  I wound up just assigning them waterskins and 2 rations.  This prolongs things abit, but I just have to take care of sieges faster.  At least the new tower I build has stockpiles for food/booze/bolts.