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[Dwarfinator]

I just had a goblin seige and as the goblins got close to my drawbridge, all of my dwarfs ran outside and ran out in front of them and then got stuck there because the goblins kept canceling job designations. Why do they do that? Can I tell my dwarves to stay inside? If so is it in the orders menu?

[cancel.man]

Use burrows:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Burrow#Civilian_Alerts
Make a burrow in a safe place and an Alert state that uses that burrow (I call mine "emergency"). When the baddies come, m->a->emergency and all the civilian dwarves scramble back to safety

It used to be as easy as "dwarves stay indoors" in the Orders menu, but now that there are subterranean caves with baddies the indoors is just as deadly as the outdoors.

[Xeirxes]

There are several things you can try. First, if you go into the orders menu, there should be an option to keep them inside--by default, it says something like "Dwarves Go Outdoors." However, I think the better option is #2...

Use the Burrows screen (the [w] key) and designate a "safe area" where you want all your dwarves to be limited to. Making a burrow selection is similar to designating tiles for digging, etc. except you can make it span multiple z-levels. This way makes it very quick to designate your entire fortress. After you've designated your safety burrow, you have to create a new "alert level" for your fortress, and assign your safety burrow to it. Pressing [m] gets you into the military screen, and then [a] gets you into the alert screen. Press [c] to create the new alert, and then select it and press [shift]+[N] to name it. I named mine "Emergency." Make sure your "Emergency" burrow is selected, move your cursor to the right-most pane in the screen where it shows your newly-created safety burrow, and press [Enter]. This makes it so that any dwarves who are under the "Emergency" alert will be limited to the safety burrow. Now you just have to add your civilians to this alert. Move your cursor all the way to the left, highlight the "Emergency" alert, and press [Enter]. Now, a small marker should appear next to "Emergency." It should say [CIV]. This means that your civilians are all on "Emergency" alert status and they will stay in the burrow you designated. To reverse this, select the "Inactive" alert status and press [Enter]. Your civilians will perform activities as normal again.

[agatharchides]

There are several things you can try. First, if you go into the orders menu, there should be an option to keep them inside--by default, it says something like "Dwarves Go Outdoors." However, I think the better option is #2...

This has not been present since 40d.

[bobhayes]

I just had a goblin seige and as the goblins got close to my drawbridge, all of my dwarfs ran outside and ran out in front of them and then got stuck there because the goblins kept canceling job designations. Why do they do that? Can I tell my dwarves to stay inside? If so is it in the orders menu?

Most likely there was a loyalty issue and some infighting in the goblin squad. A goblin died. Its gear dropped, and your dwarves said "yay, free socks!" and went to fetch.

Set your orders to forbid death-drop items to prevent a recurrence, or (better) create a burrow that covers all the safe zones of your fortress and use the alert system to keep your civilians inside whenever there's an ambush/invasion.

[wuphonsreach]

Yep, burrows + military alert system = safe civies.

You can even create an additional burrow that covers the entrance traps that you turn on/off in the alert screen to let your dwarves scavenge during a lull in the action (or when the outer gate is closed).