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[ErwinNH]

Hi guys. I'm pretty new, but I've finally figured out how to do most of the basics. I have a moat around my fort and ~ 132 dwarves, two military squads, one melee and one ranged. I survived my first attack but now that i'm trying to train my military i'm failing miserably. I'm also getting 70+ idle at any given time. I'd really like somebody who knows what they're looking at to view my save and tell me what i'm doing wrong, especially with my archer training pit. They refuse to shoot at the Giant Olm through the fortifications and also refuse to arm themselves - some of them are half dressed standing at attention in front of it. Many thanks to whoever gets this nub into shape.

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4731


*I'd like to not use danger rooms, thats why i have none.

[billybobfred]

Do you have quivers for your archers?

[RAKninja]

i've not looked into the save (i barely have the disk space for my own stuff) but idlers are easy to cure.... create lots of work.  give all the idlers engraving and/or masonry, and have them smooth and engrave the entire fort.  then/or build some aboveground construction.

alternately, you may consider expanding your main industries.  if you work, say, cloth, build more looms, clothiers workshops, and dyers workshops.

as for the marksdwarves, press "s", select the squad, and give them a move order.  that should cause them to pick up gear.  if they dont, you might not have enough.  if you do have enough, set their uniforms to replace their clothing.  if you've messed with the ammo asignments (such as assigning different bolts to training and combat), go back to 250 bolts per squad, no material preference, both training and combat use.  forbid and dump all the bolts.  when that is done, reclaim all the bolts.

if none of that works, come back and lets see if we cant get them shooting that olm.

[ErwinNH]

I've been doing some tests, and yes RAK, there is clearly some sort of problem with the ammo. Ammo is driving me crazy - its so finicky. In testing I have been able to get rid of all other soldiers, take 1 marksdwarf, assign him only a bow and quiver, and he eventually shot the Olm. But I also watched this guy walk back and forth 3 times without firing to change out his ammo and I wasn't touching a thing. I was just watching. I didn't hit a single button other than arrow keys to keep him in sight and v for view to see what he was picking up. I haaate ammo.

As for the idlers, the thing that gets me is there are cluttered shops that need hauling, and plenty of haulers available, they just don't do it.

[i874236951]

As for the idlers, the thing that gets me is there are cluttered shops that need hauling, and plenty of haulers available, they just don't do it.

And plenty of correctly-configured stockpiles, too?

If you've got everything right, dwarves' willingness to do hauling jobs instead of important things should be so annoying that you need to turn it off on a lot of them.

[Urist_McArathos]

I have heard that a ranged attacker must be adjacent to a fortification to fire through it.  Try making your fortifications have a 1-tile wide path behind them, with only one square leading in.  Order your squad into this narrow hall, and then give the order to shoot.  Maybe that will give you more success?  I haven't tested this myself; I've built a structure like the one I'm describing to you, but haven't yet had attackers come for me to test it.

[RAKninja]

I have heard that a ranged attacker must be adjacent to a fortification to fire through it.  Try making your fortifications have a 1-tile wide path behind them, with only one square leading in.  Order your squad into this narrow hall, and then give the order to shoot.  Maybe that will give you more success?  I haven't tested this myself; I've built a structure like the one I'm describing to you, but haven't yet had attackers come for me to test it.

yea, i have to constantly give my marksdwarves move orders to get them against the fortifications so they shoot.  bit of a pain, but since the melee dwarves are kind of "fire and forget", it usually works out.

[ErwinNH]

Yea I've got a 1-wide hallway that they stand in. But when I give them move orders to show up there they "become marksdwarves" and show up like i just got them out of bed - one sock, one glove, no shirt, forgot their crossbow, have to go back and get it, and NEVER load up on ammo. It's crazy. The reason I uploaded the save is cause I'm thinking I have some sort of clutter problem. Perhaps I don't understand stockpiles or ownership rights yet. I saw someone mention something about a utility that helped clear up the ownership issue but I really don't know what is causing so much nonsense.

i874 - you may be right, it may be stockpiles. I'm not exactly sure what a 'correctly configured stockpile' looks like.

[Urist_McArathos]

Yea I've got a 1-wide hallway that they stand in. But when I give them move orders to show up there they "become marksdwarves" and show up like i just got them out of bed - one sock, one glove, no shirt, forgot their crossbow, have to go back and get it, and NEVER load up on ammo. It's crazy. The reason I uploaded the save is cause I'm thinking I have some sort of clutter problem. Perhaps I don't understand stockpiles or ownership rights yet. I saw someone mention something about a utility that helped clear up the ownership issue but I really don't know what is causing so much nonsense.

i874 - you may be right, it may be stockpiles. I'm not exactly sure what a 'correctly configured stockpile' looks like.

Very odd; I may give your save a glance today, see what I can make of it.  The only time I've had problems with uniform gear being equipped is when it's either forbidden by accident, or in transit (i.e., a smith is stowing it after making it, and the soldier can't "find" it to pick it up), or problems in properly setting up the uniform in the military screen.

[RAKninja]

Yea I've got a 1-wide hallway that they stand in. But when I give them move orders to show up there they "become marksdwarves" and show up like i just got them out of bed - one sock, one glove, no shirt, forgot their crossbow, have to go back and get it, and NEVER load up on ammo. It's crazy. The reason I uploaded the save is cause I'm thinking I have some sort of clutter problem. Perhaps I don't understand stockpiles or ownership rights yet. I saw someone mention something about a utility that helped clear up the ownership issue but I really don't know what is causing so much nonsense.

i874 - you may be right, it may be stockpiles. I'm not exactly sure what a 'correctly configured stockpile' looks like.

(q)uerry move the cursor over the stockpile and check the (s)ettings.  ensure that the stockpile allows what you want to store.

[franti]

Boring fortress? Invite the circus into town. Nothing livens up a dwarfs day like a clown.

[Lexx]

Try setting up a new industry. Glass industry is very useful for traps and furniture. Or try out a megaproject of some sort to keep your dwarves busy. You could always make 5 more squads of militia and send them to death and glory en masse against your next siege. Those that survive could be combined into a new veterans squad.

[Quietust]

Having a high idler count isn't strictly a bad thing - it means that if you suddenly have a bunch of simple stuff that needs to be done (hauling away goblinite, constructing a megaproject), you can get it done right now instead of over the course of a month and a half.

[lordcooper]

Are you 100% certain the ammo isn't forbidden or set to be dumped?

Also, I don't think franti or Lexx bothered to read the OP.

[RAKninja]

Having a high idler count isn't strictly a bad thing - it means that if you suddenly have a bunch of simple stuff that needs to be done (hauling away goblinite, constructing a megaproject), you can get it done right now instead of over the course of a month and a half.

or a decade, as is the case with my fortress.  and it keeps getting longer because goblins keep showing up.