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[L0rd L33t]

I am at wits end here. I have 5 hunters, enough crossbows, a hunting dog, and ammunition and these dwarves are refusing to hunt! Theres a group of harmless cappybaras, and i would rather have them eaten than being forced to butcher my llama! Is there a way to manually designate hunting or something?

[mirrizin]

I've noticed that hunting doesn't seem to kick in until migrant hunters show up (often third or fourth wave) and then all of a sudden it's a meat factory.

I'm also curious...

[Spinning Fly]

You could try putting those 5 guys into a marksdwarf squad and ordering them to kill the capybaras through the squad menu. You could give them a uniform comprising just 1 crossbow, get them to "wear" it over clothing, and assign the squad a truckload of ammo.

That way you'd have a squad of hunters that you can order to kill specific creatures, instead of having them go out and get eaten by giant elephants or something.

[quekwoambojish]

I can't play without using hunters, it's like they force you to have !FUN!.

To fix this, make sure you've designated small amounts of ammunition to your hunters and marks dwarves. Otherwise they prioritize the bolts as their own when not all of them are available. I also try to make sure I have a separate stockpile (no bins) for ammunition to further avoid mixups.

You probably already did this, but it's good to mention...Make sure they all have quivers too, again there's some weird prioritization stuff that happens here, so an open stockpile is nice.

[L0rd L33t]

I can't play without using hunters, it's like they force you to have !FUN!.

To fix this, make sure you've designated small amounts of ammunition to your hunters and marks dwarves. Otherwise they prioritize the bolts as their own when not all of them are available. I also try to make sure I have a separate stockpile (no bins) for ammunition to further avoid mixups.

You probably already did this, but it's good to mention...Make sure they all have quivers too, again there's some weird prioritization stuff that happens here, so an open stockpile is nice.

Hmm... that's sound advice... I actually don't have a designated ammo stockpile, and I set them to carry 120 bolts as I thought that would be divided among them all. I'll try that out and if it doesn't work, then i will use them to attack the animals as a military squad.

ON A SIMILAR NOTE... I want an instrument so i can make a temple... I made 2 single part instruments and it seems they are unplaceable. So I ordered my dwarves to make a 3 piece instrument called a Gonom (all three parts are made of bones(keyboard, case, bells). They wont build the case saying there is no usable bones...

...And 18 camel bones are sitting at the butcher's shop! I have a bone stockpile to take from that butcher shop and nobody is doing that!

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Designate a meeting zone to make your temple.

Also, I second the suggestion to make a squad. More micromanagement, but you can give them a wooden shield and bone helm, making them a bit safer in the event they are attacked by their prey.

[Bradders]

Been wondering a bit about hunting myself.  I've had similar issues with my no-labors-besides-Hunting dorf sitting in the dining hall, quiver full and crossbow in hand, for days on end, with ample prey to hunt.  Also - is there any way to get hunters to put on and keep a shield or any other armor?  Or does the hunter 'uniform' completely destroy that possibility?  Is the only way to protect these poor saps by throwing dogs at the hostiles in front of him?

[quekwoambojish]

Been wondering a bit about hunting myself.  I've had similar issues with my no-labors-besides-Hunting dorf sitting in the dining hall, quiver full and crossbow in hand, for days on end, with ample prey to hunt.  Also - is there any way to get hunters to put on and keep a shield or any other armor?  Or does the hunter 'uniform' completely destroy that possibility?  Is the only way to protect these poor saps by throwing dogs at the hostiles in front of him?

The uniform removes that possibility. If you're hesitant to using untrained hunters, you can always enlist them first and have them train up marksdwarf (note though if they don't have the skill to begin with, they can get a negative thought for having no military skills prior to being enlisted).

As a last resort if you're having issues with getting your hunters active:

1. Try enlisting all of your hunters into a squad together, make the squad active, then make it inactive. Sometimes weird prioritization happens when rangers go to pick up ammo that was designated as someone else's.

2. This one always works for me. Make a squad with all of your hunters, and make sure it's shift is only active with one squad member at a time for one month. That way your hunters are constantly re-equipping potentially squad prioritized equipment. (and vice versa)

Make sure if you use either method, set the ammo count to very low!

[draeath]

...And 18 camel bones are sitting at the butcher's shop! I have a bone stockpile to take from that butcher shop and nobody is doing that!

You mean to say you have one stack of 18 camel bones... bones can act weirdly like this.

[PopTart]

If anyone comes up with something more or less "sure fire," please post it here! I'll be watching!

[TinFoilTopHat]

Was I the only one who thought this would be completely different based on the title?

[PopTart]

Was I the only one who thought this would be completely different based on the title?

Lol that thought occurred to me too, was a bit disappointed at what the OP actually meant.  But it's still a good question.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

I would love to use hunters if they are more efficient.
It is funny to watch them fail though. I once saw a hunter trying to bash a bison's skull in with a crossbow, for days, only to be gored to death after the bovine slowly healed itself.