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Author Topic: miners, picks and armor  (Read 1572 times)

mek42

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miners, picks and armor
« on: July 22, 2017, 01:55:20 pm »

In 43.05, if miners are in a squad that specifies armor but no weapons, and to wear uniform off duty, will they pick up a pick when they are off duty?  And maybe train wrestling when on duty?
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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2017, 02:27:31 pm »

(When I tested in 42.06) Strictly speaking, the answer to both is yes, but not in the way you hope.

Consider "Miner" labour an uniform that specifies civilian uniform of 1 pick (foreign), over clothes.

When your miner goes to mine in your mines, they'll do so with that uniform. No armour.

When your miner goes on duty - or maybe wants to do an individual combat drill - they'll go swamp out their uniform for the military one.

Also, I suggest you give them a nice steel pick for being on-duty, as picks are very deadly weapons, and they'll be able to train mining by sparring. If you don't mind the delays and shuffling of equipment, you can have them mine with a different pick as well in the time they're not training, but you might want to consider a new miner instead.

(I don't think anybody has ever managed to dfhack miner 'invisible' uniform in recent versions, either.)

mek42

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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2017, 02:49:52 pm »

So I may was well specify no uniform and let them train wrestling and dodging?  I would like to use them as a quick reaction force for thieves and snatchers in the early game while I've neglected proper defenses a bit too long.
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anewaname

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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2017, 06:05:33 pm »

In 43.05, if a miner is in a squad and that squad is given an squad order (Kill/Move), an activated schedule (Train/Patrol), or is given a barracks to 't'rain at, they will no longer respond to mining designations, until you remove them from the military or they decide to re-equip their "mining uniform". I suspect that when they start any military activity, they no longer have their "mining uniform pick" equipped, and are ineligible for mining jobs. I have not seen them choose to re-equip their "mining uniform" once their put on a military uniform.

As a fast response team, you could put your other dwarfs into a squad with shields and practice axes. They can handle lone kobolds, goblins, or animals easily, and will do individual combat drills if there is a barracks for them to 't'rain at.

If miners are in a squad that is given no orders, no uniform, and no barracks to 't'rain at, then they will continue to respond to mining designations. I usually put miners/woodcutters/hunters in one squad and then shift the legendary miners into a new squad when I want them to stop mining and start military training.
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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2017, 06:22:36 pm »

I have enabled and had a dwarf in military cut wood in 43.05, but that's obviously a temporary affair.

If you want to use your miner as quick reaction for thief, disable their mining labour, pass 1 game step (.), then put them in military with their uniform including that specific pick they just dropped, and order them to station near the thief.

mikekchar

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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2017, 07:03:27 pm »

I do this very frequently.  The way I manage it is to have no armour and 2 picks.  I put a pick stockpile in a handy location on the first level, near the stairs.  Then the miner is going to mine, they swap out their military pick for their mining pick.  When they engage in battle, they swap out their mining pick for the military pick.  They tend to work exactly the opposite to a quick response force -- instead, the other members of the squad arrive first and then the miner shows up.  This works very well because the heavily armoured military dwarfs end up tanking for the miner, who usually shows up late and lops off the heads of the otherwise occupied opponents.  Normally I put only 1 miner in each squad.  I tried having a squad of miners and it was a disaster.
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TV4Fun

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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2017, 07:52:20 pm »

I had a similar issue with a hammerer. I had put him in a squad and assigned a specific hammer I wanted him to use as his weapon. To my chagrin however, when it came time to deliver hammerstrikes, he would completely ignore that hammer and go find a different one. It seems that dwarves see military equipment and job equipment as completely separate things.
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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2017, 08:40:35 pm »

Heh, yeah, good point about being slower than true military mikechar (probably due pickup equipment and lack of agility). I've got to say, on purpose using miners instead of picklords for attacking with actual military certainly is novel idea for me.

PatrikLundell

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Re: miners, picks and armor
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2017, 04:47:28 am »

Yes, it's a known issue that job "uniform" equipment is separate from military uniform equipment. Usually miners, hunters, and wood cutters are mentioned suffering from this issue, but a hammerer has as well (if, for some strange reason, you want to enable the injustice system, and, even stranger, NOT equip the hammerer with an artifact aluminum or candy hammer).
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