I know there are already a few military bugs listed on the tracker, so the things I'm talking about here are probably related, but I've not been able to find anything exactly the same. I'm very new to the game so I wanted to check here first that these aren't just something I'm doing wrong before I submit them as bugs (and that they not already listed there in some other form).
I believe all these issues currently fall under
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=535 on the bug tracker.
Issue one: "currently equipped" indicator disappears.
OK, I don't really know what this thing is called. What I'm talking about is the green indicator which appears to the right of each piece of equipment (per dwarf) in the Military/Equip screen. If I understand this correctly, this indicator shows when the dwarf is currently equipping what they have been assigned.
The green indicator indicates the arsenal dwarf has assigned something to that slot, but the dwarf has probably not picked it up yet. You might have to issue a move order ((s)quad->(m)ove)) before the dwarf stops his civilian tasks and starts equipping.
Hit Shift-P to see the actual list of items the arsenal dwarf has assigned. If you have Partial Match on, you will find in many cases that the arsenal dwarf has assigned leather armor or even normal clothing instead of metal armor, for example. I prefer to keep them on Exact Match for this reason.
I'd created a squad and got them equipped with some leather armor, and the indicators were showing correctly. Then I decided to change that uniform to use a specific weapon instead of "individual choice". When I assigned the uniform to the squad again to make the changes take effect, the indicators disappeared. The dwaves are wearing what they have been assigned (they already were in most cases and didn't need to change). Since then the indicators have not really worked, even for a new squad member picking up his first set of gear. Occasionally one or two will show up for a while then disappear again.
I can, however, force an individual indicator to show again with this sequence of events:
- Create a replacement item for something a dwarf is already wearing.
- This goes into the stockpile.
- The Arsenal dwarf updates the records.
- The first dwarf in the list now shows that item as equipped in the Military/Equip screen.
- Note that the dwarf does not change his equipment. The newly created item is still in the stockpile and the dwarf still wears his original piece.
So this isn't about a problem equipping something, just really the military screen saying something is not equipped when it is. That is, unless I've completely misunderstood what those markers mean.
The marker means the arsenal dwarf has checked a little box on his clipboard. It's a known bug that every time you produce a piece of replacement equipment on the squad-approved list, the arsenal dwarf goes off and does "Upgrade Squad Equipment" - in versions earlier than .08 I believe this wipes all equipment lists and replaces them from scratch - in .08 I believe that it only affects the assigned equipment list for dwarves that are missing some pieces (i.e. do not have the green markers for all slots).
In both cases, the disappearing marker means the military dwarf temporarily wiped his list of equipment while the arsenal dwarf has not finished Upgrade Squad Equipment. If all goes well, and the arsenal dwarf doesn't glitch, he will get the same equipment reassigned and the green markers go back as usual. Again, you can hit Shift-P to examine the actual equipment vs the desired equipment list.
Issue two: Dwarves leave clothing lying around.
Some of my squad members have discarded some of their clothing (not all). This is sort of similar to this bug (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=1513) except for 2 differences:
- The dwarves have armor assigned as equipment, not clothing. They're dropping what they already had on as clothes.
- The items do not get taken to any stockpile so I seem to be stuck with them strewn about the fortress (barracks, dining hall and bedrooms).
Check to see if you have (r)eplace clothing enabled in the military equip screen. If so, this orders the dwarves to drop socks to put on boots, or tunics to put on breastplates. In many cases this is desirable, as putting on three socks on one foot will prevent a dwarf from putting on boots.
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Anyway, in short the arsenal dwarf is still really buggy. Some workarounds I use (most cribbed from Jiri Petru's post on the bug tracker page) :
1) be as specific as possible with regards to armor/weapon and material. For example, I will specify steel chain shirts, steel leggings, steel helms, steel gauntlets, steel boots, steel shields and steel battle axes for an axedwarf. If you specified merely "metal armor" as the default uniforms do, the arsenal dwarf would go do Upgrade Squad Equipment every time a goblin dropped some iron armor, since in .31 goblins and elves now wear the same size armor and clothes as dwarves. "Individual choice" weapons are also problematic, as you will get dwarves that pick up bows or crossbows to use as melee weapons.
Also, always use Exact Match on the military screen, unless you have a chronic shortage of equipment and need to get dwarves on the field immediately. Of course, using Partial Match often leads to half-naked dwarves going outside to try to pick up goblin equipment, and getting slaughtered by ambushes.
I also use Replace Clothing, but you might want the added protection of additional cloth layers under your armor.
2) Once you have set a uniform for a squad position, don't change it later. If you have to change it (upgrading from leather to metal, for example) then remove the barracks designation, remove dwarves one by one from the squad, disband the squad, and remove the militia commander from the nobles screen, then rebuild the squad from scratch. The reason is that while the arsenal dwarf may tell a dwarf to go get new armor, the old assignments tend to "stick" in the dwarf's memory, which means he'll never take off that leather armor to go get a shiny new steel chain shirt. This produces the common bug of dwarves carrying multiple weapons (multiple battleaxes, etc).
Your dwarf with the leather helmet and iron battle axe is probably a case of this bug - these are leftovers from a previous assignment.
3) .08 fixed a lot of bugs with regards to allowable items (previously the arsenal dwarf would assign large, human-sized armor or weapons, which of course the dwarf would refuse to put on or wield, leading to half-naked, unarmed dwarves). Still, the arsenal dwarf will sometimes still assign unreachable items (at the bottom of murky pools, or walled away). I generally stick to only steel equipment (as only dwarf foreigners come with steel items) as goblin equipment is normally strewn all over the map after a few ambushes. In this instance, try to forbid unreachable equipment before the arsenal dwarf does his assignments.
4) remember that the item assignments are per squad position, not individual dwarf. This means if the second dwarf in the squad dies, and you put a new recruit in that position, the recruit will inherit his predecessor's equipment. If the predecessor died at the bottom of an unreachable cliff, for instance, your new recruit will end up naked, as the arsenal dwarf will think he has done his job (i.e. has green markers on the recruit's equipment list). As above, forbid the unreachable equipment, and then delete the recruit's old equipment list and reassign new items.
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Topic: More military bug questions (should I submit these or am I wrong?) (Read 1324 times)