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Author Topic: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen  (Read 2276 times)

Endomatic

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How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« on: January 23, 2011, 02:01:56 pm »

I am having a LOT of trouble just getting my dwarves to stand where I want them consistently.

They always run away to go change equippment, they run away to go grab food (often times dropping both equipped items and food they are ALREADY CARRYING) right on the ground.

This litters my fort with crap and slows my game down. No dwarves EVER come to pick it up and either throw it out (even if toggled between Dump and Reclaim, or simply left as DUMP). I've gone SIX YEARS without a fortress of some 40 idles dwarves at any one time throwing it out, or putting it in a stockpile.

This food then rots causing Miasma everywhere.

Someone please tell me what options to put into the military settings that makes dwarves ignore everything else but what you want them to do.

Do I turn food and water off?
How do I make them just wear what I tell them ALL the time? I set REPLACE CLOTHING and UNIFORMED when Inactive. What else is there to do?

A lot of the time they will drop a cloak made of a cloth for one made of leather and just leave this trash EVERYWHERE.

It's getting to the point where it's ruining the game for me. It's an essential stage of the game that is just a frickin mess.

Once you get a supply chain going and finally get some equipment made just to have it thrown all over the place and your equip orders being ignored is SUPER frustrating.

What's the right way?
« Last Edit: January 23, 2011, 02:04:46 pm by Endomatic »
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peregarrett

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2011, 02:07:31 pm »

What's the right way?
MAGMA! It's always the solution.

Really, you can designate those items to be dumped to volcano or to smasher. Or design magma-clearance system for all rooms and hallways of your fort. It's dwarfy and leads to !!Fun!!
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Endomatic

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2011, 02:26:26 pm »

The floor wide clearing system is quite intriguing, but is there a more cost efficient method?

What's the deal with my dudes just dumping everything all over the place? and why aren't dwarves taking this stuff to refuse/garbage pit?

Most important answer you can give revolves around how I keep the equipment I create and assign to my dwarves ON THEIR BODIES.

I must know this to keep playing this game.

Also: Food MUST be bugged with military right? All they do is haul it around for awhile and drop it whenever they feel like it. It doesn't get moved to the food stockpile (even if I dump/claim, as above) and it rots, creating miasma. What's the story here?
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rephikul

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2011, 02:27:41 pm »

after assigning equipments, give them a station order. They'd immediately go and pick up the equipments before following your order.
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Endomatic

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2011, 02:28:23 pm »

Is there a way to keep them wearing it all the time?

How should I set my barracks specifics? Should I set personal AND squad equip? Just squad? What's the difference?
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Sutremaine

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2011, 03:37:29 pm »

[m ], [s ], [u ]

I think the default is Inactive = Uniformed anyway, as is Over Clothing for the uniform. If they're still taking their clothes off anyway, then they're probably shedding them to make room for the uniform. I've had one fortress with a military and their clothes rotted off long before I started training anyone, so I dunno really.
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slothen

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2011, 03:44:04 pm »

Is there a way to keep them wearing it all the time?

How should I set my barracks specifics? Should I set personal AND squad equip? Just squad? What's the difference?

personal and squad equip don't seem to do anything.
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Girlinhat

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2011, 03:51:57 pm »

I got my axedwarves permanently equipped.  I made like 12 sets of breastplates, shields, axes, etc, and assigned them all to a uniform that is "Steel Breastplate" and all the rest, then set to "Exact Match" and "Replace Clothing" as opposed to "Wear it over your clothes".  I also told all my military to carry no food, as found in the Supplies section of the military page.  Food is rather bugged for military, since they own food they put int their backpack, and owned food can only be handled by its owner, except that the owner will drop it and not think anything of it.  This is why you'll find your military's clothes everywhere, but just hide that, and eventually it'll rot and disappear I think.  Regardless, much like casts and crutches are broken, food for military is broken, and by extension backpacks are useless, since that's their only purpose.

I also found I had to over-produce equipment.  10 sets of armor, and 10 dwarves, doesn't work.  I had to make 12 full sets before my squad would fully equip.

Korva

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2011, 04:51:00 pm »

I am having a LOT of trouble just getting my dwarves to stand where I want them consistently.

They always run away to go change equippment, they run away to go grab food (often times dropping both equipped items and food they are ALREADY CARRYING) right on the ground.

I hear you. It is seriously irritating when you try to send your soldiers someplace they need to be NOW, and half of them decided to run off and do something else for a month first. I also wish that station and defense orders respected impassible areas and travel distance better. For example: if I send my militia to stand in a certain spot, half of them will end up in an adjacent room or in the trench or on the level above or below even if they have to run through half the fort to get there.  I really don't get it.


@rephikul: Thanks for that hint. So to make sure they are all wearing what they should be wearing, I should periodically give them station orders before they are actually needed? Will try that.
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thegoatgod_pan

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2011, 10:36:37 am »

The food dropping/rotting thing is weird though--maybe its a case of being short on flasks and backpacks--they normally store their rations in those in my fort.
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Girlinhat

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2011, 11:30:20 am »

The issue seems to be that the dwarf claims a ration of food, making it owned by him, and puts it in his backpack.  Then, his shift ends, and he upturns his backpack, spilling out the food, at which point it stays there because it's still marked as owned, and only the owner will move something he owns.

shlorf

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Re: How to make military dwarves ACTUALLY listen
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2011, 01:22:56 pm »

Also happens when you assign a bunch of soldiers that are on train or other scheduled orders all the time to a different squad. They will put away their old backpacks as part of their old uniform and might fail to equip a new one. Making more backpacks normally fixes this for me. If you set the soldiers to keep their uniforms on while off duty this shouldn't happen as they will leave the food in the backpack for their next shift. If you have anyone with woodcutting/mining/hunting in the military and enable carry food you are almost guaranteed to get the bug when soldiers check their schedule at the change of months. The invisible uniforms from the labors will interfere with the equipping of the backpack and that soldier will run around claiming all food trying to put it in a non equipped backpack.
Still, to claim that carrying food is broken like crutches (which never work), is an exaggeration. If you know it's quirks it's way less annoying to get/keep it working than applying casts for example (splints work fine btw so just never make casts in case you didn't know). If you use it, it cuts down a soldiers down time nicely (not as much as flasks but still pretty decent).
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