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[Jake]

So what you've got in mind is for military dwarves given orders to patrol a route or defend a burrow should get a modest bonus to their Observation roll for being specifically ordered to watch for intruders? That's not a bad idea at all, actually.

[NW_Kohaku]

What, exactly, is the downside to have "look out for goblins" enabled, then?  As in, why would a player ever want to turn it off?  Otherwise, there's no reason for it to ever be off, and it might as well be a passive.

[TKTom]

What, exactly, is the downside to have "look out for goblins" enabled, then?  As in, why would a player ever want to turn it off?  Otherwise, there's no reason for it to ever be off, and it might as well be a passive.

 Get bored, fall asleep*. Guard details rotate because people can't stay alert for extended periods of time, and because guarding is possibly the most boring thing in the world.

 This idea of telling people that they are on watch, rather than simply on duty (ready to be ordered out to fight) does have merit.

 *at a faster rate.

[MiniMacker]

Question related to this.

Can units spot ambushers through glass or Fortifications?

[DgnBiscuit]

What, exactly, is the downside to have "look out for goblins" enabled, then?  As in, why would a player ever want to turn it off?  Otherwise, there's no reason for it to ever be off, and it might as well be a passive.

 Get bored, fall asleep*. Guard details rotate because people can't stay alert for extended periods of time, and because guarding is possibly the most boring thing in the world.

 This idea of telling people that they are on watch, rather than simply on duty (ready to be ordered out to fight) does have merit.

 *at a faster rate.

Yeah, I always thought that it'd be taxing, kinda in the way that units ordered to hold position or patrol get pissed if they're doing it for too long. It wouldn't be like headlights where you just flick them on and go about your day. You'd be stationed somewhere and you'd view it much like other military orders: Doing it for too long causes unhappy thoughts. I also kinda thing that, unlike the current "move" order, the purpose isn't to provide a frontline for defenses: I don't see the watchman engaging a bunch of goblins. It would be cool if the watchmen could set an alert level when they spot goblins then run away, however.

-D.B.

[DgnBiscuit]

Question related to this.

Can units spot ambushers through glass or Fortifications?

I don't know exactly about Fortification, but I believe they can. Glass walls they can't see through, but windows they definitely can (in fact, my favorite detection system is a cat in a locked 1x1 room that has a window onto a 1 wide corridor into my base). It's, so far, the best detection method I've found (cats are pretty good at spotting intruders). Keep in mind though, windows and fortifications won't stop fluids or missiles, so they're only really protected from melee units (ok, if the fortifications are far enough away they're good against missiles, but then you wouldn't be able to detect anything either).

-D.B.

[NW_Kohaku]

I thought windows would stop fluids...  Not that I've ever tried that, though.

[DgnBiscuit]

I thought windows would stop fluids...  Not that I've ever tried that, though.

They may now, but I don't think they used to. Or maybe it's only missiles that they don't stop. I do seem to remember some enterprising designer had decided that he wanted his nobles to live in fear of the water stored outside their bedroom in a "change of regime" system they'd built only to discover that the window didn't hold back water, and consequently his fortress ended up looking like Australia does at the moment. But it could have been a bug that was fixed or I could be remembering it wrong.

-D.B.

[Bohandas]

There might be a way to address this problem through modding in custom positions. I notice that the elven ranger captain position contains tokens such as [RESPONSIBILITY:PATROL_TERRITORY] and [RESPONSIBILITY:ATTACK_ENEMIES]. I'm not 100% on the exact in-game effects of these tokens, but they certainly sound like they might be relevant.

[612DwarfAvenue]

You guys keep missing the most crucial question of all: Who watches the watchmen?

[NW_Kohaku]

Bohandas: Those are position tokens only found on human warriors and elven rangers.  There is no description of their effects on the wiki, and they may be completely untested(?).

It's possible that such tokens sets those units to perform worldgen era sweeps of the countryside, not anything that would have an effect on fortress mode.

[Cespinarve]

I thought windows would stop fluids...  Not that I've ever tried that, though.

They may now, but I don't think they used to. Or maybe it's only missiles that they don't stop. I do seem to remember some enterprising designer had decided that he wanted his nobles to live in fear of the water stored outside their bedroom in a "change of regime" system they'd built only to discover that the window didn't hold back water, and consequently his fortress ended up looking like Australia does at the moment. But it could have been a bug that was fixed or I could be remembering it wrong.

-D.B.

Good God, you mean his Fortress ended up being full of Australians? How horrid...

More to the point, back in 40d, the Fortress and the Royal Guard were autonomous, and I liked that. They seemed to have some kind of guarding, patrolling wander they'd do from time to time, and they'd break up the monotony of their day by occasionally bludgeoning a citizen if the Hammerer was otherwise indisposed. I shouldn't need to use the militia to guard my fortress if I have a group who's very job description is already "Guard".

On a generalized 40d-31 bitch, I hate that they keep their civlian identities when their off-duty. If I needed you to still identify as a potash maker, I wouldn't have drafted you into a medical research squad, would I? Yes, I pine for the simplicity of 40d military dynamics. At least until the interface problems are solved. And there is more... permanentness in the draft.