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[mickel]

Just being frustrated. I had a goblin invasion, so I told the dwarves to stay indoors. Curiously the dwarves that were outdoors just froze in place until the goblins came close enough to start hitting them. Being civilians they didn't defend themselves, letting a single goblin take out a group of five dwarves one by one... The strange thing happens just after, when the goblins begin to climb the long slope down to my fortress and they meet a big group of my civilian dwarves who must  have started through the fortress gates after I declared curfew, and who all ran up to the goblins and then froze in place.

There was a second wave of civilians running out of the fortress to meet the goblins and be slaughtered before the gobbos finally reached the gates and were massacred.

Some kind of bug?

[Empty]

Did you designate a meeting place zone inside?

[martinuzz]

Uhm. Were your dorfs really frozen in place, or were they aimlessly pacing to and fro the fortress entrance?
If the latter, that's 'normal'.
Your dwarfs are trying to get this beautiful XXpig tail capXX left by some unlucky goblin or such. Then they remember: "Oh crap yaw, I was meant to stay inside. Two steps on their way inside, they think: "Aw. To hell with orders. I WANT that XXpig tail capXX!!". Two steps later: "But then, I might get hammered for disobeying orders. Lets just go inside."
Two steps later: "Come on now, I'm not afraid of a little hammering now, am I?

ad infinitum (where infinitum in this case means death by goblin)
An outside meeting area can have the same effect. ("waddaya mean, orders? I'm on break!)

[ May 19, 2008: Message edited by: martinuzz ]

[ May 19, 2008: Message edited by: martinuzz ]

[Kanil]

I've noticed sometimes my dwarves that are outside simply just... stop. They literally just stop moving. Turning "stay indoors" back off gets them moving again. I don't know if they'll sit perfectly still until they starve, but they certainly don't bother move for any other reasons...

[Captain Xenon]

you will often get the 'no job' dwarf running to the location of his last job, before going inside.

the only good fix for this, is to channel above your entrance a distance, and re-floor it (green glass blocks work nicely). so they hit the internal door before the hall of death, see sunlight, and that becomes the turning point, safe from goblins.

do make sure to forbid everything as soon as the goblins die inside on a trap though. unless you want the nobility and children to rush in...

[i2amroy]

I have had this also, but with me at least the dwarves would take two steps toward the fortress to go do some task inside and then say, "Oh, there is an outside square in-between me and my task (inside), that is forbidden, cancel job.

[Forumsdwarf]

I've had good luck building a palisade around my fort entrance plus multiple concentric layers of perimeter defense.  The "Stay Indoors" order almost always keeps the dwarves inside the palisade.  They're "supposed" to hurry underground, but you know how well that works.  With a palisade they at least stay close enough to the underground entrance to stay within the walls.
The layers of perimeter defense reduce the odds that dwarves and enemies will occupy the same "zone".  If there are traps between layers ambushers can't get to your dwarves unless your workers are outside the outer perimeter.  (Or in my case inside the outer zone, as I keep the outer perimeter clear of traps in order to lure sieges deeper inside my defenses before eliminating them.)

Citizen militias have also reduced casualties.  I've had a single civilian take down an entire ambush of pikemen.  Turn on "Hunting", "Crossbow", and "Leather Armor" for your civilians to make a militia.  Militia will actually "kite" enemies, firing and retreating toward the fortress.  You can't even get your regular soldiers to employ this devastating tactic.

Of course I've also had a squad of goblin bowmen decimate a group of woodcutters and engineers who happened to be working in the same spot on the outer perimeter.  Even with the best of preparations sometimes dwarves die.  It's a dangerous world.

[toast]

i had this problem for a long time. i made a meeting area inside, right among the workshops. it cluttered up the place, but now when i order them inside, they drop everything IMMEDIATELY and go inside. it works great.

[i2amroy]

quote:Originally posted by Forumsdwarf:
<STRONG>Citizen militias have also reduced casualties.  I've had a single civilian take down an entire ambush of pikemen.  Turn on "Hunting", "Crossbow", and "Leather Armor" for your civilians to make a militia.  Militia will actually "kite" enemies, firing and retreating toward the fortress.  You can't even get your regular soldiers to employ this devastating tactic.</STRONG>

You have to be very careful to only do that on a map with no wildlife or only when you are being attacked, because if not then any dwarves that are set up to be militia will often go wandering off to kill some tiny squirrel on the very edge of the map.

[mickel]

I think the fact my meeting area counted as outdoors (no ceiling) screwed things up? Not that they were anywhere near it when they froze in place (they were above ground) but if their reaction is to go to the meeting area instead of simply going to ground that'd explain the confusion.

Dwarves really need a good "take cover" routine for situations like that.

On a related note, I don't have any sand, and I can't seem  to  find rock crystal... how can I cover the meeting area while still keeping it light?

[Kanil]

Build a wall or roof over it. Doesn't matter what it's made out of, contructed obsidian floors let just as much light in as constructed clear glass floors.

[Loctavus]

A zone you could designate as a 'safezone' would be really handy, like a meeting place they'd assemble to if you set the order and they wern't in the military, causing them to cancel all tasks bar basic needs until you let them go.

[Dwarfchik 9000]

This might seem a little simplistic, but do you lock your doors/raise bridges etc while the dwarves are still outside?  If they can't get in, they might not move.

[RPharazon]

I just don't give my dwarfs any jobs outside. You can pretty much put your entire fortress 12 levels underground, without the dwarves ever seeing daylight, if you really want to.

It's doubly good with an underground river since you won't even have to harvest trees outside.

[Kanil]

I think I've got it. My dwarves freeze if there's a meeting area outside.

And I'm stupidly lazy about deconstructing my wagon, and I believe the wagon acts as a meeting area, so I believe that if my wagon is still existing, the dwarves will get stuck.

Edit: It seems mickel already came to this conclusion, sorry for the redundant post.

[ May 20, 2008: Message edited by: Kanil ]