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[lordlp]

I can't seem to get my dwarves to use Marksmanship.. ever. Well I take that back; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Usually they just resort to beating things with their bow as an effective strategy.

Now I've assigned them combat ammo (metal) and training ammo (wooden) - given them all quivers, and given them crossbows. Checking inventory.. all of this is equipped (well a few didn't have bolts in their quiver for some reason.. I have oodles of bolts in the stockpile (in bins).

So can someone enlighten me as to what's going on here? I've almost given up using Marksman as I can't get them to do anything - best I've gotten is for them to stand in front of fortifications with their thumbs up there ass.

[psychologicalshock]

The way I eliminate the 1 bolt stack problem is if I reclaim 1 metal bolt I have it dumped, the only dump I have are near the forges so I use dump for transporting metals for melting. When bolts are melted there's a chance they will give a bar of that metal, this way you can recycle bolts without letting 1 bolt stacks go back into circulation.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I don't bother assigning ammo. Just go with default settings and let them shoot wooden and metal however they feel. Build one of those marksdwarf courses with the walls missing to recycle ammo.  If you need them to stay out of battle--fortifications and locked doors do wonders.

Last issue to consider is backpacks.  From adventurer mode we know that it can be difficult managing possessions without one.  Do you have backpacks along with quivers.

[Frogwarrior]

I think in fort mode backpacks are only for carrying food. Which means they won't get a good thought from eating in a nice dining room. 'Course, it also means they won't run away from battle to get a snack.

[psychologicalshock]

I don't bother assigning ammo. Just go with default settings and let them shoot wooden and metal however they feel. Build one of those marksdwarf courses with the walls missing to recycle ammo.  If you need them to stay out of battle--fortifications and locked doors do wonders.

I used to be like this but then I figured out how to make them use bone for training and metal for combat and trust me it does make a huge difference. Enemies even with marginal armor will shrug off 90% of bone bolt shots, on the flip side only very well armored  enemies can resist  metal bolts . I went from a shower of bolts only marginally crippling a few goblins to a few marksdwarves killing a whole squad of gobbos and their mounts. With bone bolts a lot of headshots don't count as kills whereas with metal bolts 9 times out of 10 it goes right through their head, I get tons of 1 shot kills now.

[loose nut]

I do what the goatgod does. Don't touch the ammo screen. The marksdwarves will shoot whatever they have whenever they want to, but they'll shoot.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

I had some serious problems related to ammo assignment when I was getting a bolt reclamation set-up (read candy factory) going-- what happened was that I had accidentally assigned candy bolts to one incorrect group of marksdwarves, and those dwarves didn't want to let go after I told them to use a different bolt material.  It didn't even work to just dump all the bolts, either-- they stayed in the quivers.  Eventually, I disbanded all marksdwarf squads, waited for all the dudes to take off their quivers, and then reformed new squads, and yay, got it working finally.

[NedeN]

I had some serious problems related to ammo assignment when I was getting a bolt reclamation set-up (read candy factory) going-- what happened was that I had accidentally assigned candy bolts to one incorrect group of marksdwarves, and those dwarves didn't want to let go after I told them to use a different bolt material.  It didn't even work to just dump all the bolts, either-- they stayed in the quivers.  Eventually, I disbanded all marksdwarf squads, waited for all the dudes to take off their quivers, and then reformed new squads, and yay, got it working finally.

afaik candy bolts arent worth the shit theyre made of.. which is actually quite pricey  but uhh i think the bolt dont have enough weight to actually pierce armor but i could be wrong, just what ive seen on the wiki

[SharkForce]

afaik candy bolts arent worth the shit theyre made of.. which is actually quite pricey  but uhh i think the bolt dont have enough weight to actually pierce armor but i could be wrong, just what ive seen on the wiki

i may be wrong, but here's my understanding:

every time you smelt something, you get some portion of a bar of that material, measured in tenths of a bar. the minimum gain is 1/10 bar.

if you craft bolts, 1 bar becomes 25 bolts. if you then manage to separate that into 25 separate stacks of 1 bolt each (for example, by having your dwarves shoot it at a target), you now have 25 objects to melt, each of which is valued at 1/10 bar each (that being the minimum gain)... meaning that 1 bar of candy can be turned into 2.5 bars of candy. which can then be turned into more bars of candy. and so forth. hence, a "candy factory"

or at least, such is my understanding. i've never actually tested this. just read about it somewhere.

[NedeN]

I see what you did there, yea it seems to ring a bell now that you mention it. Hes a smaaaart guy

[slothen]

yeah thats how it works.  Just maake biiiig archery ranges so they miss more.  If every bolt hits the target, you'll be losing out.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

yeah thats how it works.  Just maake biiiig archery ranges so they miss more.  If every bolt hits the target, you'll be losing out.

Well, actually, what I did was make it so they had to miss, via offset floodgates/raising bridge combos (with convenient channels, of course) in front of targets.  No leaving anything to chance for me.