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[Starver]

That last question was towards thedoublestrafe, I think, but, for me:

I set them to train on a range (for at least part of the time[1]).  Ensuring that there are enough individual ranges with Training set up on them for each to get a go (should they so wish), and as for the setup of the military units concerned, I forget what I do, but it's the same as I do for melee-troops to get them to Melee-train (weapon and ammo-assignment, aside).

I honestly don't know what's causing your trainee-freeze, beyond all the obvious things, except that there's probably one thing amongst all the "so obvious I don't even think to ask it" that's just happens to be so unobvious to you.  And I'm wracking my brain trying to work out what to say, beyond what's been said so far.  Sorry, not being very helpful, at all.

(Oh yes, and you also ask about bolts: I tend to assign both metal boats for 'proper' use, once I have some at hand, and wooden and bone bolts for training.  I may make the latter both training and combat, if there's not (currently) enough of the former to equip them all.  Quantities, I can't recall, but whatever the default amount is, probably.  My wood/bone bolt stockpile usually sits on the level below the range[2], while my metal bolt stockpile is (or stockpiles are) set somewhere near the central hub of the fortress, on, or close to (either up or down) ground level, handy for resupply when out there on the battlements, or other ambush bunkers, actively seeing off enemy.  I tend to not have containers assigned to these stockpiles, so I get an immediate view of need, inefficient as it might be (once stacks have been converted to single bolts, especially).)


[1] When they've attained such a high quality of training that they're actually destroying training bolts, regularly, in my "low ammo loss" design, they're changed to wrestling/melee training.  Or back to that, if I gave them a little wrestling training before I could equip them with enough weapons, quivers and training bolts to make range-training viable.

[2] Part of the "low ammo loss" design, that's where all bolts that don't hit a target fall anyway, and where they can get resupplied from when they need some more while training, a simple stairwell level or ramp away.

[Berossus]

Hm... you actually said a thing that might be it, and ill try it tomorrow when im back at *cough* work...

Enough targets for anyone might be the key. I usually do a range of 5 targets, cause i assumed that they would take turns at them. Maybe they really need a target each, so ill et up 5 more or set the train order to 5 minimum instead of the default 10.

Still, why do my bone bolts only stack in 5s instead of 25?
I checked the wiki, but couldnt find anything on quivers, but maybe they cant fit all the assigned ammo in their quivers due to the 5-stacks, and that causes them to loop...

[darkgloomie]

Hm... you actually said a thing that might be it, and ill try it tomorrow when im back at *cough* work...

Enough targets for anyone might be the key. I usually do a range of 5 targets, cause i assumed that they would take turns at them. Maybe they really need a target each, so ill et up 5 more or set the train order to 5 minimum instead of the default 10.

Still, why do my bone bolts only stack in 5s instead of 25?
I checked the wiki, but couldnt find anything on quivers, but maybe they cant fit all the assigned ammo in their quivers due to the 5-stacks, and that causes them to loop...

because each bone is enough to make only 5 bolts, and stacking is still faulty so once un-stacked things don't stack.

Quivers, however, don't care any of that. They fill up until they have 25+ bolts inside, so they can theoretically have anything from 25 to 49 bolts inside. Just make sure there's enough of them for everyone (if needed, an ammo bin can fit them all inside)

[Berossus]

I had 3k bone bolts, 400 silver, 500 copper, 250 steel and some wooden ones too.
It was just like they couldnt decide or something...

[doublestrafe]

Did you set them to train?

Only in a danger room. When I want them at the shooting gallery, I have them Defend that Burrow.

Also, what bolts did you assign? Default setting or a specific material? How many?
I had severe "equipment mismatch" problems with the stacks of 5 that my bone carvers produced, so i went back to taking the 25-stacks of imported assorted bolts of any metal, which seemed to work better (not perfect) than the bone-bolts.

I left it at default last time. They probably wasted a lot of good metal bolts, but--especially with all the science going on saying that bronze is as good as any other metal--I don't really care.

[wuphonsreach]

Marksdwarves squads should be left at inactive year-round.  Otherwise they get stuck in the "going to archery" state and just stand there.

- Make sure their schedule is set to inactive / no training whatsoever.
- Make sure they have quivers and ammo.
- Setup archery targets, dwarves will go train when idle.
- (optional) Setup a barracks so they can individual train when idle and not at the range.

(It's a known bug with active training schedule marksdwarves.)

[Berossus]

Im still fighting to get them fully clothed.

Ive set them to replace clothing again in attempt to cover themselves in a selection of armor, and i set partial matches.
Should i go for exact matches isntead?


When my sqauds idle, they train, but those idiots train melee instead of archery despite having crossbows only (no melee weapons anymore) and full quivers. Or just quivers, because they are stnading next to a 200 bolt bin and wont reach down to grab some.

[Starver]

Marksdwarves squads should be left at inactive year-round.  Otherwise they get stuck in the "going to archery" state and just stand there.

- Make sure their schedule is set to inactive / no training whatsoever.
- Make sure they have quivers and ammo.
- Setup archery targets, dwarves will go train when idle.
- (optional) Setup a barracks so they can individual train when idle and not at the range.

(It's a known bug with active training schedule marksdwarves.)

Strange, I've always tended to do my usual with Marksdwarves as with Meleedwarves, which is to only give them an inactive and off-duty for the parts of the year (in whatever pattern of cycles I deem they should follow) that I'm wanting them to conduct their civilian purposes.

But I don't have a running game in front of me, so I can't tell you exactly what I've done with them.  Only I seem not to be bugging out in the way suggested.  I'll have to try to remember to check my currently active[1] game when I return home and work out what I'm doing "not-wrong", tonight/over the weekend.


Ninjareply to Berossus: Training melee with crossbows is what happens if you assign them to a barracks/equivalent for training.  When I'm either waiting for ammo to build up or happy that my marksdwarves are trained enough in ranged combat, I'll have them not TrainAssigned to the ranges and instead TrainAssigned to the appropriate melee area, and they learn whatever they can do (hammerdwarfish stuff if they have crossbows, wrestling and associated if they don't, armour stuff if they have any (sometimes I'll put them in heavy armour for armour training, even though I'll want them in leather for any active duty they might have).


So...  Could they still assigned to train at the barracks, etc, in your case?  (Not saying that's the whole solution.  I'm already starting to wonder whether I've got some "magic ingredient" in my setup, anyway, given that apparently I don't suffer from a Known Bug.)


(And I've never noticed clothing an issue, either.  Doesn't help, I know.)

Spoiler: Probably irrelevant footnotes (click to show/hide)

[1] Not this moment active.  I've got a Kerbal spaceship going round in solar orbit[2] in extreme hypertime, right now, on that home machine, and I'm wondering if it'll ever intersect the home planet again.  Deployed its chute, in case it happens to skim through the atmosphere.  Mission time of 2000 days and counting (unknown number of solar orbits, but more than the planet has done, as I'd inadvertently boosted 'backwards' out of its orbital influence to take a lower (averaged, highly eliptic) orbital path round the sun).

[2] Only downloaded the game (demo version) yesterday, and built a far too powerful ship.  (First non-tutorial ship launch went straight up into "thousands of Kilometers" of altitude, then straight down and parachuted almost onto the launchpad, but subsequent launches I could never keep straight/non-explodey.  Second one oscillated its parts way too much and broke up.  Third one I equipped with struts, but didn't realise I'd completely escaped the planet's gravity, because the orbital track appeared to show I'd impact the planet again, so kept going and used the last of the fuel of the final stage, by accident.

(Yes, I know there's a KSP thread, but it's a long one and I've only read the first page, so far, so would be rude to post, and also awkward to keep track of where I'd read up until, if I did so.)

[Berossus]

Is it possible that marksdwarves dont like metal armor?
Maybe thats the reason i get all that equipment mismatch and refusal to equip themselves.

On a related note, if i produce "a steel gauntlet/High boot", does the smith make a pair or just one? If so, left or right?

[wuphonsreach]

Here's what I use for my militia (civilian dwarves armed with crossbows), they stay inactive year-round and sometimes get squad-move orders to position them on the walls during a siege.

(r) over clothing (m) partial matches

metal mail shirts
leather cloak x2
leather shirt
metal cap
leather hood x2
metal leggings
leather trousers
leather mittens
leather gloves
metal gauntlets
metal high boot
metal high boot (repeated to fix a bug)
metal buckler
bone crossbow

750 units of ammo assigned to the squad (any material type is allowed)
carry drink, but carry zero food

No, they will not put on *all* of the armor right away, but as their clothing rots away, they'll put on the right stuff for that body part.  So eventually, they'll be wearing a half-decent set of armor.  And later on, you can always create a new uniform and assign it to the squad which is more specific to material type and is a "replace" uniform.

Partial matches means that they'll wear weird stuff like a pine mail shirt instead of a metal mail shirt.

Replace clothing means they immediately drop everything they are wearing and go naked until the next time they get the "pickup equipment" job.  For dwarves which are inactive year-round, this means you should temporary activate the squad by a squad-move order (order them to go to the meeting area or a dining hall).  Then cancel the order after most of them are in "pickup equipment" mode.

[Berossus]

Will this also make those buggers pick up bolts?

I have a new fortress now (at home), and the mountainhomes keep sending me legions of marksdwaves.
None of them ever fired a bolt...

I tried to keep the squad inactive, but they didnt visit their archery range once.
I set them to trainat the range, nothing.
I set up a barrack near the range, set them to train there, nothing.

Im just cursed i think.
Armok hates me.
He laughs at me, i am sure.
He sits on his mountain and laughs...

[Manze]

I was having a lot of trouble trying to get my marksdwarves to train, but finally managed to get them to do so. I had to set up each individual target as a range, none overlapping, making sure shooting direction was proper, and setting the marksdwarf squad to train there. Then I had to set up a barracks that overlapped the archery targets and range and also set up marksdwarves training there. They're on year-round training, and tend to alternate between shooting and basic combat training.