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[dirty foot]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I played, so could someone help me with my military problem?

My biggest issue right now is that every dwarf keeps bouncing back and forth between civvy and military. It's loading them all up with the "angry from long patrol" and "angry from being relieved from duty" moods. At first, I thought it was because I had the minimum troops set to the default 10, but now at 3 they're still randomly changing back and forth. I'm going to have a full-fledged tantrum spiral if I don't pin this down.

I checked online for a possible patch, but all I saw was some "binary" fix, but I couldn't even find a link to it. I'm really quite noobly at this kind of stuff, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Caldfir]

are you sure the military is set up properly or is there a chance their schedule is strange?

how frequently are they swapping back and forth? 

are they stationed somewhere or just training?

is it just one squad or are all squads behaving this way?

[Xinael]

This is the binary patch. It was the first result when I googled "dwarf fortress binary patch". However, I'm not sure it'll solve your problem - the bugfix prevents thoughts from long patrols accumulating even though the patrol was stopped afaik. The swapping back and forth is a separate issue.

[Telgin]

To fix the bad thought from being relieved from duty, just make sure that the soldiers have at least Novice level skill in some civilian skill.  Pump operator is a good one, since it trains their attributes a bit, is easy to set up, and keeps them from wasting materials training up.

[dirty foot]

are you sure the military is set up properly or is there a chance their schedule is strange?

how frequently are they swapping back and forth? 

are they stationed somewhere or just training?

is it just one squad or are all squads behaving this way?

There's a possibility that I don't have it set right, but I'm pretty sure I do. All training, all the time. I try not to complicated it, because I'm still pretty bad with that part of the game. I only have the one squad right now, but I can make another and see.

I noticed that the military/civ/military switch happens in at least two special situations:

1. When they go to sleep.
2. When I send them on a direct order and either cancel the order, or they complete it.

To fix the bad thought from being relieved from duty, just make sure that the soldiers have at least Novice level skill in some civilian skill.  Pump operator is a good one, since it trains their attributes a bit, is easy to set up, and keeps them from wasting materials training up.

I was reading up on doing this, and I should probably just go with it as a temp solution. I just really wanted to have a dedicated military.

[Manveru Taurënér]

Are your squads set as inactive or active/training in the alert level setting thingy? :>

[dirty foot]

Are your squads set as inactive or active/training in the alert level setting thingy? :>

They are set as active/training, but I don't think a wrong setting here would be the source of the problem. It looks like there's some glitch where they very temporarily switch between civ and military.

[Manveru Taurënér]

Are your squads set as inactive or active/training in the alert level setting thingy? :>

They are set as active/training, but I don't think a wrong setting here would be the source of the problem. It looks like there's some glitch where they very temporarily switch between civ and military.

The wrong setting there will lead to exactly what you're describing (did for me at least), as they swap to civilian as soon as they don't have an active military assignment. Could be a glitch with the setting not enacting itself properly. Just to make sure, have you both set the alert level to active/training in general as well as tying each squad to be active with that specific alert? (took a while for me to figure out it wasn't automatic as well)

[dirty foot]

Are your squads set as inactive or active/training in the alert level setting thingy? :>

They are set as active/training, but I don't think a wrong setting here would be the source of the problem. It looks like there's some glitch where they very temporarily switch between civ and military.

The wrong setting there will lead to exactly what you're describing (did for me at least), as they swap to civilian as soon as they don't have an active military assignment. Could be a glitch with the setting not enacting itself properly. Just to make sure, have you both set the alert level to active/training in general as well as tying each squad to be active with that specific alert? (took a while for me to figure out it wasn't automatic as well)

Since I don't understand you, there's a good chance that you're right. I will tinker with the settings and get back to the thread.

Here's a pic of what the screen looks like before I change it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Does this look right?

[Caldfir]

Those settings look correct. 

I may recognize this - if your dwarves are sent out on patrol or stationed somewhere long enough for them to become hungry or thirsty or tired, when the order is cancelled they sometimes rush back in civ mode to get food/water/sleep.  The frequency with which this happens can be reduced if the dwarves have backpacks/waterskins filled with food/drink, and are set to sleep in their own beds while on duty (this is the default setting) and have their own bed to return to.  My guess is that "drink" and "eat" are civilian jobs while "drink from waterskin" and "eat from backpack" are military jobs, so the dwarves attempting to not die of dehydration/starvation temporarily switch back to being civilians to take those jobs. 

As has been mentioned it is easy to give the military dwarves some civilian training to reduce the frequency of the bad thoughts.  My go-to is usually mechanics, since I usually end up wanting mechanisms and traps placed in dangerous locations, and it is easy to train up if you have plenty of junk stone. 

[dirty foot]

Those settings look correct. 

I may recognize this - if your dwarves are sent out on patrol or stationed somewhere long enough for them to become hungry or thirsty or tired, when the order is cancelled they sometimes rush back in civ mode to get food/water/sleep.  The frequency with which this happens can be reduced if the dwarves have backpacks/waterskins filled with food/drink, and are set to sleep in their own beds while on duty (this is the default setting) and have their own bed to return to.  My guess is that "drink" and "eat" are civilian jobs while "drink from waterskin" and "eat from backpack" are military jobs, so the dwarves attempting to not die of dehydration/starvation temporarily switch back to being civilians to take those jobs. 

As has been mentioned it is easy to give the military dwarves some civilian training to reduce the frequency of the bad thoughts.  My go-to is usually mechanics, since I usually end up wanting mechanisms and traps placed in dangerous locations, and it is easy to train up if you have plenty of junk stone.

I think you may be on to something. My dwarves are all missing flasks at the moment (I always forget to make them), so I will fix that and see if the issue goes away. My only concern now is why they're doing it when they go to sleep. I Have a barracks set up with beds, and set for them to sleep in. I'm wondering if there's some interaction that I am not noticing.

[dirty foot]

Loaded them up with waterskins and backpacks, sent them on a sentry order, and then canceled it. They switched to civ, then right back to military.

I think I'm just going to get these guys working on some pumps to avoid the issue entirely.

[☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼]

After seeing the title, I was sure that thread will be about shooting werepigs with exploding dwarves.
Sadly, it wasn't.