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[pR1sm]

evening guys(dwarfs),

haven't played DF for a long time yet and just lost another fort, but i'm not mad, everything went very well and the fort lasted quite long. eventually troglodytes were able to enter my fort due to some tunnels i had digged being open to a cavern, managed to kill a dorf and FOR SOME REASON ALMOST EVERY DWARF IN THE FORTRESS WENT COMPLETE APESHIT ABOUT IT, TANTRUM EVERYWHERE OH WELL. nevermind..

anyways, while im happy with my progress so far there are a couple of things i definitely can improve on, so i came to the forums to broaden my knowledge on certain matters hope you guys can answer some of my questions

-melee squads not sparring: so far i havent been able to get my dwarfs to actually train some real time combat. they've got all the equipment they need, they have a baracks, they are assigned to that barracks to train and sleep there, but everything they do all day is "individual combat training" which doesnt seem to increase their skill in any particular field at all....

-marksman-dorfs: didnt happen to me in my last fortress, but in the fortress before that my marks-dwarfs, at a certain point, stopped "acknowledging"the existence of any kind of ammunition, even though said ammunition was literally lying before them in the baracks on a stockpile that only accepted ammunition T_T yes, i took all ammunition away from the hunters, but still, the copper bolts wouldnt show up on the ammunition menu... fortress fell when my squads heroically tried killing the trolls by bashing their faces in with wodden crossbows. yeah, well...

-caged animals/enemies: how do i butcher caged animals? i can assign them the tag "ready for slaughter" however the butcher wont do anything, in fact, no jobs will be listed at the butcher's workshop. do i have to train them first? also, how do i strip the belongins away from caged goblins/trolls etc etc.?

-textil scattering: dwarfs seem to throw away ragged clothes wherever they stand as soon as something new of that class (shoes, socks etc) has been produced by the clothier and then i have to clean up after them, manually designating hoods, cloaks, mittens, which are lying on beds, stockpiles, the royal dining room,  and so on for dumping which is tiresome if you have other stuff on your mind.. is there any way to prevent this? i'd like them to bring their ragged clothes to the garbage dump by themselves

-obscure magma: for real. nowhere to be found and i went as deep as 145 z-layers. arent they similiar to caverns in that they are announced when the miners are getting to their z-layer?

thanks in advance

[VerdantSF]

-melee squads not sparring: so far i havent been able to get my dwarfs to actually train some real time combat. they've got all the equipment they need, they have a baracks, they are assigned to that barracks to train and sleep there, but everything they do all day is "individual combat training" which doesnt seem to increase their skill in any particular field at all....

Small squads are best.  2 or 3 dwarves, with minimum of 2 set to train.  I had my first legendary military members within 5 years of training.  Might have even been as early as three years with my current fort, but I can't remember for sure.

[Raphite1]

-melee squads not sparring: so far i havent been able to get my dwarfs to actually train some real time combat. they've got all the equipment they need, they have a baracks, they are assigned to that barracks to train and sleep there, but everything they do all day is "individual combat training" which doesnt seem to increase their skill in any particular field at all....

This happens in large squads. If you make smaller squads of 2-3 dwarves, and edit the scheduled order to only require two dwarves (instead of the default ten), then they'll train each other and spar FAR more frequently.

Alternatively, you can have larger squads, and edit the schedule to have multiple orders for two dwarves to train. This is a bit more complicated.

-marksman-dorfs: didnt happen to me in my last fortress, but in the fortress before that my marks-dwarfs, at a certain point, stopped "acknowledging"the existence of any kind of ammunition, even though said ammunition was literally lying before them in the baracks on a stockpile that only accepted ammunition T_T yes, i took all ammunition away from the hunters, but still, the copper bolts wouldnt show up on the ammunition menu... fortress fell when my squads heroically tried killing the trolls by bashing their faces in with wodden crossbows. yeah, well...

Not sure on this one, I usually only have 0-1 marksdwarf per fortress, so I don't have much experience.

-caged animals/enemies: how do i butcher caged animals? i can assign them the tag "ready for slaughter" however the butcher wont do anything, in fact, no jobs will be listed at the butcher's workshop. do i have to train them first? also, how do i strip the belongins away from caged goblins/trolls etc etc.?

Yes, wild animals have to undergo a round of training before you can butcher them from the menu. Alternatively, you can release them near your military so that the military kills them, and then wait for the corpses to be butchered.

To remove belongings from caged creatures, set the cursor for mass dumping (d -> b -> d), and select the cage(s) with the desired creatures. Then manually "k" over each cage, and deselect it for dumping. The equipment worn by the cages' occupants will still be marked for dumping, and eventually dwarves will come and carry off the equipment.

-textil scattering: dwarfs seem to throw away ragged clothes wherever they stand as soon as something new of that class (shoes, socks etc) has been produced by the clothier and then i have to clean up after them, manually designating hoods, cloaks, mittens, which are lying on beds, stockpiles, the royal dining room,  and so on for dumping which is tiresome if you have other stuff on your mind.. is there any way to prevent this? i'd like them to bring their ragged clothes to the garbage dump by themselves

Give the dwarves chests and cabinets in their bedroom, and eventually they'll store their old clothes there. When the clothing gets old and tattered enough, they'll take it to a refuse stockpile where it'll rot away.

-obscure magma: for real. nowhere to be found and i went as deep as 145 z-layers. arent they similiar to caverns in that they are announced when the miners are getting to their z-layer?

The magma sea will be announced when your miners breach it. You'll probably first become aware that you're close when they start cancelling dig designations due to warm stone. Just keep heading downward and branching out... it's somewhere past the third cavern. The actual z-level can vary considerably from map to map.

[VerdantSF]

Alternatively, you can have larger squads, and edit the schedule to have multiple orders for two dwarves to train. This is a bit more complicated.

Unfortunately, while it looks equivalent on paper, it doesn't match up in actual practice.  I tested this out a while back.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=113918.msg3480810#msg3480810

Multiple orders in a single squad is still better than a full squad of 10, but not nearly as good as separate squads.  I wish the opposite were true.

[Garath]

actually, when everyone is doing individual combat training, it sounds like you need to activate the squad first. As long as they're not on active duty they'll only do any training when having free time and only individual trainings

note that there are some issues with taming/training the mounts from invaders, you're better off putting them in a cage in a 'target ranged', release them and have some life targets for the militia

[pR1sm]

thanks for the replies so far guys. some of your answers raised some more questions for me

-"Yes, wild animals have to undergo a round of training before you can butcher them from the menu. Alternatively, you can release them near your military so that the military kills them, and then wait for the corpses to be butchered."

by releasing do you mean hooking up the cages to a lever or is there another command to release them?

-"To remove belongings from caged creatures, set the cursor for mass dumping (d -> b -> d), and select the cage(s) with the desired creatures. Then manually "k" over each cage, and deselect it for dumping. The equipment worn by the cages' occupants will still be marked for dumping, and eventually dwarves will come and carry off the equipment."

would the dwarfs then dump these belongings to the garbage zone or move the items to their respective stockpiles?

actually, when everyone is doing individual combat training, it sounds like you need to activate the squad first. As long as they're not on active duty they'll only do any training when having free time and only individual trainings

i might have been doing this since the very beginning but since im not sure: how does one activate squads?

[joeclark77]

by releasing do you mean hooking up the cages to a lever or is there another command to release them?

That's one way, but it's rather tedious.  Look up the wiki page on mass pitting for a better way.  Basically it involves dumping animals/monsters out of cages, through floor hatches, into a room on the level below where your military are prepared to kill them.  The room below could alternatively be set up for archery training, or an archer/melee combo.

actually, when everyone is doing individual combat training, it sounds like you need to activate the squad first. As long as they're not on active duty they'll only do any training when having free time and only individual trainings

i might have been doing this since the very beginning but since im not sure: how does one activate squads?

From the main menu type (s) for squad interface, select your squad (i.e. (a) for squad A), then press (t) to change "schedules".  Assuming you haven't defined your own schedules or changed the default ones, "Inactive" means do your normal jobs, and "Active/Training" means train 24/7.  You can define your own schedules, too, so you can make one for example where the dwarfs train 8 months and go off duty for 4 months, or execute some other orders like patrolling or defending a location.