Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[crossmr]

An issue I just ran into. I positioned my marksdwarves behind some fortifications to fire at an approaching squad of goblins..worked perfectly. I opened my gate with my melee guys behind it, and down the mountain the marksdwarves were waiting as the goblins had to walk past that area.
Problem was.. as they ran to get bolts or scratch their backsides or whatever, and needed to reposition. They suddenly thought they should run all the way through the fort and try and position themselves on the outside of the fortifications. They second squad of goblins coming from the other direction just happened to arrive at the gate at the same time that they were exiting, lost a level 14 marksdwarf, and another level 14 is seriously injured.

The biggest problem with the move command is that it defaults to an "area" and when positioning these guys you usually position them near some fortifications which makes them want to go on the other side sometimes.

[Matoro]

(m)ove -command is inaccurate. It commands the soldiers to move into any tile within 7 tile range from the cursor. So if you order them to move behind the fortifications, and the outside of the fortifications is within 7 tiles range, they will probably go there. You should use military burrows, they are more specific.

[crossmr]

(m)ove -command is inaccurate. It commands the soldiers to move into any tile within 7 tile range from the cursor. So if you order them to move behind the fortifications, and the outside of the fortifications is within 7 tiles range, they will probably go there. You should use military burrows, they are more specific.

Will those work when I have little pillboxes everywhere? I've built all kinds of fortifications all over my map. If a siege pops up, i've got all these little places I can send marksdwarves to pop up out of the ground, obliterate a squad, then move on to the next one.

[hiroshi42]

If your pillboxes are all at ground level and your marksdwarves can path to the outside then you might have issues.

I prefer to place my marksdwarves up one z-level from the surrounding terrain, this allows the free use of the move command without concern.

[crossmr]

If your pillboxes are all at ground level and your marksdwarves can path to the outside then you might have issues.

I prefer to place my marksdwarves up one z-level from the surrounding terrain, this allows the free use of the move command without concern.

Generally if I have them in the pillboxes, the main gate isn't open. They are around the map edge set around the usual areas various squads spawn. If I get a siege, I lock the door, send out the two squads to soften them up a bit. If I can't reach any or something like that then I'll call them back. Closer to the main entrance I've got various walls at various Z-levels that have fortifications carved into them. Depending on which way the enemy might approach the gate, I can put some guys in there to cut them off. It all works very well until I feel the need to open the gate. If I worry I'm spending too much time on the siege and might miss a caravan, I'll send out my 9 legendary guys with adamantium to mop things up.

Today I thought I'd try stationing the guys while opening the door. I had 2 squads I couldn't quite get. One was too far from the box, and the other had an elite human crossbowman. If there is an elite archer, I tend to leave those squads to last. If the siege hasn't broken, I send out the melee troops. The elite guys inevitably kill a marksdwarf or two, or most of them.

I just wish you could set fortifications with a "side" or something and tell your guys to line up on that side.

[slothen]

Defend burrow has worked well for me when I need the finer control.  You can either designate a different burrow for each place, or you can just use one and edit the burrow on the fly for where you want them to go.

[UberFuber]

Defend burrow has worked well for me when I need the finer control.  You can either designate a different burrow for each place, or you can just use one and edit the burrow on the fly for where you want them to go.

I basically do both.
Have 1 alert setup to have my marksdwarfs "patrol" a route that march them through my main fortification.
A second alert assigned them to a burrow, where I can designate on the fly to make them go to a specific watch-tower to shoot at gobbos.

[Sutremaine]

Another suggestion: make a dry moat around the pillboxes so that the only walkable tiles within the 7x7 area surrounding the station point are inside the pillbox.

[kingubu]

I build my fortifications on top of a wall, so there's no where to stand but right behind the fortifications.  Plus it looks cooler.

[Mr. Palau]

I fucking hate the Marksdwarves' AI. I sent a force of 100 Marksdwarves (literally almost everyone in the fort) against 8 goblins  Lashers and an elk bird, you know what happened? Marksdwarves decided to try and beat the shit out of the Lashers, instead of just shooting them, and I suffered 60 casualties, 2/3 of the fortress. Partially because whips are bugged, but mostly because the marksdwarf AI is just dumb. I promptly went back to an old save.

[hiroshi42]

I fucking hate the Marksdwarves' AI. I sent a force of 100 Marksdwarves (literally almost everyone in the fort) against 8 goblins  Lashers and an elk bird, you know what happened? Marksdwarves decided to try and beat the shit out of the Lashers, instead of just shooting them, and I suffered 60 casualties, 2/3 of the fortress. Partially because whips are bugged, but mostly because the marksdwarf AI is just dumb. I promptly went back to an old save.

Did you use a kill order or a move order?
Did they have quivers?
Did they have bolts?

Ranged AI may be wonky but I have not had an experience like that unless the poor sods went in unarmed or had a kill order.