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[Eidre]

Trying to judge the level of micromanagement required on this one...say a dwarf is a member of a squad that has "metal headwear" in its uniform, and he is currently wearing a copper cap that he salvaged from a goblin.  When an iron cap rolls out of the forge, will he automatically go and grab it, or will he stay happy with what he's already wearing until he's giving a uniform that specifically tells him to wear iron headwear?  What will he grab if there is both an iron cap and a copper helm available?  Or an iron helm and a bronze helm?  Or two iron helms of different quality?  Or two iron helms with the same quality and different levels of decoration?  Or an iron helm 2 tiles away and a steel helm 43 tiles away?

What I'm trying to judge is whether my dwarves will automatically upgrade themselves to the best weapons and armor available to them when they're given broad parameters like "metal headwear" (thus requiring minimal micromanagement unless I want specific squads or dwarves to upgrade first), or if I have to manually change their uniforms with increasingly good metal as it becomes available.

[vicwarrior]

I think they will automatically upgrade gear unless they have grown attached to a piece of gear.

[Button]

Trying to judge the level of micromanagement required on this one...say a dwarf is a member of a squad that has "metal headwear" in its uniform, and he is currently wearing a copper cap that he salvaged from a goblin.  When an iron cap rolls out of the forge, will he automatically go and grab it, or will he stay happy with what he's already wearing until he's giving a uniform that specifically tells him to wear iron headwear?  What will he grab if there is both an iron cap and a copper helm available?  Or an iron helm and a bronze helm?  Or two iron helms of different quality?  Or two iron helms with the same quality and different levels of decoration?  Or an iron helm 2 tiles away and a steel helm 43 tiles away?

What I'm trying to judge is whether my dwarves will automatically upgrade themselves to the best weapons and armor available to them when they're given broad parameters like "metal headwear" (thus requiring minimal micromanagement unless I want specific squads or dwarves to upgrade first), or if I have to manually change their uniforms with increasingly good metal as it becomes available.

They will upgrade, but they're stupid about it.

In my experience, they usually wait to make uniform changes until they're called on for military duty. Which is the absolute worst time to do so.

They also judge upgrades by (as far as I can tell) the following standards:
metal > leather or bone
steel > iron/bronze > copper > silver
then quality

So you'll get idiot dwarves replacing masterwork leather shields with (copper shield)s from the latest goblin invasion; masterwork silver war hammers with (iron war hammer)s; and masterwork bone crossbows with (steel crossbow)s.

They also don't seem to take coverage into account, so if your dwarf is wearing a (steel cap) it won't upgrade to a (steel helm).

[Fluoman]

What I read (dunno where), is that dwarves equip themselves:

• Squads equip themselves in descending order (first squad chooses first etc)
• Dwarves in the squad equip themselves in descending order (first dwarf in the squad chooses first in the squad etc)
• Equipment is chosen according to value (highest value is chosen)

This is pretty consistent with empirical evidence.

[greycat]

but they're stupid about it.

That covers every facet of dwarven existence.

They also don't seem to take coverage into account, so if your dwarf is wearing a (steel cap) it won't upgrade to a (steel helm).

A (steel cap) should be melted down immediately, or at least dumped/forbidden.  That said, the dwarf would upgrade if the steel helm has a higher monetary value (but then some other dwarf would probably grab the damned cap, if the uniform allows it... and if not, a civilian definitely will).

[MerkerBenson]

Best to manually equip your militia, otherwise you might end up loosing your awesome militia commander with 500 kills because he's wearing a *(bone helm)* artifact instead of his "=steel helmet="
Manual equipping them also seems to prevent the weird equipment issues they have sometimes ,when they wake up in the middle of a battle, drop all their stuff, and go to "pick up equipment" somewhere in the middle of the latest siege

Cheers

[MasterShizzle]

Macros will save the day.

I start with my standard equipment, and record a macro of me doing it. Then whenever I make a new squad I hit Ctrl-P to assign them my standard armor kit, then pick a weapon for the squad and they're done. No fuss.

[doublestrafe]

Macros will save the day.

I start with my standard equipment, and record a macro of me doing it. Then whenever I make a new squad I hit Ctrl-P to assign them my standard armor kit, then pick a weapon for the squad and they're done. No fuss.

I use macros all the time. And I assign uniforms all the time. Why in the hell have I never thought of this?!

[MrsStick]

Okay, so one more question. I've just started eqiupping my military manually (hey, I never quite got it before...). Once I've assigned, say, my militia commander something, will it no longer show up in my other members' lists of available items to equip? As in, will it disappear from the list of availables?

[Melting Sky]

Macros will save the day.

I start with my standard equipment, and record a macro of me doing it. Then whenever I make a new squad I hit Ctrl-P to assign them my standard armor kit, then pick a weapon for the squad and they're done. No fuss.

That is a damn good idea.

As others have mentioned if you leave the dwarves to figure things out themselves there are some problems you will run into even though it is far easier to do it that way. The worst problem I run across is how dwarves will go on an unstoppable suicide run across the map to pick up some piece of fallen globlinite they fancy while still in the middle of a massive siege. The job priority on that suicide equipment run they go on will trump everything else including burrow assignments, alerts, squad orders, even individualized squad orders given directly to the afflicted dwarf. Nothing will stop them from reaching the object of their obsession aside for their death, physically making it impossible for them to reach the coveted item or going into the millitary equipment menu and manually reassigning them specific new gear that can be found somewhere safe inside the fort.

[Urist McRas]

Okay, so one more question. I've just started eqiupping my military manually (hey, I never quite got it before...). Once I've assigned, say, my militia commander something, will it no longer show up in my other members' lists of available items to equip? As in, will it disappear from the list of availables?

It will still appear, but red colored.