Topic: DF2014 Question and Answer Thread (Read 462584 times)

Niyazov · « **Reply #3585 on:** May 30, 2019, 04:14:07 pm »

Questions about site interactions:

Is there any negative repercussions for raiding nomadic groups not belonging to a civilization (i.e. bandits living in caves, camps or tombs) from fortress mode? E.g. can I safely raid human bandits and still get a Human caravan?

If I live near multiple civs of the same race, can I raid sites of one and still get caravans from the friendly group? I.e. raid one groujp of elves but continue to trade with another group?

If I conquer a site using squads that contain mercenaries, can I request their return and if so will they return with mercenary or citizen status?

If I conquer a nearby site can I request that all my soldiers come back?

Do I get some kind of notification if a holding gets attacked by an army or rampaging creature?

If I conquer a site, is it my holding permanently or can I lose it? Can I request that any named creature living at the site join my fort as a citizen?

How does tribute work? How frequently can I expect tribute? Does holding size affect tribute I receive? Can I actually meet any of my site's needs with tribute or will it just be a small number of random low quality items (similar to what I retrieve from raids)?

Has anyone run a fort that is totally reliant on raiding, trading and tributes rather than resource extraction? You could settle in a cave or lair and get food by raiding livestock, and you could get clothing, weapons and armor from sieges, but getting enough furniture seems like it would be tough.

xZippy · « **Reply #3586 on:** May 31, 2019, 02:46:15 am »

I know this is a very newbie question but... what the hell is going on with how dwarves fail to do anything when it comes to cutting down trees? You designate a dwarf where its highest skill is woodcutting but he still does nothing, even when turning off "labors" and "misc" and have many axes but nothing changes. Just... why?

FantasticDorf · « **Reply #3587 on:** May 31, 2019, 04:08:29 am »

Quote from: xZippy on May 31, 2019, 02:46:15 am

I know this is a very newbie question but... what the hell is going on with how dwarves fail to do anything when it comes to cutting down trees? You designate a dwarf where its highest skill is woodcutting but he still does nothing, even when turning off "labors" and "misc" and have many axes but nothing changes. Just... why?

Have you marked the tree in blue by accident? press m to switch between standard & marking. Woodcutting is a labor in the carpentry group, its not autonomous so you should probably turn your labors back on because it sounds like you've disabled it with a overreactive response. Woodcutting skill only matters to how efficient they cut wood, anybody can cut wood (without grievously hurting themselves unless they are un-agile or clumsy to avoid logs)

they can only hold 1 'weapon tool' like a pick or a battle axe (not wood axe, it needs to be sharp) at a time, and when they're set to either mining or woodcutting labors they'll switch.

Otherwise woodcutting is not as high priority a job as anything else so they need to be free, if you've set a woodcutter (who's picked up a axe, look at ther inventory with v to view and i for inventory) they need a few idle moments to calibrate to do it. Prioritywise dwarves are good at doing workshop jobs consistently, but they will always over-prioritise hauling wood logs to stockpiles and ignore other demanded jobs while this is going on

You can see what jobs are being done from the 'j' jobs screen and whether any dwarves are working on it. You can also mass disable wood hauling from the 'o' orders screen.

xZippy · « **Reply #3588 on:** June 02, 2019, 01:54:03 am »

Do dwarves (with high archer-related skills) automatically seek higher ground or player-made towers to get the edge on enemies?

Ulfarr · « **Reply #3589 on:** June 02, 2019, 03:17:26 am »

No.

And to make it worse, if you let them on their own they will just charge into melee with their crossbows. That means that if you want them to shoot from a specific location, you need to make sure that they can't just run off to the enemy. That also includes taking measures preventing them from climbing over the walls they are supposed to defend.

xZippy · « **Reply #3590 on:** June 02, 2019, 04:03:44 am »

So... to compensate, should I just make more melee weapons so the archers use that instead of trying to beat things up with bows?

Ulfarr · « **Reply #3591 on:** June 02, 2019, 04:29:11 am »

I'm not sure if it's possible to get them to equip both ranged and melee weapons at the same time. I've seen it getting mentioned a few times about certain equip orders but I have no idea if it even works or how to do it.

FantasticDorf · « **Reply #3592 on:** June 02, 2019, 04:34:17 am »

Quote from: xZippy on June 02, 2019, 04:03:44 am

So... to compensate, should I just make more melee weapons so the archers use that instead of trying to beat things up with bows?

Crossbowdwarves (your typical dwarves, if you have surplus ammo you could have bow-dwarves) with high weapon skill mostly remain put, but it helps to give them a little bit of wrestler training (dodging, discipline, close quarters fighting and observation) without their weapons like the rest of the normal squads. Champion noble (needs to be in a active squad, normally you could pick out your most veteran dwarf) could help you out with that if there's no one suitable in the squad already.

Its just ensuring they prioritize using the ranged weapon over the crossbow's pummeling blunt attack by having more skill into shooting well and accurately, copper crossbows are said to be the best because they are heavy and cheap to produce, though more dense artifact silver & platinum crossbows would be significantly more effective in melee.

It helps to micro dwarves to get to places where they would be safe to shoot or out of the way by using the individual selection on the 's' squad screen, when they are roughly in range you can switch back to group selection and designate them to kill targets, they normally won't feel the need to move at all if they are relatively close and dont start shooting straight away.

Worblehat · « **Reply #3593 on:** June 02, 2019, 04:34:13 pm »

Quote from: xZippy on June 02, 2019, 04:03:44 am

So... to compensate, should I just make more melee weapons so the archers use that instead of trying to beat things up with bows?

No. If your marksdwarves are in melee, they're wasting their time. I disagree with the copper crossbow advice; even a dense crossbow is terrible compared to real melee weapons, so just make your crossbows out of whatever material you like.

Using marksdwarves means constructing places where they can fire at enemies without pathing into melee. Archery towers or a shooting gallery (sec. 9.2 of that page) are the usual approaches. Regarding the archery tower, I'd recommend making a 9x9 tower with a 5x5 inner wall. Since station orders give dwarves a 3-tile radius to choose from, that way you can actually control which side of the tower the idiots stand on.

Deciding that marksdwarves are more trouble than they're worth and just not bothering with them is also a valid strategy.

anewaname · « **Reply #3594 on:** June 03, 2019, 06:57:04 pm »

You could assign a dwarf both a crossbow and a melee weapon (and no shield), then they will attempt to hit the enemy with both after they have closed into combat. A silver or steel hammer is a good choice.

FantasticDorf · « **Reply #3595 on:** June 04, 2019, 07:46:10 am »

Quote from: anewaname on June 03, 2019, 06:57:04 pm

You could assign a dwarf both a crossbow and a melee weapon (and no shield), then they will attempt to hit the enemy with both after they have closed into combat. A silver or steel hammer is a good choice.

Dwarves can't multitask like that, the specifics of things being strapped onto them is unknown but generally the crossbow is large enough to always be in the hand, they'd have to drop it to switch. Or never pick up either weapon at all.

I prefer to give them bucklers if anything at all, they least can hold onto those i think in the offhand. A fair amount of doging, archery and crossbow skill and they'll just kite enemies relatively up close.

xZippy · « **Reply #3596 on:** June 04, 2019, 09:06:08 am »

Is there any way to venture further than the borders of the world? Or are you just "locked in" that square space?

Niyazov · « **Reply #3597 on:** June 04, 2019, 10:30:47 am »

Quote from: xZippy on June 04, 2019, 09:06:08 am

Is there any way to venture further than the borders of the world? Or are you just "locked in" that square space?

If you mean the world map - nothing exists outside the world map, in any direction.
If you mean the embark site - you can send military squads to sites anywhere in the world that is accessible, and you can send your Messenger noble to sites you control. But all their interactions are simulated via worldgen-type mechanics rather than directly modeled.

anewaname · « **Reply #3598 on:** June 04, 2019, 12:09:13 pm »

Quote from: FantasticDorf on June 04, 2019, 07:46:10 am

Quote from: anewaname on June 03, 2019, 06:57:04 pm
You could assign a dwarf both a crossbow and a melee weapon (and no shield), then they will attempt to hit the enemy with both after they have closed into combat. A silver or steel hammer is a good choice.

Dwarves can't multitask like that, the specifics of things being strapped onto them is unknown but generally the crossbow is large enough to always be in the hand, they'd have to drop it to switch. Or never pick up either weapon at all.

I prefer to give them bucklers if anything at all, they least can hold onto those i think in the offhand. A fair amount of doging, archery and crossbow skill and they'll just kite enemies relatively up close.

Here is a dwarf with both an axe and a crossbow in combat:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This portion of the log is two dwarfs chasing and shooting at the camel (before this, a dog was killed and more bolts were fired). One dwarf closed to melee and started swinging his axe and crossbow, the other dwarf did not close to melee.

Or.. did you misread and believe I was saying that a dwarf could use a shield and switch between two weapons? Because... I did believe that before.

FantasticDorf · « **Reply #3599 on:** June 04, 2019, 01:00:33 pm »

News to me, but generally id account for whether your dwarves had the armor level encumberance (there's a cap, which is why sometimes you can't helmets over masks and other misc stuff) or whether they travelling without exterior armor light would have been enough to carry the weapon slung onto them. In past attempts it had been a pretty binary choice between ranged weapons and melee weapons on account of not picking up both usually because i make them wear the fullest extent of armor (mainly at least cloaks and leather armor for light ranged units).

Ill have to experiment with naked dwarves and see exactly how many layers it takes before they get uncomfortable and wont carry.

News:

Author Topic: DF2014 Question and Answer Thread (Read 462584 times)

Niyazov

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xZippy

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FantasticDorf

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xZippy

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Ulfarr

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xZippy

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Ulfarr

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FantasticDorf

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Worblehat

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anewaname

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FantasticDorf

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xZippy

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Niyazov

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anewaname

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FantasticDorf

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