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[Sanctume]

I think the main reason this topic has become inactive is that we've pretty much figured it out. Separate necessities out into areas only reachable with a bridge of repeating training spears over water. Put in children. Maybe add a hospital just in case.

...and have them fight monsters and zombies barehanded for a decade once they toughen up a bit. A well-rounded education really helps later in life.

In the current version there seems to be a bug regarding playing children and burrows, but once that's settled out all the recent child care methods in this thread should work in .42.xx.

Did you do any test yet in terms of Lil`Urist playing with steel toy hammer to use as deadly weapon versus guest lecturer yet?
How about gold mugs before the fix?

[Staalo]

Did you do any test yet in terms of Lil`Urist playing with steel toy hammer to use as deadly weapon versus guest lecturer yet?
How about gold mugs before the fix?

No, it took me about six months to get them gradually back to the basic training room and I haven't dared to move them anywhere from there. So far no one has been trying to use a toy as a parrying weapon, even when food pots etc. have found such use.

I have been trying something new, though; inspired by this thread I now have two ballistae firing non-stop into the daycare. In addition to providing extra training with ballista arrows I'm hoping to use them to find out if recovering from severe injuries really trains Recuperation as mentioned in the wiki. I feel bad about it, but sometimes one has to make others to make sacrifices in the name of science.

So far there has been plenty of training and no injuries. It seems that my students have gotten a bit too good at this kind of thing; mostly they dodge the  arrows effortlessly without even interrupting their play and when the wooden missiles do hit they only bruise muscle or skin. The worst result so far has been one kid dropping his roast into the swimming pool and stinking up the whole room when it started rotting.

I'm not sure if the children should really to be able to just shrug them off like that. In real world history ballista missiles have for instance been known to nail a horse to another horse... and these kids just bounce them off their skins?

[chaotic skies]

Me thinks ballistae are too weak

But yeah, why isn't anyone dead yet? These are BALISTA BOLTS. These things aren't small, nor are they slow-moving. They're big, fast projectiles that were used for defense because the only way to counter them is either a wall or a lot of troops.

[khearn]

Yeah, but you're using wood ballista bolts. I think a little research will show that the Romans used metal pointy bits at the front of theirs. You're just tossing a bunch of broomsticks through the room. Try making some bronze ballista bolts and see how they bounce.

But yeah, all the siege weapons are basically placeholders until Toady gets around to the siege arc.

[Staalo]

I know, I know... I didn't dare to use metal bolts because I figured that way I'd only get messy corpses instead of injuries. But even wooden bolts should at least do something.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Temporarily evacuate most of your students from the main room, fire a couple of whatever metal is least effective (but better than wood) at the leftover students and slowly ramp up the metals until it causes injuries more severe than a bruise.

Although, to be honest, these dwarves seem like they'd just jump on the ballista bolt and ride it into the nearest wall, if that were possible.

[NightmareBros]

But even wooden bolts should at least do something.

I don't see the problem - Dwarven Children are learning to completely disregard wood as something that exists, which is much more dorfy.

[Sanctume]

Instead of coins, use wood ballista bolts instead.
For science, see if your wood ballista bolts do the same bruising via a "coinstar" room? 

[Skullsploder]

These injuries should eventually cause them to not feel anything anymore, based on the fact that dwarves with major injuries have managed to acquire various levels of that status in my forts without actually seeing enough death to cause it.

But if you want very reliable injuries, make the water pit 3z rather than 1z. My main issue using such a pit for military training was that in full armor the only injuries they got were split lips and mangled ears - not serious enough for hospital, but enoughnof them consecutively cause bleeding out. However, with unarmoured kids, broken arms should come long before they bleed out due to bloody noses.

Also try copper ballista bolts maybe? It should cause lots of fractures without killing them. Probably.

[Sanctume]

Can you make bone ballistas?
bone ballista bolts would be next to escalation?
Wait, is the damage from the material of the ballista tip only?

[khearn]

Try making your bolts out of bloodthorn or glumprong, they're about twice as dense as most other woods. If you don't have any of those, mangrove is a distant third, followed by oak. There a list of densities on the wood wiki page.

[Staalo]

I forged some copper arrows and fired them into the training room. At first the results were mostly similar: almost everyone dodging everything, with only one student getting bruises from a lucky hit. Then the last bolt decapitated a planter who had sneaked in to avoid work, in very spectacular manner. I suppose with enough bad luck that could have happened to one of the students, as well.

So... lessons learned, one: always lock the doors when doing live fire exercises in the classroom, two: wooden ballista bolts are ineffective and metal ones are way too dangerous. Time for another experiment.

What's next? Do I start dropping them on their heads from few z-levels or make them to navigate a gauntlet of moving minecarts to eat their dinner? It's hard to hurt these students anymore when they've spent their whole lives training how to not get hurt.

[chaotic skies]

Hmm...I suggest a monthly gladitorial-ish fight against a single, disarmed prisoner of some kind. Goblins should work perfectly. Those who die are not strong enough for our purposes >

[Sanctume]

Hmm...I suggest a monthly gladitorial-ish fight against a single, disarmed prisoner of some kind. Goblins should work perfectly. Those who die are not strong enough for our purposes >

That gobbo will die in 1 punch.  These kids pulp un-nerfed zombie and FB "guest lecturers" without weapons.  I think they are all legendary in non-weapon skills.

It's got to be a clown vs all kids setup at this point, no?

Maybe so some kind of checkerboard style splitting, with the intent to split the clowns in smaller packs and releasing to the kids.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

How about low quality ballistæ firing low quality copper bolts?