I've been trying for two days now and I'm losing my patience...
I prepared everything for my first squad: I forged a helmet, gauntlets, greaves, high boots, mail shirt, shield and chestplate for every squad member, a backpack, a waterskin, a pair of gloves and a pair of socks all freshly made. Then I created my squad and assigned the uniform. I set it to replace regular clothing and to stay uniformed when off-duty.
But my dwarves are idiots.
They equipped the helmets, body armor and shields just fine, took their backpack and waterskin. And then put on 0-2 of their gloves, 0-2 of their socks and 0-2 of their high boots. I fiddled around with removing and re-applying the items in question, but it gave mixed results - one dwarf who had everything equipped except the boots took off one of his socks when I added the boots to his uniform (and did NOT put on the boots), for example.
Also, there are TONS of gloves lying around, I can see them in the stocks screen too, but the dwarves won't use them for uniform and they are missing from the "specific item" uniform selection screen. The bin is just sitting there, not being hauled, not forbidden. What gives?
Another squad was to be equipped with crossbows. I assigned 150 wooden bolts for training (6x 25) and 150 metal bolts for combat. Everyone went and took a stack of metal bolts. That's it. I then removed the metal bolts from the assignment, and they just kept them. After I changed the metal bolts from "combat" to "training" they used them, and after they had used up the stack I changed it back - they took wooden bolts now and continued.
Is the equipment system just FUBAR?