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Author Topic: Armed/armored civilians  (Read 824 times)

BadLeo

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Armed/armored civilians
« on: September 01, 2015, 02:32:58 pm »

To arm the civilians is easy: just set them all as woodcutters. The problem rises when you designate large amounts of trees to chop down and your legendary armoursmith decides to climb all the way up from the magma forges to cut the most distant tree you designated. But that's just a minor nuisance before the great advantage of greatly increasing their chance or survival when they face troglodytes, trolls and other disgruntled neighbours. Except if the fort is susceptible to undead visits. What you people think on the subject?

Armouring a civilian, though, is tricky. It seems they'll pick chain mail shirts if they're available, but other than that, I don't know. Any advices on how to do it effectively?
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Bouchart

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Re: Armed/armored civilians
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2015, 02:40:09 pm »

I don't see why you couldn't assign them to squads and then never give them a place to train.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Armed/armored civilians
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2015, 02:49:38 pm »

Bouchart's suggestion is the standard one. You create civilian squads that are not given anywhere to train and set to inactive. It's not uncommon to also set armor to replace clothing to ensure the civilians actually wear helmets etc (else caps etc get in the way). This is also a method used to block out the chore of dealing with xsockx deluges, as armor doesn't wear down from normal use.
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BadLeo

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Re: Armed/armored civilians
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2015, 03:06:50 pm »

I don't see why you couldn't assign them to squads and then never give them a place to train.

Yup, I should have done that as soon as I embarked. Now, at almost 200 dorfs, it's a bit of a chore. But it solves the armour issue and have the bonus of both not having the woodcuting issue and letting me assign any kind of weapon.

This is also a method used to block out the chore of dealing with xsockx deluges, as armor doesn't wear down from normal use.

I either DFHack that problem or just create a single tile of refuse stockpile set to accept only cloth direct below the abandoned, forbidden piece. As cloth rots and fades away over it, I delete the stockpile. Not a single haul is given to it.  :P
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Bouchart

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Re: Armed/armored civilians
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2015, 03:14:58 pm »

The only problem with this is that armor tends to be heavy and it'll slow everyone down unless they train in Armor User.  I usually don't bother with armor for this reason.
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BadLeo

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Re: Armed/armored civilians
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2015, 03:43:53 pm »

The only problem with this is that armor tends to be heavy and it'll slow everyone down unless they train in Armor User.  I usually don't bother with armor for this reason.

I'm thinking on giving all of them leather armour. Better than nothing against unarmed critters. And I wish there was a way to filter through squads or hide them on the military screen. Because there will be a lot of squads.
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If you think dogs like socks, that's because you never met a dwarf.