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[KassaK]

Hi,

I have (had) a nice fortress with an archer tower on top, the map is flat so archers can see and shot in every direction.

I was happy about that and was waiting for a siege for test my tower, and a big undead siege appear (more than 50 units).

I added a burrow in my tower and I scheduled the order "defend burrow" to my archers squad.

They went to the tower, started shooting everywhere through fortifications (that was cool) and all became very stressed very quickly (keyword stressed, haggard, harrowed...)

After that, they stopped shooting, and a tantrum spirale started.

I tried to send other "freshes" dwarfs, but same thing append.

They cant fight undead more than 30 secondes before becoming too stressed to fight, even if they are safe in the tower.

So first question, what is the fuck ?

Second question, how can I fight undead ?

I know that fight undead can be stressfull but that escaled quickly, and its not FUN at all.

[Urist9876]

Fighting is stressful, but what you experience is worse as usual.
Are you sure the dwarves weren't very unhappy already?

[KassaK]

They was at the normal state (all white in the bottom right screen).

I was in an evil biome, with evils clouds, undeads, so maybe they started accumulating negative thoughts, but before the siege I didnt have any stress problem.

[Sarmatian123]

Cages is the only good solution to any fighting, specially so long the psycho expansion is still on, or Toady finally bothers to fix it. As I understand Toady's last fix for emo-rage is a... priest in a temple. So I imagine, Toady wants you to define in this burrow tower a temple zone and... pray that the archers shoot enemies and not just constantly pray?     

Toady's stubborn enforcement of this psycho system and his enigmatic fixes for it, is a puzzle for me to be honest. Like using artillery to shoot down flies, because someone forgot... uhm... umbrella and it has to be neither sunshine or raining. Perplexing system. I wonder, if someone maybe should help Toady to redesign it anew and maybe have mercy on our Dwarves and implement it together with complex disease-medical release?    My poor Dwarves.     

[Urist9876]

Rangers guildhall. Improve ambush skill between shots.
Joke of course, soldier roles will not use temples or guildhalls on active duty.

Thinking of that: ranged dwarves turn somewhat civilian when getting new ammo. I had several times that the job got interrupted for seeing enemies through the fortifications. A very short path away from the fortifications that blocks vision helps. I'm not sure if this causes any long term stress.

In general my archers have less mental problems with undead (killing them at ranged is another story). They do not care for those dead bodies at all. They get more stressed from shooting live targets, unless that is changed recently.

I used to trap undead to release them in dedicated archer target rooms to train dwarves. Some of the dwarves even got happy from skill gains.

What type of undead you were fighting? if it is any of the new intelligent types, things might work out very different. Is there any special attack that could cause this stress?

[KassaK]

It was a mix of several things, undead goblins I think (maybe humans) and a lots of animals like spiders.

Spiders were throwing webs everywhere.

I don't use traps, even less cage traps, too easy.

[Urist9876]

Often blunt melee weapons are advised against undead. Those will often mangle bones enough to prevent reanimation. Hammer and mace users must be very well trained to become as effective as other weapon users. Melee fighting is often more stressful as ranged combat.

With the new special powers some undead or constructs are way too dangerous to fight in melee.

Would lava be a solution? Lava works on almost anything.

[knutor]

Your sniper roost, once archers were inside, did you lock its door? Were they Active or Inactive in a new alert linked to that burrow?  Just curious, facing similar problems here. Do you allow booze in their waterskin?

[KassaK]

No I didnt locked, there is only the burrow inside, but they can go out and back.

I tried both Active and Inactive, but on inactive they dont defend the burrow.

They didnt have waterksin, but I added a booze and food stockpile in the tower, inside the burrow.

[PatrikLundell]

Magma should work on the new necro experiments, as they're all organic, as should various forms of physical damage (menacing spikes on repeat, minecart cyclotrones, etc.).

[knutor]

ya, but the OP is on surface. prob in a more random embark than what you suggest, without the ideal volcano and waterfall.

Ive found higher
savage to ruin archery. Anotherwords, in some biomes, crossbow is no good, hunters cannot ply their trade. Hard to use stealth vs something with no eyes, which can smell brains(dinner bell)from the edge of the map. They used to lurch faster than a fleetfooted leopard. Range while in a roost is neat, the payoff for designing and implementation is rewarding. But have no roost and ya have to rely on mobility to remain in range. Roost/pillbox maybe only useful vs flying stuff, kea and flying animal men. I dunno.

I have had inactive soldiers fight, while set to a burrow. Maybe I put them there permenantly, cannot rem.

[anewaname]

@KassaK
It sounds as if your dwarfs were experiencing cumulative "attacked by undead" and/or the vengeful "this is my fight" thoughts.

Not that this should happen, it just sounds like what did happen. If dwarfs will attempt to walk away from the fight to reload and are interrupted by combat, and if dwarfs walk out of line of sight from fifteen enemies then walk into sight of another fifteen enemies, then those are the thoughts they would receive. In 45.nn, I've seen dwarfs receive more stress from a group of keas that were repeatedly attempting to steal items, than from a straight-up melee fight with 20 goblins, because of stacked vengeful thoughts.

Did you see many Pickup Item job cancellations during the combat?

[KassaK]

Did you see many Pickup Item job cancellations during the combat?

I dont think, they started shooting and after few seconds, they stopped doing anything.

They just stood in the tower, stressed, and get more stressed every second.

[ltprifti]

train your soldiers....