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[JoshuaFH]

yeah, title. i have two marksdwarves right now, each with exactly the same settings. but while one is a good marksdwarf and always carries arrows when i put her on duty, the other is a bad marksdwarf and while he uses arrows to shoot at the archery targets, whenever i put him on active duty, he never seems to have any arrows on him nor will he pick up the bundles of arrows that are lying EVERYWHERE.

in his soldiering screen, he's set to carry a crossbow, have one weapon, wear platemail, and carry a shield, but wheres the "PICK UP THE ARROWS YOU IDIOT" button?

[Refar]

Dwarves will usually carry training bolts (wood or bone) in hand and live ammunition (Iron or Steel) in a quvier. Does he have a quvier ? If so you can look inside to chek if there are bolts.

[JoshuaFH]

nice to see you here refar.

well, it would appear my problem has solved itself, because while he didn't have a quiver, he didn't carry arrows, but now that i made him one, he's carrying them now.

Oh well, i have another question though. say a marksdwarf is positioned ontop of a section of well, behind fortification. ontop of said section of wall, behind the fortification, i've also placed an ammo stockpile so alot of arrows end up their. my question is, if my marksdwarf were firing at an enemy below, and he ran out of ammo, would he pick up the arrows lying at his feet, or would he abandon his fortification to slug it out melee style?

[toast]

i tried this once. im fairly sure that he reloaded but honestly i am not certain.

[Refar]

He will usually reload.

You might however want to lock him up in the room for the duration of the battlle to a) make sure he reload and b) to prevent him from going on a smoko-break during the battle.

And thanks, nice to meet you too

[Bromor Neckbeard]

my question is, if my marksdwarf were firing at an enemy below, and he ran out of ammo, would he pick up the arrows lying at his feet, or would he abandon his fortification to slug it out melee style?

One hopes that he would, but this is only guaranteed if the ammo stockpile at his feet is the only one in the entire fortress, or if he has no path to any other ammo stockpiles.  If you have more than one, he might just as well decide that those goblin raiders will wait for him to hike all the way across the fortress to pick up the OTHER bolts that are half a mile away, because he doesn't want THESE bolts, he wants THOSE bolts.

On the bright side, if there's fortifications between him and the enemy, unless the enemy is directly outside of the fortifications, there's virtually no chance of him deciding to use the butt of his crossbow rather than the pointy things it shoots out.

[Warlord255]

Crossbows use bolts.

Bows use arrows.

You cannot use bows.

[JoshuaFH]

yeah, just replace everytime i said "arrow" with "bolt" and thats what i mean....

Wait... did i buy like 500* worth of stupid elf arrows thinking they were bolts?! damn the elves!

anyway, i have one more arrow related question. i have a "mega corridor", which is a long underground tunnel roughly 90~ units long and 11 units wide that acts as the only entrance to my fort. after i finished laying down a plethora of weapon traps to secure the tunnel, i thought "i can do better than this" and so i've begun training siege operaters with the intent of honing they're skills so they can fire giant frickin' ballista bolts down this corridor for great effect.

so yeah, i have a couple dedicated siege operators and one siege engineer to manufacture the ballista arrows and place them in a special stockpile that only accepts ballista arrows right next to the entrance ot the tunnel for convenience. (and having disabled ballista arrow acceptance on every other furniture stockpile. and btw, why furniture? i would think ballista arrows would go into the ammo stockpile.).

anyway, 3 ballistas side-by-side shooting down my 11 tile wide/90 tile long  corridor, thats my plan, but is it practical? i've never used siege weapons before.

[Pilsu]

Wait... did i buy like 500* worth of stupid elf arrows thinking they were bolts?! damn the elves!

Give them a really big arrow back next time they show up

If you're going to use ballistae, it's recommended you funnel them into smaller pathways. And do bear in mind they're notoriously inaccurate so don't expect to level the entire invading force with just siege weapons

My own setup has 2 3 tile wide pathways with ballstae at the end but it hasn't seen any use yet so can't tell you how useful it is. Sure looks neat

[Bromor Neckbeard]

anyway, 3 ballistas side-by-side shooting down my 11 tile wide/90 tile long  corridor, thats my plan, but is it practical? i've never used siege weapons before.

Actually, yes, that should kick a substantial amount of ass, should you funnel invaders into that tunnel.  Just put your ballista behind some fortifications, and be aware that once the enemies get within 20 or so spaces, they will abandon their posts and run away.  Siege operators are civilians, so they get their tasks interrupted just like any other non-military dwarves.  90 spaces should be quite enough, though.

I have personally killed five goblins with one ballista shot.  They rule, in certain situations.  I've never seen anything survive a shot, (although I haven't tried using them on HFS or megabeasts) the problem is just getting targets into their line of fire, which shouldn't be an issue with the setup you're describing.  I'd suggest training your siege operators on catapults, though, unless labor is no problem in your fortress.  Catapults can use any old stone you've got laying around for ammo, ballistas have to use specifically manufactured ammo.

Also, even though this goes without saying, keep your dwarves out of the line of fire.  Unlike crossbow bolts, ballistas and catapults don't discriminate between hostiles and friendlies.  It doesn't do you any good to kill ten goblins in one second if you also pulverize four champion axedwarves.

[Vicomt]

I have a group of 5 ballistae looking out down the road into my fortresses exterior entrance complex.

I can indeed confirm that they rock. The first volley annihilated one squad and took out about three or four gobbos behind that.

[JoshuaFH]

haha, nice, looks like all my effort is gonna pay off.

[Refar]

Now i got a problem like this myself 

I have 4 Elite Marksdwarves
I had them use "Unarmed" for a while so they could spar and pick up some Armor skill.
They are Legendary Wrestlers now (but did not become Chamions and still listed as "Elite Marksdwarf"  )

Now i switched them back to Crossbows.
They picked up crossbows and quviers but no bolts. When off duty they continue sparring instead of going to a archery range...
And on duty they just hang around without ammo...

Any way to get them back to shooting again ?