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[JoshuaFH]

I am thoroughly disappointed in my dwarves, for they are apparently completely bereft of both intelligence and compassion.

the squad of three champions i ordered to guard the only entrance to my fort abandoned their position when the leader got thirsty and went for a drink, and his subordinates followed him for no reason at all. It didn't occur to them that i had placed them there because the traps that would ordinarily have protected my fort were temporarily out of order and needed to be cleaned. I wish i had caught them slacking off sooner, but it didn't occur to me that my dwarves were unprotected.

So my guards left and i was unawares when, as if they choreographed it thousands of times beforehand, two simultaneous goblin ambushes appeared at my doorstep and descended on my innocent workers that were trying to maintain my traps. fortunately, they had cleaned enough traps to slaughter the first 7 of the 8 goblins, thinning their numbers, but disabling the rest of the traps.

my innocent dwarves ran, and i found my squad leader and reordered him to get his ass back over their. His lack of disciplined was astounding, for he stood their and continued drinking like a camel.

back at the entrance, the last goblin, a bowgoblin, was taking potshots at my dwarves, who, for some reason, weren't running away. I had noticed that among the group of dwarves was my Great Furnace Operator, an essential second generation migrant member of the fort. The first victim however was a newly arrived soapmaker. he would be missed but not mourned.

I then realized why they weren't running away, they kept re-queuing 'clean trap' as their job. Watching them dance about back and forth was revolting. "EEK! GOBLIN! RUN AWAY!" would be their action for one moment, then they'd forget about the goblin entirely as their lust for cleaning traps took over their small dwarven minds and compelled them to walk back towards the goblin waiting by the traps in some sort of hypnotized death-march. then they would run away again, and repeat.

i looked everywhere... EVERYWHERE for an option to make them stop doing this. i went into (o)ptions and disabled all actions, i disabled every labor preference the dwarves had, and even marked the floor they kept walking towards as "restricted" but nothing would stop them!

the goblin finally manages to hit another dwarf, a female lyemaker and a mother carrying her newborn baby boy, but she is not dead, but her leg and foot are broken. Her dance of retardedness is coming to a close it seems.

a puppy and a tame raccoon are the next victims, and a miracle occurs, the bowgoblin leaves! it would appear that the mother's life is saved. but then another ambush strikes, signified by a merchant's swordsdwarf who apparently doesn't give a damn about the goblin and heads towards the trade depot.

i successfully manage to get all the dwarves at the entrance to safety, except for the mother, who can barely move. the guards are still taking their merry sweet time at the drinking hole and a single goblin wrestler (where the other goblins are is beyond me) descends to kill the helpless lame mother. desperate, i quickly recruit her and tell her to fight unarmed so she will atleast defend herself. the struggle begins, the injured, inexperienced, and child-encumbered mother versus a trained goblin wrestler. they fight for a good minute, but it would appear that the mother and child are destined to die. I check up on the frickin champion guard captain and he's STILL DRINKING. frustrated, i appointed his unthirsty subordinate as captain, and the new squad leader makes his way to where the mother is.

its been some time, the mother is more injured than ever, the baby has a mangled arm and wrist. things look bleak, but she still fights for her life. they keep fighting for like another 30 seconds, and she's on her last legs, and she's trying to escape death. she struggles valiantly, and the guard captain gets their in time! he promptly dispatches the goblin wrestler and it would appear that the mother and child, while injured horribly, will survive and perhaps recover fully within a couple months.

then a frickin' goblin snatcher appears outta nowhere and grabs the child outta the mother's arms. the guard swiftly kills the snatcher, and the baby is hurled to the ground.

the mother, with an injured leg and now thirsty from the long time she's been their, is apparently unable to move to get her child. the baby, with a mangled arm and wrist, desperately and incoherently crawls about on the ground, not aware of his mom just feet away, passing out for a few moments every now and then from the terrible pain.

the goblins are gone, so i order everyone to resume duty, hoping that someone, anyone, would come to the aid of the poor mother and child. No one comes, every resumes duty, but no one cares in the least that they are walking past a horribly injured and valiantly strong mother and child that could die at any moment.

almost everyone has the "health care" job preference, but no one wants to abandon what they're doing to help. could it be that the dwarven caravan had arrived earlier, and the 'place item in depot' job has higher priority then helping a fellow dwarf?

that's where i saved. their info says they're not bleeding, but i don't know how long they'll last. what should i do to help them?

i Swear to god, if that baby survives, he's getting his own custom name and title.

[Rhenaya]

andthe easy way out would be:
assign one of the fellow dwarfs as squad leader and they would run back on duty as long the old leader drinks.

[Magua]

my innocent dwarves ran

In the grim world of Dwarf Fortress, there is only war. 

Innocence proves nothing.

almost everyone has the "health care" job preference, but no one wants to abandon what they're doing to help. could it be that the dwarven caravan had arrived earlier, and the 'place item in depot' job has higher priority then helping a fellow dwarf?

The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.

that's where i saved. their info says they're not bleeding, but i don't know how long they'll last. what should i do to help them?

There needs to be a bed to take the mother to; either in her own room, or an unclaimed one.  There needs to be a dwarf with the Health Care job who decides to do it -- you could raise the chances of this by having some dwarves who have *only* that skill enabled.  You may also need to temporarily turn off the "automatic" jobs -- all dwarves harvest plants, for instance -- from the 'o' menu.

Or, you could put the life and care of the mother and baby into the great hands of the Dwarf EmperorKing and trust that His will be done.

[Random832]

Health care is pretty buggy generally.

Another thing - I don't think anyone will come get the baby until the mother is recovered, so you may want to build a wall around it to protect from future ambushes/snatchers. Does anyone know if babies can starve/dehydrate?

Also, for future reference, did you try "dwarves stay underground" (and "soldiers can go outside" obviously)

To stop them from trying to clean traps, try forbidding the traps (not sure if/how this can be done, need to test. try either "q", "k", or "t" and see if there's anything in the traps you can select and forbid)

[JoshuaFH]

the mother is stuck on the ground. someone has brought her water so she's not thirsty anymore, but no one is trying to carry her to a free bed, which i have available. the baby is still wandering around with a mangled arm, and he is going further and further from his mom. what the heck is that baby trying to do?!

Health care is pretty buggy generally.

Another thing - I don't think anyone will come get the baby until the mother is recovered, so you may want to build a wall around it to protect from future ambushes/snatchers. Does anyone know if babies can starve/dehydrate?

I hope that gets fixed in the future, i can't stand to watch them suffer.

[Random832]

did you set a dwarf with nothing but health care enabled?

I think you can also cancel specific dwarves' harvest and bring item to depot jobs from the "j"obs screen; I managed to get my expedition leader to quit trying to haul stuff to the depot and meet with the liaison that way once.

When micromanaging someone this way you need to watch them - a "?" flashing on means they have found a new job and you can go into the "j" screen to check what it is.

[Jay]

tl;dr: (Too Long, Didn't Read)
Losing is Fun!

..Let me clarify.
I DID read it.
But that's basically the gist of it.

[Refar]

Babies will get thirsty and hungry and Dwarves will bring them food and water. If they can catch up to the little bugger before it jumps into the chasm that is.

[ByDurinsBeard]

Dorf logic claims yet another victim (the player, not the mangled mother and child). This is why my squads are all one-dwarf armies, and why during sieges I try to completely isolate my fortress from enemies. Corpse-looting was a horrid problem until the forbid-on-death option (thank Armok!) but the lure of unloaded traps is still too dangerous a prospect to allow dwarves have direct access to battleground. Use drawbridges, moats and fortifications to isolate yourself, build your traps outside your isolation zone, and generally have ranged attackers deal with enemies. And have a few cats or dogs or cows or whatever chained at chokepoints as early alarm system against sneaking ambushers.

[Ivefan]

The squad AI are something i hope toady is working on right now. Although the actions of your squad caused a lot of grief(for you, fuck the dwarves) Atleast their moronity did not make them leave a well fortified and perfectly safe killing pit, to take a long way around to run through a tunnel and go outside to try to kill some goblins with their crossbows.. in melee.. unarmored.. and leave the entry wide open for any kind goblins to enter and slaughter the rest of the dwarves.
and for some reason they all did this, even when they weren't in the same squad.
Oh, and if you've got the patience to wait till he's grown, train him hard so he can get vengace. It would be an interessting community story

[JoshuaFH]

tl;dr: (Too Long, Didn't Read)
Losing is Fun!

..Let me clarify.
I DID read it.
But that's basically the gist of it.

ya, i know losing is fun, the game proved that when my dwarves got mauled to death by carp, whats NOT fun however is losing because of stupidity other than my own. i just want to find ways to relieve them of their stupidity... and not let babies die for christ's sake.

Babies will get thirsty and hungry and Dwarves will bring them food and water. If they can catch up to the little bugger before it jumps into the chasm that is.

aw man, why would the baby kill itself? i read the article in the wiki that says a baby would kill itself if it's mother died, but she's alive, just immobilized.

Dorf logic claims yet another victim (the player, not the mangled mother and child). This is why my squads are all one-dwarf armies, and why during sieges I try to completely isolate my fortress from enemies. Corpse-looting was a horrid problem until the forbid-on-death option (thank Armok!) but the lure of unloaded traps is still too dangerous a prospect to allow dwarves have direct access to battleground. Use drawbridges, moats and fortifications to isolate yourself, build your traps outside your isolation zone, and generally have ranged attackers deal with enemies. And have a few cats or dogs or cows or whatever chained at chokepoints as early alarm system against sneaking ambushers.

thats a good idea, i'll build a gate out of floodgates and flip it on when enemies come near. But they're current stupidity is a huge hindrance and they're should be an easy way to keep them outta harms way. i heard something like a "panic zone" was already in the suggestion box. lets hope that comes out, cause it would be a good blanket solution to all the little stupidity problems.

and to ivefan, Hell yah!

[Ivefan]

The solution i found best has been to build defences outdoors, or atleast not in subterrain, by carving the roof away to make a buffer zone and replacing it with constructed tiles. thus a simple order to not let the dwarfs go outside will cause them to dance around by the buffer zone instead of entertaining goblins with dying noices.

[Refar]

aw man, why would the baby kill itself? i read the article in the wiki that says a baby would kill itself if it's mother died, but she's alive, just immobilized.[/quote]
It tries to kill itself when it is hungry or thirsty. I think it's not about suicide - more like "leaving baby unattended can lead to accidents".

[Marlowe]

DON'T HAVE SQUADS!!!!

Really, like; don't put your dwarves in squads. It's impractical for defensive purposes ANYWAY, because you need individual control to put, say, a Marksdwarf in the right spot on the wall. With the "entire-squad-runs-off-because-the-leader's-taking-a-nap" problem, it's totally impractical.

[Random832]

Babies will get thirsty and hungry and Dwarves will bring them food and water. If they can catch up to the little bugger before it jumps into the chasm that is.

aw man, why would the baby kill itself? i read the article in the wiki that says a baby would kill itself if it's mother died, but she's alive, just immobilized.

Babies not being carried crawl around randomly; they're not smart enough not to wander off a cliff. build a wall around it. (with an enclosed area large enough to allow you to build stairs down and an access tunnel for dwarves to bring it water)