Does this: Personality effects on training scare anyone else?
How much will personality factor into things? Is it going to be really bad to get someone in the military who isn't loving it? Will this cross over to other job training?
Here are some personality effects that have already been implemented, which I found by Ctrl+F'ing the
dev log for "personalit":
One: "I didn't want to sit around for skill demonstrations or individual drills, so I set sparring as the only available activity, even though nobody knew how to do anything. They still stood around doing nothing, because it was still failing the personality check for the instructor, who wasn't reckless enough to send such green recruits off to spar."
Two: "Finally got my first group of completely skill-free dwarves attending a striking demonstration given by a proficient dwarf. The teaching/learning skills/att/personality stuff is all up and running, and it was nice to see the students get their first skill increases (they also learned to be better students and how to concentrate better, he he he, as well as working on several of their mental attributes, which come back to increase the quality of their learning). The naturally distractable/lazy dwarves need to make harder rolls during these passive presentations or they blank during some of their lessons, though they can overcome their deficits with skill and attribute improvements."
That should give you an idea of what's going in. There are probably other personality effects, and I expect he won't want to spoil all of them.
Personality effects will eventually play a role in other jobs, yes. I think Toady's said it's the kind of thing he'll be adding more of over time.
Do soldiers who drink from their flasks or eat food from their backpacks automatically try to rush off and replenish their supply as soon as they consume something? Will they eat their food at a chair/table if it's close enough?
They won't desert their posts unless they're starving (found by Ctrl+F'ing the dev log for "schedule"): "Soldiers are now divided up and assigned to their squad's scheduled orders such as patrols/training and so on according to hunger, thirst, etc. as well as preference settings and to match staffing minimums set in the schedule, and they know what equipment they should use. It'll periodically swap out soldiers to try to keep all of the month's schedule items staffed without interruptions. If it is unable to find replacements, soldiers will staff positions until they are starving (which shouldn't happen if you don't order them all to be someplace)."
Dunno about the chair/table thing, but I'm guessing no.