Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Aethios]

So I'm running a fort where I have a fairly complicated path the monsters have to follow to get to my entrance, with a 3 z-level tower in the middle for my Marksdwarves to shoot from while watching the poor creatures scurry around. The problem is that at some point, the Marksdwarves run down from the tower, all the way through the maze, and then proceed to get murdered by the incoming hordes of whatever baddies are currently besieging us.

This brings us to my question: How do I make them stop?

Is my tower too small? It's 5x5 including the walls.
I don't think they are running out of bolts. Sometimes once they reach the bottom, they continue shooting.
The maze underneath is considerably larger than the tower in the middle, so could be the monsters are getting protection behind a wall and the Marksdwarves are trying to get a better shot.

What do you think?

[NeedsDF2GetThruWorkingDay]

Dig the staircase down further so that it connects to the underground/inside of your fort. Put a wall, or maybe even fortifications and a pit/moat, around the staircase at ground level.

This prevents your marksdwarves from running out onto the battlefield, and gives them an additional safe place to fire from. You should probably surround all exposed staircasing with walls or fortifications, too.

If you really want your marksdwarves to stay up there, make room for a wall and a door around the staircase at the top, and lock them up there.

[TettyNullus]

I think there're a setting in the squad menu to say if they chases after the enemies, check that? Other than that, I have no idea, they're probably just getting too much andrealine and feeling like mashing the other guy up? 

[Smew]

I have a feeling this is more of a line of sight problem than anything else, but I could be wrong.

[Neurovore]

I have a suspicion that it's an ammo thing.

If they run out of ammo in their quiver they will do 1 of 2 things: Get more or go beat something over the head with the crossbow. I'm guessing they choose option #2.

Try making sure there is a nearby ammo stockpile, and that this stockpile is closer to them than the invaders, and that there are actually bolts in the stockpile, else no matter how far you make them walk, they will try to engage in melee. I've found 1 z-level below is very effective.

I recently had a dragon visit before my defenses were complete, and a had a lone elite marksdwarf and 8 legendary wrestlers ready. After getting them all stationed, the marksdwarf shot his 1 single steel bolt, then proceeded to run straight at the dragon. After screaming at my computer and stationing him at the other edge of the map, I was confused that the dragon wasn't moving. Sure enough, he had neck/brain injuries from the 1 bolt. It took a few solid minutes of my wrestlers curb-stomping the dragon before it was all over.

[dsi1]

You can set them to stay close to their posts, (m->v->c I think) and then put a small ammo stockpile there, that might help.

[AncientEnemy]

set them to stay close to station, this will keep them from chasing down enemies (really all marksdwarves should have this setting, if they're set to chase they use their ammo and then run in to melee instead of reloading).

you may in fact need a taller tower, perhaps even one that branches out over the maze. depending on how narrow your maze is, and what the walls are made out of the dwarves might not even have line-of-sight on the enemies. i'd make the maze walls out of bars if you can (or even channels), fortifications would work for allowing line of sight but would reduce your dwarves' ability to hit their targets.

[Aethios]

I had tried the "stay close to station" setting long before starting this thread, but it didn't seem to do anything. I did try to make a stockpile for ammo but I didn't get to try it out before my Marksdwarves all got themselves brutally murdered.

I decided to abandon the fort and start a new one, and try to design a better defense system this time. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll be sure to include them.

[Iapetus]

I have a suspicion that it's an ammo thing.

If they run out of ammo in their quiver they will do 1 of 2 things: Get more or go beat something over the head with the crossbow. I'm guessing they choose option #2.

Try making sure there is a nearby ammo stockpile, and that this stockpile is closer to them than the invaders, and that there are actually bolts in the stockpile, else no matter how far you make them walk, they will try to engage in melee. I've found 1 z-level below is very effective.

I recently had a dragon visit before my defenses were complete, and a had a lone elite marksdwarf and 8 legendary wrestlers ready. After getting them all stationed, the marksdwarf shot his 1 single steel bolt, then proceeded to run straight at the dragon.

I've taken to perodically checking my ammo stockpiles (z > stocks), and melting or forbidding any ammo stacks of less than about 8 bolts.  (So long as I also have some decent sized stacks as well).

That should ensure that they have enough ammo carried when they go into battle.

[cancel.man]

If you really want your marksdwarves to stay up there, make room for a wall and a door around the staircase at the top, and lock them up there.

Or use a hatch.

I've learned to make my towers bigger than 5x5- much bigger. Otherwise even if I put my station point in the center of the tower the dwarves will sometimes choose to be on the other side of the fortification.
Also good, as suggested above, to make sure the marksdwarves have no good, clear way to get to the enemies they see.

[Aspgren]

Dwarves are idiots.

In the latest siege one of my legendary champions was on his way to fight the gobbos and suddenly decided "meh. i'll have a nap" and a nap he had ... right in front of 17 goblins. They cut his arms off and he bleed to death before the rest of the squad arrived.

In the same siege I didn't want to challenge goblin bowmen so I let them approach my tower... a marksdwarf captain climbed into firing position and fell asleep. His troops stood there and watched him, I assume they covered him with a blanket or talked about how cute he looked WHILE UNDER GOBLIN FIRE! I gave one of them command and suddenly they thought it was important to fight again. The new captain was hit in the stomache and limped away.. his troops followed and I raged.

Want them to stay put? LOCK THEM IN! that's the ONLY way.

[AncientEnemy]

I just realized something else it might be: dwarves will try to pick spots "close" to their squad leader, even if in reality those spots require them to travel a hell of a long way. I had a problem like this awhile back, with handy screenshot:



dwarves would run from the archery targets all the way around and outside my fort over and over. breaking them up into 1-dwarf squads will fix the issue if that's what's causing it.

[Albedo]

Or mechanize a bridge to strand them where they belong.  You could make it a drawbridge that doubles as a door that seals up a hall, protecting any who are on the one side from anything unpleasant on the other side of it, if that helps anything.