i have a bunch of little questions. Some background - i have three squads of 6-10 dorfs each. they are all set to use some combination of metal/steel armors including breastplates and chainmail, and their choice of weapon (unless i've gone in there and told the axedwarves to use axes and the swordsdorfs to use swords to capitalise on their skills). The arsenal dorf does his job and they continually go and grab new armor. my questions,
1. when they go to pick up armor, is each dwarf upgrading his armor as the armorsmiths churn out better armor? once a dwarf is armored, he does replace it if something better comes along?
2. if i want to melt down all the no-quality and non-iron/steel armor (get rid of bronze and copper armors, etc), what is the best way to do that? i want them to drop the armor if its not iron/steel or of 'x' quality and replace it with something else. what happens if i
a) designate it for melting
b) designate it to be forbidden
c) designate it to be dumped?
Will each of the three cause them to drop the armor and replace it with something else, or do i need to use combinations of the two? Will furnace operators grab dumped items for melting if its flagged?
3. i have 20 captured goblins. in the old version i think you could go down their items list and mark them for melting or dumping. how do you accomplish this in df2010? now that goblins wear same size as dwarfs, i want their metal armors and weapons at least for melting and putting into traps.