My marksdwarfs sometimes carry around buckets instead of waterskins. Anyone know why this is? I have tons of skins available.
I have a theory about the phenomenon I call flask exhaustion.
If you look at the inventory screen of a fully uniformed military dwarf, you'll see he's carrying his flask or waterskin in one of his upper-body garments, like a coat or mail shirt. It's in a pocket, is how I look at it.
I
think whenever dwarves take off that upper-body garment (to change uniform or swap out an item, for instance) without first putting down the flask, the flask becomes forbidden. I haven't actually observed this happening directly, but I often find forbidden flasks laying around in the stockpile where my body armor is stored. So make sure none of your flasks are forbidden. I find the easiest way to do this is from the stocks screen; flasks are listed on the second screen from the bottom, I think, and you can mass-unforbid them there, if some of them have gotten forbidden.
Flasks in general seem to me to be kind of quirky. I typically set all my dwarves to train all the time — and make up for the bad thought by letting them sleep in their bedrooms, which are nice. So in theory, they should train for months straight, only refilling their flasks a time three or four times a year, since each flask is supposed to carry like three or four drinks. But I often see my soldiers (who are supposed to be on duty) drinking in one of the booze rooms. It seems like even if they're carrying flasks, they aren't always inclined to use them.
More likely, I just don't fully understand flask mechanics.