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[DTF]

Hey,

honestly, this game is pure awesomesauce. Apart from the military.
The military screen with all its features is great, you can schedule everything, set alerts and restrict burrows to civilians. I worked it all out just fine.

But when it comes to the situation, that an alert is being activated or the dwarfs get a "move" or "kill" order some go bananas.

For some weird reason a few dwarfs get stuck in an infinite loop between the acutal order I gave them and "Pickup Equipment". They go to the armory, "pick up" their equip, wander off a few tiles (seemingly following their order)  and then turn around again to pick up some more gear -- DESPITE the fact they already have their full uniform equipped!
After a while some of those feel the need to go to sleep or go for lunch, etc since they spent so much time in the armory deciding on what nice dress to wear. Maybe assigning custom uniforms screws up something?
All this happens while the rest of the squad is acutally fighting (and losing having fun due to not having full strength in numbers).
The lucky few who arent dead within minutes randomly decide to go to "Store Item in Bin". RIGHT! Way to go, Urist McIDoFashionShowsInTheArmory and Urist McILeftMyIronOnBRB.

Having them following the order given by the current alert's schedule (e.g. Defend Burrows) often results in similar chaos. Fashion Shows in the Armory continue. Sometimes, giving them another order (while "Defend Burrows" is active) like "Kill this" or "move there" ends in "Soldier (cannot follow order)" for up to a minute or them going "Store Item in Bin": Unbearable if you have to be quick on diverting your troops elsewhere.
Taking them off their current alert level to Inactive and then issuing the orders works fine - apart from the fact that whenever they go off and on duty their happiness drops, resulting in a moody military...

I think the happiness drop also occurs on the 1st of each month, since I see a lot of messages like "Bla has become Fisherdwarf" "Bla has become Marksdwarf/Fashion Designer".


Is there any way to forbid them to repeatedly Pickup Equipment or to let them actually stick to the orders I give them (and not wander off to Store Items)? Maybe I could try locking up the armory but this would be not very flexible.
I just want them ALL to move/follow the order asap... in a group... not one by one.

Slightly OffTopic:
I really tried to avoid mass traps. But this military is less organized than a bunch of headless chickens.
Currently, I just raise my drawbridge while the goblins/kobolds amass out there, hiding in the shadows.
Last time I tried to help immigrants my military was slaughtered (although better equipped with all steel) since they go in one by one.
Funny enough, once they locked on to a target, they never let go. The bloodthirsty dwarfs then dont care if I give em another order or they run alone right into the group of goblin bowmen.

[Laiska]

hmm iv never had a dwarf going to pickup equipment when iv gave a movement order, maybe you got the squad on inactive, and civilian clothes on while so. so when they go to combat mode they notice they forgot to get any weapons. i have a U-turn entrance made with walls, 2nd floor with archers, furthest entrance with a kitten on leach and my military standing behind the curve. gives my military time to regroup before they can actually see the enemy. i do lose dwarfs a lot tho but im prepared for that (keeps the population in nice 70-40 dwarfs depending how hard tantrum spirals i get  ) iv yet to get any sieges but... for ambushes its fine those 20 bronze-cladded dwarfs.
About schedules i have 80% of my military drafted 24/7, some get a unhappy face, some dont. they just need to live with it, those that are about to be put into microcline coffin do not need to care.

[Psieye]

I've not had much issue with equipment dancing, and such equipment bugs were thought to be mostly fixed in .12. The default solution to curing that was to delete the whole squad and start over. Then they'll equip everything once and hopefully that'll be enough.

Military getting unhappy is only because they don't have civilian and military skills. Cross-training makes them immune to that unhappiness. Mind, with the nerf on individual weapon drills that can be rather hard unless you've embarked with a drill sergeant.

[DTF]

I've not had much issue with equipment dancing, and such equipment bugs were thought to be mostly fixed in .12. The default solution to curing that was to delete the whole squad and start over. Then they'll equip everything once and hopefully that'll be enough.

Military getting unhappy is only because they don't have civilian and military skills. Cross-training makes them immune to that unhappiness. Mind, with the nerf on individual weapon drills that can be rather hard unless you've embarked with a drill sergeant.

Yeah, i deleted my entire military and it works better now.

I did embark with a drill sergeant (though it didnt really help too much). Apparently my dwarfs need skills like "Axedwarf" etc to get off the recruit status - that may be  the problem why they moan about on/off draft.
Thx for the answers, lets hope I can crack the 25+ ambushers out there that slaughtered several cyclops...

[Psieye]

I've not had much issue with equipment dancing, and such equipment bugs were thought to be mostly fixed in .12. The default solution to curing that was to delete the whole squad and start over. Then they'll equip everything once and hopefully that'll be enough.

Military getting unhappy is only because they don't have civilian and military skills. Cross-training makes them immune to that unhappiness. Mind, with the nerf on individual weapon drills that can be rather hard unless you've embarked with a drill sergeant.

Yeah, i deleted my entire military and it works better now.

I did embark with a drill sergeant (though it didnt really help too much). Apparently my dwarfs need skills like "Axedwarf" etc to get off the recruit status - that may be  the problem why they moan about on/off draft.

That IS the problem, yes. Incidentally does your drill sergeant have Teachign skill? If not, then it's going to be a long while to get everyone out of recruit status.

[JimboOmega]

My latest military equipment issue - a new recruit arrived with gloves AND mittens, and now refuses to take off either to put on some steel gauntlets.  *sigh*.  It wouldn't be so bad but it seems that was the case for all of the last batch of immigrants.

[Urist McTaverish]

How do I give an order to kill? I just got a couple kobold thieves and the military sat around doing nothing.

[JimboOmega]

How do I give an order to kill? I just got a couple kobold thieves and the military sat around doing nothing.

There's one I can answer.   s for squads, a/b/c for the squad you want, k for kill, cursor over target.  ta-da.

[Arekis]

The only equipment weirdness I've seen my axedwarves do was early in the embark.  I had 2 or 3 dwarves (woodcutters) and when they went from training/order to their civ job or even from order to training, they'd just drop their weapon.  No matter where they were.  If they were training, they'd drop it near the barracks, that's fine.  If they were waaay out in the field killing something, they'd drop it waaay out in the field, run back to the barracks, decide that they need that axe for training after all, and rush unarmed all the way back to pick it up.

Eventually as the fort grew and they got better trained, this wore off.  Two things may be helping: accessible weapon and armor stockpiles, and many more axes than are needed.  Neither were present when the fort was just starting out.  The other axedwarves weren't woodcutters either, so maybe there was something in that too.