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.