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[Rinkanu]

No matter what i do , i cant get my squad of marksmen dwarves to train

I built an archery range (didnt forget to assign it/set to train) with a huge stockpile of bolts close to it and set it up like my other baracks where my melee dwarves are happily training..

I assigned ammo , i had quivers made (but they wont equip em) , full leather armor sets (these are equipped) , crossbows..

I tried both inactive for individual drills and active/training to no avail.


They just sit in the dining hall drinking booze..

[Rinkanu]

I just made a regular "baracks zone" instead of an archery range , they are training but i do not think they are improving their skills with the crossbow

[Diavolo]

I am having exact the same problem. I have an archery range, and a barracks. In the barracks they train melee with their crossbows (blunt weapon), but they dont use the archery range I have placed.

Looks like archery ranges has been changed in the last version of DF, but I cant find the info since the DF wiki is down. Anyone who knows what we are doing wrong?

[Calathar]

Make sure your archery range is set for firing in the right direction - the dwarves need to be told where to stand when practicing. 

Also, your dwarves need quivers in order to shoot.  When creating a squad, I always use the "Archer" equipment, and have had no problem with dwarves grabbing quivers.  Try stationing them someplace with the "s" key - they should grab all of their equipment, including quivers.

Sometimes the dwarves will be "assigned" ammo that they don't pick up or use for whatever reason, and at that point you just need to redo the ammo assignment.

The last thing that may be happening is that your dwarves might be too unskilled - there might be a bug with unskilled dwarves not training at the archery range.  I am not completely sure, though.

All the barracks will do is have them train as a hammerdwarf with the blunt end of the crossbow.

[Rinkanu]

Make sure your archery range is set for firing in the right direction - the dwarves need to be told where to stand when practicing. 

Also, your dwarves need quivers in order to shoot.  When creating a squad, I always use the "Archer" equipment, and have had no problem with dwarves grabbing quivers.  Try stationing them someplace with the "s" key - they should grab all of their equipment, including quivers.

Sometimes the dwarves will be "assigned" ammo that they don't pick up or use for whatever reason, and at that point you just need to redo the ammo assignment.

The last thing that may be happening is that your dwarves might be too unskilled - there might be a bug with unskilled dwarves not training at the archery range.  I am not completely sure, though.

All the barracks will do is have them train as a hammerdwarf with the blunt end of the crossbow.

The archery range is setup corrently , shoot from right to left (targets on the left duh!).

Just disbanded the squad and let the game run abit.. then i remade it with the archer uniform with no results , assigned ammo etc

The squad captain (only dwarf that has the marksdwarf skill) actually picked up a quiver then dropped it after 4-5 steps..

when i set them to active/training , they all become recruits (1 even an axedwarf <.< ) and rush to the archery range doing nothing..

Stationing them doesnt work either..

[Calathar]

How high is your squad captain's marksdwarf skill?  I have a squad with a high master marksdwarf who regularly practices archery and a novice marksdwarf who never practices (hence the unskilled bug).

You do have the archery range set with your squad to train there?  There should be a T next to your squad's name.  I don't have the squad equipment Q, or individual equipment I selected.  Also, you should not have a barracks since that only trains melee.

I also have an armor stand in my archery range room with the position mode selected for each of my marksdwarves for them to put their armor in (I have seen it happen only once in another fort).  I doubt it makes a difference but I do have that.  When assigning ammo you do need to have the train T selected and not just the combat C.

Also, what version are you using?  Prior to 31.12 marksdwarves were buggy and rarely trained.

[Rinkanu]

How high is your squad captain's marksdwarf skill?  I have a squad with a high master marksdwarf who regularly practices archery and a novice marksdwarf who never practices (hence the unskilled bug).

You do have the archery range set with your squad to train there?  There should be a T next to your squad's name.  I don't have the squad equipment Q, or individual equipment I selected.  Also, you should not have a barracks since that only trains melee.

I also have an armor stand in my archery range room with the position mode selected for each of my marksdwarves for them to put their armor in (I have seen it happen only once in another fort).  I doubt it makes a difference but I do have that.  When assigning ammo you do need to have the train T selected and not just the combat C.

Also, what version are you using?  Prior to 31.12 marksdwarves were buggy and rarely trained.

Hehe , was sporting 31.03 i see. I downloaded a more recent version and tested just before you posted , i saw 2 different dwarves actually shoot but then showed "no job" , well better then nothing.

I should probably restart from scratch , maybe some stuff isnt right in the saves anymore.

Also when you make an archery range , you dont have to "make" one for each target and assign right?
I mean , if I make an archery range from 1 target wich contains other built targets they will all be used right?

PS: i got into DF via capnducks tutorials so i immediatly started with a tileset.. is there any way to increase the screen size of the standard version? (its kinda small)

[Calathar]

Also when you make an archery range , you dont have to "make" one for each target and assign right?
I mean , if I make an archery range from 1 target wich contains other built targets they will all be used right?

PS: i got into DF via capnducks tutorials so i immediatly started with a tileset.. is there any way to increase the screen size of the standard version? (its kinda small)

Normally I would look on the wiki, but it is undergoing maintenance.  I am not sure - but I had two archery ranges, with only one of them set to train but whose area overlapped the other archery target.  Judging by the broken arrows around it, only the set to train archery range was being used.  I set the other one to train as well, and sure enough, soon more little broken arrows were appearing around that one.  Pretty safe to say you need to set them to train.  Unfortunately I had only one dwarf training, so I am not sure if they will use the other one if there are multiple dwarves trying to shoot.

You should be able to resize the screen by making the window bigger if you are not in full screen mode.  On top of that, you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel (you can change the keybinding for zoom).  Both of these require the SDL versions, not the legacy versions.

[K4el]

No matter what i do , i cant get my squad of marksmen dwarves to train

I built an archery range (didnt forget to assign it/set to train) with a huge stockpile of bolts close to it and set it up like my other baracks where my melee dwarves are happily training..

I assigned ammo , i had quivers made (but they wont equip em) , full leather armor sets (these are equipped) , crossbows..

I tried both inactive for individual drills and active/training to no avail.


They just sit in the dining hall drinking booze..

Have you checked to see what sort of ammo is assigned to them in the military screen? More importantly have you check to see if your hunters are stealing all the arrows (bolts) your marksdwarves would be using?

[Rinkanu]

^ I have no hunters , simple as that.

i assigned em iron bolts wich i have tons upon tons of. and hell , the stockpile is right next to the archery range.

[Diavolo]

just would like to let everyone know I managed to get everything working with the archery range There were a few things I had forgot. Had no quivers (all had been taken by my hunters) had my iron bolts on forbid (a good thing actually so I didnt waste metal bolts on training) and had no other bolts. Now I have made some of bone bolts and my xbowmen are happy However, Im having one issue, bone bolts take forever to make. I currently have 4 craftsdwarfs workshops working 24/7 on producing bone bolts (and I have TONS of bone) but my crafters just cant keep up with my 5 hunters and 5 xbowmen firing bone bolts like crazy.

I have a stash of 100 iron bolts on forbid though, so enemy attacks are stopped fairly well. (have walls around my entrance with a bridge that I pull up when enemies attack and fortifications on the walls, so putting my xbowmen up there is quite effective) (Also, if the enemies break the bridge/gate (they can do that if they got trolls right?) I have a pressure plate on the inside that seals them off in the courtyard so they cant get further and cages with war dogs will open too) Now I just need more xbowmen and more bone bolts.

[Rinkanu]

OK i finaly got my dwarves to finaly shoot aswell =D

Seems it was simply my old version being bugged.

Anyway if anyone ever has trouble with it.

-> dont forget to assign bolts
-> see to it , your dwarves have quivers
-> you NEED to set an archery range evry single target and assign them to your squad else , only 1 target will be used.

PROTIP: If you "channel" the 2 tiles on each side of each target , the arrows will fall down INTACT , effectively reducing bolt usage in training by 2/3 if you set it up corrently

[Zaik]

One thing to watch for(just happened to me, actually) is if an archer picks a stack of ammo and you forbid it before they get to it, they won't select a different one, instead just standing around the barracks like an idiot.

The only way i could fix it was removing their ammo and then setting it again.

[clem131]

I have a similar problem, I can't seem to understand how the military works.
I just lost like 30 dwarves against 2 goblins:
- built a goblin blender, the kind with two pressure plates and 2 hatches and a bunch of weapon traps in the middle
- two goblins get on the two pressure plates at the same time, meaning that they won't move anymore but get stuck
- I had the iron bolts forbidden so that they won't use them for training, I unforbid them and assigned them to combat use on the military menu via the ammo button
- had my archery squad, which has the archery set of uniform, station in the archery range, which is also fortified so that they can shoot at the goblin blender
- they stay there  and do nothing
- I clearly recall forging bolts, buying them, and making quivers
Still, nothing happens no matter what I do, they won't shoot, and the 2 goblins are stuck behind pits so no melee. They also seem to have infinite ammo and shoot at anybody.
Abandoning is the only solution?

[Hans Lemurson]

PROTIP: If you "channel" the 2 tiles on each side of each target , the arrows will fall down INTACT , effectively reducing bolt usage in training by 2/3 if you set it up corrently

But don't under any circumstances be extra-clever and channel IN FRONT of the archery target.  Then you'll have NO marksdwarves using your archery range.