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[Hans Lemurson]

I discovered that if a crossbow bolt strikes an object  and there is no floor beneath it when it strikes, instead of being broken and "used up" it will fall harmlessly to the level below.  I then had a genius idea: If I dug a channel in front of my archery targets, then I'd be able to recover all of the bolts my marksdwarves fire!

Slight problem though: Marksdwarves will refuse to use a target unless it has solid unbroken floor between the marksdwarf and the target.  As soon as I dug my ammo-catching channel, my dwarves all stopped doing any target practice whatsoever.  I even tested this with a lever-operated hatch.  When the hatch was closed my dwarf was shooting away, but as soon as I pulled the lever to open the pit he cancelled his task with 17 bolt left in his quiver and wandered off.  Well, there goes that scheme for unlimited ammo.

I did however notice that dwarves will often slightly miss their target one square to the left or right.  This means that not every bolt will land in front of the target they are shooting at, which means that you can set up ammo-collection pits in places that won't interfere with shooting.  I came up with the following plan:

Code: [Select]

vXvXvXv
v v v v
v v v v
v v v v
v v v v
v v v v

X = Archery target, v = channel

Alternate your archery targets with channels and any bolts which miss the target will fall into the pits and can be recycled.  I think that the further back your marksdwarves stand, the lower their chances are of hitting the target.  If this is the case then making your archery ranges as long as possible will be the most efficient way to recycle your ammunition.

[JoshBrickstien]

There was once a setup for this, it involved a goblin snatcher running back and forth across pressure plates that opened and closed doors. They shot at it, and the doors closed, the bolts fell down, ect.

[Hyndis]

I prefer live fire training. First send them to the danger room for a while to work on their shield using ability. Once they're ready just send them out to wherever you want them stationed. Be sure ammo is close by. Let them just figure it out on their own.

I of course don't rely entirely on marksdwarves, but the marksdwarves do thin out the herds quite nicely. With legendary+5 shield user they are nearly invincible and so dabbling marksdwarf skill doesn't matter. They will be legendary+5 marksdwarves soon enough and you won't waste ammo while you're at it.

You can get about 2-3 bars of iron per goblin slain. This is 50-75 bolts. It should not take 50-75 bolts to kill a goblin. Thus, you will be gaining iron.

[Corambis]

This is a good idea.  I'll have to try to implement it, although my fortress is almost to the point where I will have more iron bolts than I need

[Hans Lemurson]

There was once a setup for this, it involved a goblin snatcher running back and forth across pressure plates that opened and closed doors. They shot at it, and the doors closed, the bolts fell down, ect.

That is fascinating!  It would be interesting to try to set up.  Do marksdwarves gain experience simply by firing or do they have to actually hit something?

[candylord]

I don't tend to use marksdwarves anymore, since the invention of the danger room, but IIRC, all they need to do is shoot to gain exp, hitting the target isn't necessary

[Diavolo]

I tried out the trick of having channels on the sides of the targets and having the shooting distance pretty far (8 tiles or so). That worked pretty well for me. Saves about 30% of my bolts.

[Hyndis]

I tried out the trick of having channels on the sides of the targets and having the shooting distance pretty far (8 tiles or so). That worked pretty well for me. Saves about 30% of my bolts.

You can still do this. You just have goblins be the targets and make sure there is a channel behind where they walk through the shooting gallery. Then you can pick up the bolts that missed later on.

[Puck]

It used to be kind of a pita, because you get tons of stacks of one bolt.

Can dwarfs restack them by now?

[Hyndis]

They don't restack them but they do grab multiple stacks.

[truckman1]

IIRC, someone managed to use the "gobbo-snatcher-pressure-plate" tactic to make infinite adamantium.