Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rollory]

I have a problem somewhere.  Ratmen, lizardmen, siege, whatever.  Ok.  I select a few squads and tell them where to station.  Then I wait.  Nothing happens.  Hm, why?  I look in units.  This little piggie is sleeping, this little piggie is filling a waterskin, this little piggie is eating, this little piggie has decided to pick up some equipment that just became available, and this little piggie went "wee wee wee" all the way home.

Sometimes I'll have a commander who is actually on the ball and ready to go.  Half the time, he gets most of the way there and then - "Drink" or "Eat" or "Sleep" or some other nonsense.  And those of his squad that are ready follow him, of course.

Where's the Sheriff when you need him?  Why can't I slap these mutinous jerks in prison?

Meanwhile the hostiles are partying, and half my civvies are bouncing back and forth between the core area and whatever jobs need doing in the problem area that they keep getting scared off from.

When a squad is on duty, NOTHING should supercede that.  When a squad gets put on duty and stationed somewhere, ALL dwarves should WAKE UP and go to the position.  Perhaps they fight less effectively because they are tired or hungry or whatever - tough.  Orders is orders.  They should follow 'em.  All that other activity should be allowed ONLY when off duty.

This might cause problems with standard patrol routes and remembering to take squads off duty.  There are various ways to handle that, setting up time limits on the duty period and so on.  Depends on preference.

As it  stands I have just decided that the only effective way of getting a force somewhere is to
1) form a squad and set it on duty,
2) station it somewhere,
3) re-promote all the members of the squad back into their one-dwarf individual squads, so the ones who are ready just GO, and the others can screw around with whatever it is they think is more important than the greater good of Dwarfness.

[RPB]

I think there should just be another option for the squad settings. You'd have "standing down" (they all go do their own thing), "on duty" (they hang out at their station), or "on alert" (they go to their station and will not leave except to chase down enemies, if they're set to give chase). That way you can still put them on duty and have them usually be somewhere near their assigned area, but you don't have to worry about them starving if you forget to give them a break.

[Aquillion]

And if they still disobey orders, it could be a crime, and the hammerer would get involved...

[Gronut]

I find the military to be pretty unresponsive - certainly not as responsive as your legendary mason rushing out to get a fallen comrade's corpse from the clutches of the evil goblin invaders and their ravenous beak dogs. What seems to sort of work, what someone else suggested to me, is that you use the patrol command rather than the station one. You could set a patrol route a few squares long and any dwarves in the squad that are ready to go should go on patrol, even if the squad leader is sleeping our out having a smoke, or throwing hot bits of charcoal at that kobold y'all captured last week.

[bbb]

you know.. a side effect of "When a squad is on duty, NOTHING should supercede that" is soldiers die of thirst/hunger if you forget to take them off duty (i suppose they could be made off duty by default)

perhaps they automatically kick themselves off duty when hungry/thirsty?

[Aquillion]

...or other dwarves with the caretaker job setting could bring them food and water...  although, that could get ugly if you're using them to fight a siege or something...

[Abyssal Squid]

Just raise the eating/drinking threshold from peckish/just ate a pretzel to just below starving/dehydrated while they're on duty, unless they are currently carrying food or water.  That would significantly extend the time between breaks.

Also, members of a squad should all eat and drink and sleep at the same time, preferably in a designated mess hall (except for the sleeping, of course), with different squads staggered so you always have a free squad.  This is the military we're talking about, you should be able to set your watch to their haircuts, let alone by their dinner time.

[Rollory]

quote:Originally posted by Abyssal Squid:
<STRONG>Also, members of a squad should all eat and drink and sleep at the same time, </STRONG>

YES.

I was actually thinking that when I wrote the OP but forgot to include it.

[PresidentEvil]

I think you should be able to designate one squad member as a supply officer. He's the one who refills empty waterskins, goes to get more rations for his buddies, finds new crossbow bolts for empty marksdwarves... He could also, possibly, have the option of carrying an extra ration/waterskin/quiver to pass out immediately if it's needed. If no supply officer is designated, the grunts themselves will go get food/drink when need arises

This way, units won't have to leave their posts to get refills, and you don't have civilians getting halfway to soldiers and then getting scared and running off.

As for the sleeping issue: Bedrolls. Soldiers set to carry a bedroll will sleep in it when they're assigned at a post or patrolling, but dwarves who are standing down/not carrying one will sleep in the barracks. You'll have to consider the additional encumberance of the bedroll and the fact that having to use it gives them an unhappy thought.

While we're at it, soldiers should keep watch in shifts, so that monsters don't surprise and massacre them too easily.

[Carlos Gustavos]

I just had my first siege. When I decided to have all my dwarfs charge out to kill the goblins, my axe lord decided it was time for a drink and took his squad of trained soldiers to the booze storage. They stayed there for the duration of the battle. Also, only one out of sixteen fortress guards participated. The royal guard was mostly sleeping.

[ September 17, 2006: Message edited by: Carlos Gustavos ]