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[shmelse]

My current fortress has freezing winters with snowstorms and I'm a bit worried since I'm in my 8th year and my original 7's clothing is about to fall apart. 

I know the work-around (other than for hunters/minters/cutters) is to enlist everyone and assign them clothes as part of their uniform. However, I'm wondering what, exactly, they need to have on.

I was thinking:

• shoes
• mittens (I have a million since my Baron loves them and mandates them constantly)
• cloak
• tunic
• trousers

I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone who's done this before, but I have a few specific questions: 

1) Do I need less? Do I even need both a tunic and cloak, or is one piece on the upper body enough?

2) Do I need more? And do I need both mittens and gloves? Both socks and shoes? What about something on their heads, necessary or not?

3) Finally, anyone have any advice for having most of my population in the military? Anything I need to do with my civilians to make sure they don't do anything stupid and military-like? 

I'm sure there are issues I've not even thought to ask about, but I've tried to read up on this. I was just wondering whether anyone's had good/bad experiences doing this and any advice they might have. Thanks!

[Hans Lemurson]

It is my understanding that dwarves actually have no need of clothing at all...they just like it.  It also acts as weak armor against weak animals.

As for conflicts with being in a squad...I believe that so long as the squad is permanently off-duty and has no barracks assigned to it, your dwarfs just do whatever it is that dwarves do in their little holes in the ground.  The only difference is that they won't be naked.

[shmelse]

It is my understanding that dwarves actually have no need of clothing at all...they just like it.  It also acts as weak armor against weak animals.

Gotcha.  I had read about dwarves getting frostbite, so I thought they needed clothes to prevent that, since my current embark does freeze/have snow storms during the winter.  If they don't, though, dozens of naked dwarves ftw!

[mrbaggins]

Shoes/Socks/Boots are highly recommended, as they main way syndromes seem to spread after initial infection is stepping in the blood/vomit of the beast. Any of those help to avoid it, obviously shoes are better than socks.

[Hans Lemurson]

Hmm...yes, clothing probably does provide some basic protective effects.  Probably worth it in the long run, especially since you won't have to be amputating frostbitten limbs due to my bad advice.

[shmelse]

Hmm...yes, clothing probably does provide some basic protective effects.  Probably worth it in the long run, especially since you won't have to be amputating frostbitten limbs due to my bad advice.

eh, i need some way to train my doctors, right? =P

Shoes/Socks/Boots are highly recommended, as they main way syndromes seem to spread after initial infection is stepping in the blood/vomit of the beast. Any of those help to avoid it, obviously shoes are better than socks.

gotcha, I'll definitely do shoes, then. any reason I should need both? or is just *some* covering going to be enough? I'm worried about assigning both, since I don't want to have to deal with layering issues.

oh, and does anyone know how to stop the equipment cascade, where a piece of armor slowly gets passed down through each dwarf? I'm getting sick of guys constantly picking up equipment... and once I do this, the whole fort is going to be involved. ugh.

[Hans Lemurson]

Are you making sure to keep your dwarves in-uniform even when off duty?  I think that's the default setting and I'm pretty sure that's what you want, and you probably have it already set to that, but I thought I'd check.

Do you have a surplus of clothing items?

[shmelse]

Are you making sure to keep your dwarves in-uniform even when off duty?  I think that's the default setting and I'm pretty sure that's what you want, and you probably have it already set to that, but I thought I'd check.

Yes, they're all in uniform all the time.  No worries, I've made worse mistakes =P

Do you have a surplus of clothing items?

I certainly have more armor items than my currently military needs.  I've made extra for the next squad I'm starting.  But whenever I make extra, my armorsmith makes a masterwork shield and then it seems like every military dwarf in the fortress will eventually need to change shields. 

If you mean, do I have a surplus to clothe my civilians, no, I don't, but I have a *lot* of leather and cloth just sitting around and I'm not sure what else to do with it.  I don't need money for trading, don't need bags or ropes... It's basically out of control, so I figure I might as well. 

[capt.pantsless]

Are you making sure to keep your dwarves in-uniform even when off duty?

Just outa curiosity, is there any advantage to letting the troops NOT wear the uniform?  Is it just a visual thing?

[shlorf]

You could make 10 sets of armor and have different squads rotating duty, as long as you sent the right squad to fight an ambush they should be equipped. The weight of the armor doesn't seem to an issue so there's no real advantage to make them drop the stuff if you can make enough for everyone.

[Hans Lemurson]

Do you have a surplus of clothing items?

I certainly have more armor items than my currently military needs.  I've made extra for the next squad I'm starting.  But whenever I make extra, my armorsmith makes a masterwork shield and then it seems like every military dwarf in the fortress will eventually need to change shields. 

If you mean, do I have a surplus to clothe my civilians, no, I don't, but I have a *lot* of leather and cloth just sitting around and I'm not sure what else to do with it.  I don't need money for trading, don't need bags or ropes... It's basically out of control, so I figure I might as well.

I think that the "hand-me-down" cascade is unavoidable.  I believe that the #1 dwarf in a squad gets first pick of all the equipment and so will choose the best for himself, and #2 dwarf chooses the next best, and so-on.  When your #1 Dwarf finds some better equipment and "trades up", then your #2 guy now has access to better equipment, and so will "trade up" as well.

Think of it as a sorting algorithm to ensure top quality equipment for all your dwarves that only moves at the speed of a dwarf.

[BuGGaTon]

work around for upgrade cascade is to train your Armoursmith to Legend +5 and have him constantly make enough masterwork items that the dorfs never CAN find better protection.