Here's the situation.
I wanted to train some crossbowmans, so I placed 10 archery ranges for each dwarf in the squad, and assigned them as "Archery ranges" separately, so each marksdwarf can train on one of them.
But from what I saw, they just train from time to time only on one of those archery ranges.
Each archery range has that crossbowdwarfs squad assigned to it, so they should be shooting at all of them.
I have crossbows, and a lot of bolts. The number of bolts assigned for training is 300, and they are (any material).
My archery range looks like this
O.O.O.O.O.O
O.O.O.O.O.O
OxOxOxOxOx
Where:
. - empty tile
O - wall
x - Archery range
And its from "top to bottom"
Is there a solution to this?
For markdwarfs, what you describes is exactly the way I'm doing it. My dwarves are shooting ammo like crazy at those ranges. I have to take them off shooting from time to time to let my ammo production catch up. No idea why it isn't working for you when there's so many things that can cause it not to work.
Did you select one archery range, made it an archery room, expanded the room to cover the other ranges, and assigned the squad to it? Or did you go to each and every archery range, made each range a room, and assigned the squad to all ten of these rooms?
I'm thinking the 2nd way, which is what i do, is what you did but just making sure.
Are hunters taking up your bolts? Several bolts are reserved for your hunters even if you don't have any. Your markdwarves won't touch any bolts until you made more than whats reserved for the hunters (or until you lower that number).
Are the archery ranges "long" enough? They won't shoot at blank range or with only 1-2 spaces in between them and the target. I think 3 or maybe 4 is the minimum. I had that happen to me and fixed it by making the walls in your pic longer.
Edit: also I think they need to be able to actually walk over to the range or they won't use it. So no open space between the range and the dwarf.
For your crossbowdorf's, I think it has to do with the bolts themselves.
First, check that everyone has quivers.
Second, build a craftsdorf's shop next to your archery range, and set someone to permanatly work on bone/wood bolts. However, once they are created, make sure that none of the bolts are hauled, touched, or otherwised moved out of the way once the are created! Easiest way to do this is just to remove all ammo stockpiles. So, up unto this point, any ammo that has been touched by a civilian dorf, shall not be used.
I'm playing .21 and this has not happened to me. My markdwarves are using hauled bolts just fine.
Also I have kind of a problem with my melee training dwarves.
When I had just one dwarf in that squad training, he kept doing "Individual combat drill", but when I made a 10 dwarf squad, some of them keep orginizing dodging demonstrations, and the rest are just waiting for it to happen.
That doesnt seem to increase their skills, as they are Dabbling/Novice axedwarves.
A solution for this?
Im using DF 31.24
Use smaller squads. That way they spar more. I use 3 dwarf squads. It takes them about 2-3 years to reach legendary. Or you can use danger rooms and get legendary in one season or something.