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[Lexx]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Danger_room

The general jist of it is a barracks where the entire room is full of upright spike traps loaded with training spears set to constantly repeat by some method.  The trainees enter, and gain all kinds of skills from parrying, dodging, or otherwise avoiding the training spears.

It is incredibly effective, training soldiers from 0 to legendary+5 (and beyond) in all combat skills except wrestler striker kicker and biting, in about a year.  But due to the silliness of somebody willingly entering such a room, and it's extreme speed in training, many (myself included) consider it an exploit.

Downsides are dead babies, which is hardly a downside, and dead pets.

I dont enjoy exploits , This is no bug or anything? just effective training?

I find it too much of a payoff for the little effort required. Normal training methods executed well do a fine job. You want your dwarves practicing most of the year in individual combat drills. By making their alert active/training with 1 or 2 months of the year set to group training  and the rest no scheduled order. The rest of the time make them do a craft that raises an attribute you want to improve. When not doing that they will practice in the barracks if they have one fully assigned to them with all the sub-options. Also I find dwarves with a higher focus don't slack off as much.

[nanomage]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Danger_room

The general jist of it is a barracks where the entire room is full of upright spike traps loaded with training spears set to constantly repeat by some method.  The trainees enter, and gain all kinds of skills from parrying, dodging, or otherwise avoiding the training spears.

It is incredibly effective, training soldiers from 0 to legendary+5 (and beyond) in all combat skills except wrestler striker kicker and biting, in about a year.  But due to the silliness of somebody willingly entering such a room, and it's extreme speed in training, many (myself included) consider it an exploit.

Downsides are dead babies, which is hardly a downside, and dead pets.

I dont enjoy exploits , This is no bug or anything? just effective training?

It's definitely an exploit. There is no bug behind it, it's just abuse of the roughness of game mechanics. The game can't simulate life accurately yet, and this current level approximation allows for danger rooms. It is effective far beyond the point of being practical.

[Utaelilya]

In that case i dont find it in my likings , I tend to make its more realistic (:

[Greiger]

Not sure how much of a bug, seems more like a quirk in the game mechanics and Dwarven AI.  Dwarves getting struck by attacks with the intent to kill give full skillgain.   Spike traps are intent to kill traps, but they are loaded with a training spear which is the weakest thing that can be loaded into it and is very ineffective against armored targets, like military dwarves.

Secondly dwarves don't have the sense to avoid a place that is obviously bad for their comfort or life.  And enter the room because that is where they are assigned to train.

[Utaelilya]

Not sure how much of a bug, seems more like a quirk in the game mechanics and Dwarven AI.  Dwarves getting struck by attacks with the intent to kill give full skillgain.   Spike traps are intent to kill traps, but they are loaded with a training spear which is the weakest thing that can be loaded into it and is very ineffective against armored targets, like military dwarves.

Secondly dwarves don't have the sense to avoid a place that is obviously bad for their comfort or life.  And enter the room because that is where they are assigned to train.

Dont they have to drink / eat etc?

[Mushroo]

Another related tip I can give you is to recruit migrants with military skills into your army. If you recruit useless dwarves with no skills, they will take forever to level up. If you recruit a migrant who is, say, a competent fighter already, he will be roughly equal with your leader/teacher and they will learn a lot by sparring with each other.

My strategy is to generally recruit the 1 or 2 best dwarves from each migrant wave, and split my military into squads of 2 or 3 soldiers. These squads train full-time and are not part of the civilian life of the fort.

This means that after 1 year, I have roughly 6 well-trained soldiers, hopefully with good armor and weapons. 6 is plenty for badger patrol and small goblin ambushes.

[Utaelilya]

Another related tip I can give you is to recruit migrants with military skills into your army. If you recruit useless dwarves with no skills, they will take forever to level up. If you recruit a migrant who is, say, a competent fighter already, he will be roughly equal with your leader/teacher and they will learn a lot by sparring with each other.

My strategy is to generally recruit the 1 or 2 best dwarves from each migrant wave, and split my military into squads of 2 or 3 soldiers. These squads train full-time and are not part of the civilian life of the fort.

This means that after 1 year, I have roughly 6 well-trained soldiers, hopefully with good armor and weapons. 6 is plenty for badger patrol and small goblin ambushes.

Thats kinda what ive been doing before , Just that i havent had any military dwarfs from the start (I now want a military dwarf at start becouse i thought good areas was boring )
Ive even gotten a legendary axedwarf from migrant wave

[Greiger]

Dont they have to drink / eat etc?

Spike traps can be designed to trigger ludicrously fast.  They are one of the few mechanism controlled objects that don't have a triggering delay.  Link a lever up to a danger room, and set the lever to be pulled on repeat and the spikes will make an attack against whatever is inside once per TICK.  It varies but it seems to take a dwarf about 10 ticks to move one tile with normal walking.  That is a whole lot of attacks in a very short time.  They will go get something to eat or drink, and still go sleep but they'll gain 4 or 5 levels in the time it takes for them to want to.

If you are talking about them clearly looking out for their health because they'll eat or drink.  They know what is good for them, going to the hospital if hurt, going to eat or drink if thirsty or hungry, they just don't know what's bad for them.  Like collecting a stone from a rapidly filling cistern, or collecting a burning sock, or being on fire, or walking into the booze stockpile while on fire.

I like to think of them as really smart lemmings.  Smart enough to avoid enemies or walking off a cliff, but not able to understand anything more complex than that.

[Utaelilya]

Dont they have to drink / eat etc?

Spike traps can be designed to trigger ludicrously fast.  They are one of the few mechanism controlled objects that don't have a triggering delay.  Link a lever up to a danger room, and set the lever to be pulled on repeat and the spikes will make an attack against whatever is inside once per TICK.  It varies but it seems to take a dwarf about 10 ticks to move one tile with normal walking.  That is a whole lot of attacks in a very short time.  They will go get something to eat or drink, and still go sleep but they'll gain 4 or 5 levels in the time it takes for them to want to.

If you are talking about them clearly looking out for their health because they'll eat or drink.  They know what is good for them, going to the hospital if hurt, going to eat or drink if thirsty or hungry, they just don't know what's bad for them.  Like collecting a stone from a rapidly filling cistern, or collecting a burning sock, or being on fire, or walking into the booze stockpile while on fire.

I like to think of them as really smart lemmings.  Smart enough to avoid enemies or walking off a cliff, but not able to understand anything more complex than that.

Well its good to know , Yet i think of it as kinda unrealistic , My dwarfs require style , i belive in dwarven rights

[Jurph]

Secondly dwarves don't have the sense to avoid a place that is obviously bad for their comfort or life.  And enter the room because that is where they are assigned to train.

A long time ago, I went to San Antonio Texas and spent the better part of a month running outdoors in the 100-degree heat.  When I was not running, I was doing push-ups, pull-ups, or sit-ups.  For extra fun, we'd go run on the obstacle course where we'd climb cargo nets, run across balance beams, swing across stinking mudholes, and do other things that pushed our muscles to the breaking point.  I did not have the sense to avoid it; the government sent me orders and I willingly got on the plane, rode the bus, and stood there on the tarmac while a small man yelled at me and told me he was going to make me into a rock-solid killing machine. 

He did not make me into a rock-solid killing machine, but he did get me down to six-minute miles and I have never before or since had such amazing muscle tone.  It took 30 days.

I talked to a former Marine I know, and he said the difference between normal soldiers and Special Ops guys is basically the number of training reps they do.  Target practice every day would be an unbearable expense if you let everyone train that much, but letting the best of the best go from "Legendary" to "Legendary +5" is worth it.  Having seen what intensive forced training can do for one's basic skills, I generally like to put all of my dwarven military through it just for kicks.  If there was a way to make them do push-ups -- like the old Pump Stack Gym -- I would do that, too.

[Fredd]

Remember that shield use is another vital skill a starting militia commander needs. A shield made of any material is fine for defensive purposes. For bashing attacks, copper seems the best.
 I use the danger room only for basic training for the squads, with a twist. Line a out of the way corridor with training spears linked to a lever. Have the trainees patrol the corridor a month, equipped with armor and shield. Next month no scheduled order, the following a train order. (P,nso,T,nso,P,nso,T,nso,P,nso,T,nso). After a year, the danger room is not patrolled anymore till another bunch of rookies need to be trained. Assign the squad weapons now.
 As a bonus they should also have some basic training in wrestling now.
 The  DR training they receive  in Armor, and Shield really increases their life expectancy. Only using this technique a year seems less of a exploit to me.(Think obstacle course. Shudders)

[Berserkenstein]

I set up my first militia captain by picking the highest agility dwarf I can find (this is rather important!) and assigning him 5 teaching, 4 fighting, 1 organizer (You can avoid this last skill by making him a manager and doing work orders). 

I then gear him out by giving him at least a metal helmet, a leather/wood shield, leather robe/dress, leather mittens/gloves, leather high boots, and a wooden training weapon (axe/spear/sword).
I pick the type of weapon based upon what I want my squad to use.

I then have him attack the local wildlife (preferably weak ones at first) until he gets a decent amount of fighting skills. 
-Having him use a wooden weapon allows him to train(torture) on his victims for a greater amount of time before they die. 
-The reason why high agility is important is because he will chase critters around endlessly without fighting otherwise. 
-Having points in organization reduces the amount of time it takes him to organize training sessions.

I also typically have butcher and tanner skills on other dwarves when I embark to take advantage of my military kills.  I hope this helps.

[Utaelilya]

I set up my first militia captain by picking the highest agility dwarf I can find (this is rather important!) and assigning him 5 teaching, 4 fighting, 1 organizer (You can avoid this last skill by making him a manager and doing work orders). 

I then gear him out by giving him at least a metal helmet, a leather/wood shield, leather robe/dress, leather mittens/gloves, leather high boots, and a wooden training weapon (axe/spear/sword).
I pick the type of weapon based upon what I want my squad to use.

I then have him attack the local wildlife (preferably weak ones at first) until he gets a decent amount of fighting skills. 
-Having him use a wooden weapon allows him to train(torture) on his victims for a greater amount of time before they die. 
-The reason why high agility is important is because he will chase critters around endlessly without fighting otherwise. 
-Having points in organization reduces the amount of time it takes him to organize training sessions.

I also typically have butcher and tanner skills on other dwarves when I embark to take advantage of my military kills.  I hope this helps.

What does organizer help with?

[Satarus]

Yeah.  Organizer is the book keeper's skill.  Perhaps I should give my captains a stint as the bookkeeper.  That is if I didn't already have the bookworm max out the accuracy.

[Berserkenstein]

I set up my first militia captain by picking the highest agility dwarf I can find (this is rather important!) and assigning him 5 teaching, 4 fighting, 1 organizer (You can avoid this last skill by making him a manager and doing work orders). 

I then gear him out by giving him at least a metal helmet, a leather/wood shield, leather robe/dress, leather mittens/gloves, leather high boots, and a wooden training weapon (axe/spear/sword).
I pick the type of weapon based upon what I want my squad to use.

I then have him attack the local wildlife (preferably weak ones at first) until he gets a decent amount of fighting skills. 
-Having him use a wooden weapon allows him to train(torture) on his victims for a greater amount of time before they die. 
-The reason why high agility is important is because he will chase critters around endlessly without fighting otherwise. 
-Having points in organization reduces the amount of time it takes him to organize training sessions.

I also typically have butcher and tanner skills on other dwarves when I embark to take advantage of my military kills.  I hope this helps.

What does organizer help with?

Read what's highlighted in red.  If you don't have points in it, a bunch of your militia wait around doing nothing waiting for training sessions.