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[Makbeth]

For the first time, I've stuck with a fort long enough to have 200 dwarves (mostly due to my new i7 machine still getting me 30 FPS at this point, which is what I would tend to have by the first Fall on my old machine), and now have several squads rotating through training and patrol duties.  However, the fact that my soldiers have off time now doesn't seem to have any effect on their raging about long patrol times.  As soon as their three months out of the year comes up, they go right back into being pissed off.

The fact that they all have engraved and furnished rooms helps, but it looks like they're only going to get more angry as time goes on.  I thought giving them time off would fix it, but it doesn't seem to.  Are soldiers currently destined to go mad?

[Erkki]

For the first time, I've stuck with a fort long enough to have 200 dwarves (mostly due to my new i7 machine still getting me 30 FPS at this point, which is what I would tend to have by the first Fall on my old machine), and now have several squads rotating through training and patrol duties.  However, the fact that my soldiers have off time now doesn't seem to have any effect on their raging about long patrol times.  As soon as their three months out of the year comes up, they go right back into being pissed off.

The fact that they all have engraved and furnished rooms helps, but it looks like they're only going to get more angry as time goes on.  I thought giving them time off would fix it, but it doesn't seem to.  Are soldiers currently destined to go mad?

No idea about the soldiers going mad thing as I never get it, I just make sure none of the recruits have rare traits of psychic instability like "cracks easily under pressure" or "quick to anger", "acts impulsively" etc. A "has a sense of duty" is always a bonus. And I never give them any off time, they train round the year, round the clock...

About your FPS: I have currently a soon 200 Dwarf fort, 4x4 embark, and FPS would still be at 156 FPS if I let it run that high. Amd Phenom 1055T 6-core. I have just 1 cavern level(although enough space between levels to get magma as deep as -70), temperature OFF (turning it on eats 20 to 30% of FPS). I have at least 50,000 units of crap in my fort and 50 animals. For some reason it seems the FPS falls with new mined rock boulders, but those boulders as furniture or even crafts seem to effect much less...

[Makbeth]

And they don't go nuts?  Interesting.

Well, finding the right personalities for 5 squads of 10 out of 230 dwarves just doesn't sound like how I want to spend my day.  I think I'll just deal with the fun of tantrums.  My fort is siege-proof enough that I need some sort of threat from the inside anyway.

[Erkki]

And they don't go nuts?  Interesting.

Well, finding the right personalities for 5 squads of 10 out of 230 dwarves just doesn't sound like how I want to spend my day.  I think I'll just deal with the fun of tantrums.  My fort is siege-proof enough that I need some sort of threat from the inside anyway.

Check them with the Therapist... The psycho stuff is always first, and "has sense of duty" is always last or 2nd last. Sort by "assigned labors", after champions and kids come the useless cannonfodder conscripts.

[tolkafox]

Sparring gives happy thoughts. Make sure they're given adequate time to spar, preferably in squads of two.

My military trains all year round until they're legendary, then they train/patrol.

[Crioca]

I can't verify this, but I've found that only having them on duty for four months of a year will stop this. It could be something else, but since I've been doing this I no longer have this problem. I simply rotate my squads in this fashion.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Have them on duty permanently, with no breaks. Once they reach the "Lord/Master/Elite" title, they will stop complaining about patrol, and start complaining about being taken off duty (perhaps, unless they have a good civilian skill, though I need to verify that).

[Makbeth]

Hard to please, aren't they?

They're getting better.  Between the sparring sessions and the curb-stomp battles they get into with crundles and troglodytes while patrolling the cavern, morale seems to be improving.

Also, discovered that archers, even ones who've been "training" for years, are the opposite of effective when sent to kill ambushers in the open.  They approach within what seems to be 100 tiles of their target, empty their quivers using crossbows with a maximum range of something like 80 while the goblins fall over laughing at them, then charge in and get killed immediately upon entering melee range, masterwork candy armor and all, to the last dwarf.

So we'll not be using archers that way in the future.

But I have plenty of dwarves to draft into the new archer squad, and now I'll be keeping them in the fortified towers on the beach and using them in a purely defensive capacity. 

[lastofthelight]

I've never actually seen dwarves spar on the current version. Past DF 2010 versions, sure, but not since before the big bug fix release. The most I see is individual training sessions or demonstrations. Even if its a full squad and the minimum members is set to 4 or something, they never, ever spar.

[Lordinquisitor]

I've never actually seen dwarves spar on the current version. Past DF 2010 versions, sure, but not since before the big bug fix release. The most I see is individual training sessions or demonstrations. Even if its a full squad and the minimum members is set to 4 or something, they never, ever spar.

Mine do; Quite often actually. And unlike former versions they don`t butcher each other, even when using steel weapons without any armor, since they only "tap" each other lightly.

[Erkki]

I've never actually seen dwarves spar on the current version. Past DF 2010 versions, sure, but not since before the big bug fix release. The most I see is individual training sessions or demonstrations. Even if its a full squad and the minimum members is set to 4 or something, they never, ever spar.

Mine do; Quite often actually. And unlike former versions they don`t butcher each other, even when using steel weapons without any armor, since they only "tap" each other lightly.

Thats what my militia commander thought before his sparring partner tackled him in the murky pool. Oops! 

[cephalo]

Make sure when you have them on station that you have the 'required number' set to less than the squad size. A whole month of solid duty is too much for any dwarf. In my case I usually have 4 dwarves on station out of 10 squad members. That way they take breaks as they need to. They still get unhappy thoughts, but I have always found it managable.

[Caldfir]

I recently finished playing in a fort that lasted 50 years (migration turned off) and got pretty experienced dealing with my military.  The "long patrol" complaint seems to be inversely correlated with the highest military skill the dwarf possesses.  They do not get this bad thought when training, however.  As such, my military stratagem was to make the distinction between "recruits" and "soldiers". 

Recruits are all placed in a squad together with one soldier of the desired weapon skill and set to train with every 6th month off.  Once they have enough skill, they get rotated into active duty as soldiers. 

Soldiers are set to rotate between patrols, training, and time off. 

Generally this setup served me well.  If at all possible, check the personalities of prospective recruits and try to select dwarves "with a sense of duty" as the above posters suggest. 

It is also a good idea to try to give your military dwarves a civilian skill.  If there is nothing in particular that needs doing.  My personal preference is to build a catapult battery somewhere in the mines, set the catapults to "fire at will" and switch on siege operation for your entire army.  While not particularly useful, it is simple and relatively cheap to set up. 

[Makbeth]

That's what it takes? 

Well, I appreciate your answers, but that's just too much like work and not enough like fun, even by DF standards.  I'll just deal with the tantrums and keep changing recruits out like lightbulbs as they get injured or killed by their friends.  I want this fort to die eventually anyway so I can come back as an adventurer, and since I've been holding steady at 215-230 dwarves for a few years now, and the sieges aren't getting any closer to my gate, anything that accelerates the process is kind of welcome.

I'm actually kind of disappointed in the sieges and forgotten beasts.  The first siege had goblins on voracious crawlers being lead by some kind of demon law-giver, and I had two forgotten beasts in the first two years, and since then the only thing that comes to pick a fight is a bunch of on-foot goblins and trolls that run at the first sign of trouble.

This is on a world where I actually tried to boost the number of beasts and titans.  I haven't even seen a titan yet either.

[Grumbledwarfskin]

From what I've read, avoiding the "long patrol duty" thought is what the training schedules are for...but it's not the months off that avoid the thought, it's reducing how many are required to be active at a time, so that they can take regular time off during the training months.

That said, I've still seen a "long patrol" thought on a dwarf when I'd set it so that one member of a six-man squad could take time off...though I'm not certain it wasn't from the squad being activated to deal with something earlier. Or it could be that one-of-six doesn't give enough slack time to avoid it.