Bay 12 Games Forum

Nah - I figured it out.  It didn't like my monolithic (Custom - allow everything) stockpike.  When I created a dedicated food stock pile it was happy to start storing plump helmets (plants, not seeds) in barrels for some reason.

So bit interesting that a custom stockpile with everything in it is behaving that way, but I hardly use such stockpiles except in early game anyways.  Problem solved - false alarm.

IMHO, Dwarf Fortress is neigh unmanageable without Dwarf Therapist, at least with anything approaching 20+ dwarves so good on PeridexisErrant for waiting for stability and support from this utility. 

DT with the ability to have predefined roles (Soldier, Farmer, Drudges, Nobility, Craftsdwarves, etc.) makes it /LOADS/ easier to manage your dwarves on a macro-scale, going micro for the few exceptions to general rules. 

Keep up the good work, and we await your pleasure on the new toys!

I tend to avoid most attachment issues by having a couple squads rotate on/off duty when training up and taking off their gear when not on active-duty.  Tends to shuffle the gear around every couple months between dwarves so attachment usually isn't an issue.

Reason I bring up bucklers is I think (unconfirmed) the order of prescedence for attacks on a dwarf is:

Shield Block  >  Weapon Parry  >  Dodge  >  Armor Check  >  Fleshy/Squishy Dwarf 

Removing the autoreset grid plugin from the .init file seems to have worked.  Thank you for the swift resolution.

A simple question this time.  I want to isolate my useless mouths Dwarven Children into a daycare/training facility in my fortress so that they can stop wandering off    stop getting kidnapped   stop getting viciously rended limb from limb can receive a proper education in a padded cell safe environment.

I've been using burrows and once a year or so rounding up all the little ones to be locked away indoctrinated for their (hopefully) useful development, but this turns out to be something of a chore to do manually.  Is there an automated method to assign children to a burrow and to unassign them when they're adults?  Something along the lines of looking at titles and if it says 'dwarven child' sending them to the gulag daycare (burrow) and maybe unassigning any beds they may have tried to claim in the meantime?  I'd even settle for such an option such as using Dwarf Therapist to mass-select all the kids and right-click assign them to a group like one does a military, but instead to a particular burrow.  Thoughts?

There is a Use Case in which bucklers are useful, aside from the weight issue.

Training.
...Yes, I see some raised eyebrows at this, but hear me out. 

I tend to equip my soldiers lightly when they're conscripts as they're not worth the expense of full plate for a young fortress.  Plus, they suffer movement penalties for alot of heavy gear.  Ergo, Chainmail and leather armor, adding metal/bone greaves, gauntlets and helm as supplies permit.  This keeps them light and agile while affording them a measure of protection.  When they hit level 4 or 5 of armor skill, then I'll start kitting them out with plate armor breastplates.

Part of the issue I noticed is that when they have shields, raising the Armor stat is slow, whereas the Shield stat tends to raise a fair bit.  Out of curiosity, I swapped my second training squad to using bucklers and at least to me it seemed their shield skills raised slower while their other skills, Armor, Dodge, Weapon/Parry, were noticeably higher... and I actually liked this skill distribution better.

Running theory?  The game has a priority system as to how an attack is countered.  Shield blocks are checked first, followed by weapon, dodge and then armor.  Could be slightly wrong with the order, but shield blocks are definitely first.  If you change from a Shield to a Buckler during training, this means the block rate drops from 25% to 15%, meaning more checks are required to see what else might intercept a blow, and thus what respective stats are raised.

Train with Bucklers, fight with Shields - skill is the same either way.  You run the risk of them getting attached, but this can be mitigated some if you schedule your squads training right - particularly if when they're not training they return their armor to the stockpile where someone else will nab it if it's better than what they have.  Only my veterans and dwarves whom have distinguished themselves get assigned their own personal armor/weapons/shields. 6 or 7 out of 10 training at a time, with a month or two a year off entirely for a squad.  Also helps keep conscripts happy since they can attend to a profession here and there.

Early on in a soldier's career?  Armor, Dodge and Weapon/Parry are certainly nicer.  The faster a soldier can move, the better his weapon skill, the faster he can engage and attack.  The faster he can attack, the more attacks he can possibly get in.  More attacks he tries, the better chances of killing an enemy before he can cause a dwarf harm in kind. 

Screw tanking the damage, at least for conscripts.  I try to make mine useful in combat rather than distractions.  Aye, I get a few more injuries, but that's hospital training right there.  And if/when they reach level 4/5 armor and get plate, then they're valuable resources to either train up the next generation or to be the solid NCO centre-line of a conscript army... or to form Elite Veteran squads. 

I tend to play games that last less than 10 years, usually less than 5, so trying to find optimal training with minimal investment in time/resources (and without using training rooms or much 2-man nonsense... exception being Dwarven Child Care as what else are the little monsters useful for?) tends to be what I aim for.  Hope that helps.

A thought occurred to me that I thought I'd follow up upon...

Shields/Buckler skills train up in accordance with when a block is performed correct? 

If so and you want to adjust your military dwarves training to more favor parry, dodge and armor skills, would not using a buckler be a better choice?  Granted, it drops the block rate, but this then would give them more training elsewhere?  This while still leveling up their shield skill, albeit more slowly?  Could always give them a real shield once their other skills are up far enough.  This at a glance is one of the few ways I can think of to better focus our Military Dwarves on what they train up, when aside from adding/removing gear.

Thoughts?  Has there been any !Science! done to see if this adjustment actually works?

<Edit - Clarification> 
General throught process for this exercise:  A good Offense is better than a good Defense.

• More Armor skill points = faster movement.  (Maybe consider plate after hitting level 4 or 5 to avoid movement point penalties for Recruits.)
• More Weapon skill points = more Attacks and as a side benefit, Parry.  Ergo, if I can kill the enemy faster, he can't hit me as much.
• More Dodge = ... c'mon, it's fun watching them dance, right?
• Shield skills are skill leveled, but in less of a lopsided fashion, allowing for better rounded training earlier on - ergo more effective rookies?
• Can prevent getting attached to gear by setting up a training schedule of less than max squad member size so they get time off... and they go into civilian clothes when off duty(and go mine/operate pumps), thus the best gear gets cycled through the military members as they go on active duty?

This thought was generated after watching my Nobles (Sword/LeatherArmor/Mail/Buckler, training 1 month in 3 on average) train a bit in comparison to my regular Military(Axe/LeatherArmor/Mail/Shield, training full time) and Mk. 1 eyeballing their stats.  Not Science, but there seemed to be a relative difference in training curves. I figure my Nobles (Former/Current mayors, etc) can make themselves useful and be less than entirely squishy problems to babysit.

Aye - Military tends to be my primary focus.  Pillboxes for my Marksdwarves atop the walls (With no short route for them to path back along and charge suicidally when they run out of ammo) and melee dwarves/nobles training in the courtyard or dining hall 8/2 at a time respectfully.  Traps I tend to not use much of, and dwarbridges only into the most critical of spaces... such as the entrance to the dining hall where all my civies will cower during an invasion.   And the entrance to the internal Refuse pile. 

Why the refuse pile?  Made the mistake of not securing my internal bone/leather/refuse stockpile for my craftsdwarves when I was embarked near 3 necromancer towers once.  They got inside and it was nothing but pain when they got to there.  Now when I see a necromancer, I seal off that portion of the stockpile, regardless of whether or not I think he can get inside.