Bay 12 Games Forum

I created my first dedicated crossbow squad last night and set them up with ten targets in their barracks, hoping many would shoot at once.  I'm observing that only one shoots at a time, and always at the same target.  They all /seem/ to be getting experience (up to level 2 marksdwarf after a couple of realtime hours) but I'm wondering why only one goes at a time.  I think my ammunition settings (train with bone, which are constantly being produced, fight with metal, which I should make more of...) might be off.

Ten targets in a row, all designated as rooms assigned to the squad (T but not I or Q) and a cabinet nearby defines a proper barracks (that overlaps most of the archery "rooms") with TIQ for the squad.  I had originally channeled in FRONT of the targets to allow bolts to be reused, but then they stopped using the targets, which I think is because they need to be able to access the front of the target physically?  So, I constructed a floor over the channel.

I'll report back if tweaking ammo or changing anything establishes a more impressive firing line.  Speaking of ammo, if I've designated bone bolts for training and metal bolts for combat, do the dwarves carry 25 of each and use what is necessary at the moment, OR will they keep bone as long as they're training, and then delay when I order them to station or kill while they drop the bone and pick up some metal ones?

Q:  Doctors (or patients) like to leave cloth, thread, and sometimes soap just lying on the floor or bed of the hospital.  Does this interfere with the usage of said resources or of the bed or operating table that has stuff on it?  Dumping doesn't seem to clear it up.  I haven't tried shutting down the hospital, dumping it, claiming it, and then re-opening.

Q:  Do dense crowds and high traffic contribute to grumpy dwarves?

Generally ethical here. If the war dogs can walk, they're worth saving. If nothing else, as lookouts and kobold alarms.
Then again, I do make a point to hand that one weak, slow, fragile, unskilled new dwarf a pick to tap the volcano.

It probably makes me sound like even a bigger jerk to say that I'm in the middle of a controlled dogsplosion so there are plenty of pups that can replace the injured ones. 

Where do you go on the practical-vs-ethical scale?

I slaughtered a bunch of injured war dogs after a battle because they weren't useful in their current role any more.  Ethically?  Abhorrent!  But from a practical point of view, it was the best use of those resources. 

I already expect that most answers will be in the practical camp since this is the community that suggests eliminating greedy nobles by pounding them into the ground with a drawbridge.

I have a functional hospital for the first time ever in my DF career.  I am so proud!

Several dwarves have already cycled through and seem to be doing ok, but two cases concern me:

one is a Dwarf who is in a traction bench and has been there for some time while others have come and gone.  Meanwhile, the doctor keeps going to him, leaving, then immediately looping back.  his job seems to be stuck at "diagnosing patient."  Is he stuck between two tasks or something?  Interestingly, I think the patient himself is a medical dwarf.

Also, there is another dwarf who is flashing unhealthy (red cross) and according to his medical report he is having trouble breathing.  He is not taking himself to the hospital though.  Is he going to die? 

Is it possible that it is getting backlogged because of the massive time required to draw the bucket chain up the stack you dug out? Are you sure it is even possible to draw water from it at all? It might be too tall of a distance. This is purely conjecture i dont know that much about wells.

It is definitely producing water because I had also designated a pond and the dwarves were slowly filling it.

My take would be looking at the drinking orders (o-z and then optionally d) to see that there's no "Zone-only drinking".

Well is Active if it has 3 or more water somewhere below. Water source (for zones) is active only if there is 2 or more water directly level below. So in this case the well may be active, but the zone (if there is a zone near well at all) would have 0 as water source. If "Prefer zone drinking" is set, and the dwarves still can't give water, then maybe giving water requires actual water drinking zone?

I can't test it, because I don't have patients right now, and I always set artificial wells as water sources (with water multiple Z-levels below, starting immediately one level below).

I'll look at those orders, thanks.

Do you have enough spare buckets to haul water to and from the well?  You need a lot of them, since dwarves are constantly misplacing them.

I'm pretty sure, but I can always build some more.

Finally, this whole thing became moot when a child beat the CMD to death with her own shoe in a fit of rage, shutting down the hospital.  He was pretty good at his job, too.

Well, let me correct.  I have heard that it works if the male is in the cage, but that it WILL NOT work if the female is the cage.  Next time I play I'll try it.  I can only play for a little bit at a time but I'll be derned if those pigs don't get pregnant every time.  I'll report back if I notice it not working once the boar is penned up.

Naturally this is a pointless exercise because the pasture is tiny anyway and they clearly have no trouble getting pregnant as-is, more of a "stupid trick" I suppose.