Bay 12 Games Forum

Heavens forbid being cruel to goblins! Muwaaaaaaaaahs

 The extra set of bolts is related to the phantom squad member bug. Best cure is to just individually assign a uniform to a squad member, instead of using shift enter to assign a uniform to the whole squad at once.
 To cure the unused bolt problem, separate the ammo stockpiles into metal/other materials.
And remove the allotment designated to the marksmen squad in equipment(f), then dump the bolts in their quivers, and bolts in unused quivers.
 Finally go forbid all your ammo bins. When you unforbid them, this clears them for new assignments/allocations, since their contents are also forbidden.. Then assign a new bolt allotment for archers.

Dwarves are just kleptomaniacs, will nab anything that suits their fancy. To keep them from grabbing stuff from the battlefield, create a burrow that just covers shops, living quarters, basic fort stuff. Not outside or dangerous spots. Set a alert that covers this burrow, and use this as a civilian alert that is always on. When you need them to go outside to gather wood, mine new veins, turn it off. Do not have to go through the hassle of assigning everyone to it, Civ alert covers it.
 Mass forbid, and dump can be your friends on cleanup/garbage disposal

The only time they seem to claim clothes is when they own a room to store it in,. if the dwarf has a bed room, unassign it.

 Stein, if you are new, turn down population cap, init/d.init(pop cap).  I set it at 5. Sometimes the migrant waves can overwhelm new players. With the 5 pop cap, I usually wind up with 10 dwarves, with is a good number to experiment with DF's features. Also turn off invasions, same folder as pop cap.
 The advice from the posts above were right on. Nice dining rooms,dorms to initially let them sleep, is sound advice.
 Building a well with a clean water source helps. Embarking with a good farmer(fields)also being a good plant gatherer, can allow you to plant your fields, and after they are planted, he can go harvest outdoor plants.
 Eggs are a great food source. Downside is that I do not think they can be eaten raw. Need to be cooked in a kitchen. Quarry bush is another good food source, but need processing, and bags to store them in. Plus needing to be cooked also.

 I use the same set up as darkmere, and never had problems either. As for line of sight being the determining factor for stationed troops, I have my doubts. In Adventure mode, have traveled across landscapes in flat areas with companions, who only seemed to rush off after wildlife , yes in their sight, but at a certain range. Range seemed to be max bowshot range at archery targets.
 They behave the same way caravan guards do, if this makes any sense. As for not reloading bolts, check to see if the bolts are designated CT, not just T. Look at dwarves quivers at the archery range, after they quit firing at the target. If bolts are designated T, they will not immediately refill their quivers. If they are CT they will reload.
 Another problem with reloading is the bolts allocated to hunters. You might have 200 bolts in storage, and allocate 200 to that squad. If its a 4 dwarf squad, will load 25 wooden bolts in their quiver, 5 if bone). With 100 bolts being allocated to hunters, after they fire off a volley at
the goblins, and since the remaining bolts are allocated to the hunters, they quit firing, and stay at station as melee dwarves.
 Latest experiment is to find reaction distance for dwarves on patrol, station, and defend burrow.  Another  test is to see what order they chose bolts in, whether by value,  position in list, or material. This could influence whether they decide to re-arm, especially with several ammo bins  scattered out. I think each stack of bolts is a single item when they decide. Say you assign 100 bolts, whose material is wood, but made from pine, cedar, oak, beech. You then make a separate ammo stockpile, which contains 4 stacks all made of pine. Will the archer go to the original stockpile, and grab the stack of pine bolts, or since the second one also contains pine, will the archer go there?
 Final advice, if you have a version with the Armorer as a noble, upgrade to a version without one. Armorer causes delays.
 Best advice is that if you have 500 bolts made for combat, assign all to a squad, if you have several stockpiles spread out. If you have walkways behind fortifications on walls, assign all the walkways as 1 burrow, and give the archers a defend burrow alert. Defend burrow is similar to radar. If a dwarf is loitering on the south side of the fort, and goblins appear outside the north wall. Dwarves with that order will rush there. Fortifications fool dwarves into thinking they can path through them. When the fortification halts there movement to the target, they unload on them. Stationing is bad behind fortifications. Since they all do not stand on the same spot, their line of sight can be blocked to the target. As stated above, go to adventure mode, and visit a old fort, with fortifications, and windows, and see for yourself their line of site

Build a plump helmet mini stockoile next to a kitchen, and prepare a load of prepared meals