Bay 12 Games Forum

Okay, thanks. I'll try to keep bone and wood restricted to training and maybe hunting, though.

Quote from: vorpal+5 on May 22, 2011, 02:29:16 pm

(1) ok!! much thanks! But when I clear their order, while retaining them in a squad, they switch to civilian? weird? they even stockpile their weapons....

Well, soldiers in civilian mode should hold onto their weapons unless:
- you accidentally told them to in the schedule screen (m->s->u)
- or, more likely, they're miners or woodcutters.

Depending on how their training is set up, they may or may not be civilians when they have no active order, but unless one of the above applies, the main differences are that
- switching to civilian mode when the dwarf has no civilian skill above dabbling (i.e., they're a light blue 'Peasant') will give a unhappy thought, and switching back to a soldier when they don't have any military skills trained up (i.e., they're a dark grey 'Recruit') will do the same.
- only soldiers will use advanced training, such as sparing or teaching.  Civilians with an assigned barracks will only do "individual combat drills," training their primary weapon, or unarmed skills if they aren't holding a weapons (or, apparently, dodging if they're carrying crossbows, which was news to me).  This isn't necessarily a bad thing; individual combat drills can be lot more effective, especially for fresh recruits.
- and, of course, if they have any civilian labors assigned, they'll do them.
Also civilians will usually, if not always, flee enemies and will respond to the civilian alert level.


As for your side question, they usually only do that if you've somehow assigned multiple weapons to them.