Bay 12 Games Forum

If you beat all demons, won't the glowing pits simply spawn new ones?

Do caged animals still kill fps?

Copper bins aren't scattered when i come to get my blue metal gear as adventurer either.

By default the training alert schedule keeps the squad training at the barracks all the time. Until the soldiers earn champion status that will result in unhappy thoughts. Go to the schedule for the squad via (m) -> (s) and delete (x) the training order from the squad for a few months (giving them time off for 4 months is usually enough). It is better to make their holidays multiple months long because they will get unhappy thoughts from changing to a militia dwarf from being a civilian too (which can get you unhappy dwarfs quickly with a schedule like train - no order - train - no order - etc).
The dwarfs will do individual combat drills in their free time too which increases their weapon skill, so if you start with completely green guys it is actually advisable to not have them on active/train all the time.
Make sure the schedule reads sleep in room at will (the default) and make good rooms for them (good quality bed, door, etc). Another trick is to make multiple paved roads (out of materials they like if you have easy access) on the way to the barracks so whenever they leave/enter the barracks they will get a happy thought.

Whenever you give the soldiers active orders, make sure you cancel them once the threat is dealt with.
If you need longer protection for stuff like woodcutting or outdoor constructions, consider using multiple squads.

Yeah, check for burrows/locked doors and also check if she still has the bedroom from her pre nobility life assigned to her.

You have been encased in ice. 

I don't like the crossbows that much, but if you train them up to legendary on the archery range they will pull their weight. As bolts tend to not dismember their targets, the only way a marksdwarf can kill something is by making it bleed out or suffocating from puncturing the body enough, or with a bolt to the head. The latter happens sometimes with highly trained dwarfs, but the whole setup of fortifications ammo and quivers and then getting them to actually equip it all means i often don't bother.
In my current fort i had 4 crossbowdwarfs trained up to legendary in a tower who did a great job at keeping the goblins from fleeing once the sieges were routed. Until one siege came with a bowgobbo squad led by an elite crossbowgobbo. He shot every marksdwarf in the legs and when they fell over they got destroyed by the bowgoblins. Only one guy managed to make the way to the towers stairs and was patched up.
Crossbows only will not work without traps (and then you could as well build the traps strong enough to not need any soldiers). Unless you have really lots of them, they take too long to kill stuff.