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[cyrohound]

I get Mercenaries coming to my fort for "soldering" purposes. However, they refuse to wear any armor. I have 5 large armor sets for my humans, I went through all the trouble of going through the "details" menu for their armor pieces so that the armor would fit humans, and after all the trouble, they don't even have the manners to actually use them. It even affects the one dwarven Mercenary I have. All the dwarves who are full citizens are wearing full armor, but all the Mercenaries just have a shield and weapon, even as the weapon/armor/ammo/trap stockpile has armor to spare.

What gives? I've only had this problem since the last update, did they change how we're suppose to do this or something?

[Leonidas]

Are these mercenaries visitors, long-term residents, or citizens?

If they aren't citizens, I wouldn't want them picking up anything in my fortress. As it is, long-term residents will carry off books or musical instruments when they leave. A monster hunter might pick up some valuable weapons and armor, carry them deep into the caverns, and get himself killed. It's better to have your items only carried by the citizens whom you semi-control.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Are these mercenaries visitors, long-term residents, or citizens?

If they aren't citizens, I wouldn't want them picking up anything in my fortress. As it is, long-term residents will carry off books or musical instruments when they leave. A monster hunter might pick up some valuable weapons and armor, carry them deep into the caverns, and get himself killed. It's better to have your items only carried by the citizens whom you semi-control.

Mercs in squads should be able to pick up equipment.
I prefer to have them use their own stuff (rp self-limitation thing), but those interested in their survival will certainly want them to use fortress stuff (and generally they do, so this isn't expected behavior).

[Hiarhu]

Are your humans set to wear their armor over their clothing or replace it? I've had the same problem and it was because the humans were already wearing too much clothing to wear the armor when they arrived. Make sure they're set to replace the armor. If that helps you should be able to change it back to wear over and they should balance out their clothing and armor properly like the dwarves do. 

[Shonai_Dweller]

Are your humans set to wear their armor over their clothing or replace it? I've had the same problem and it was because the humans were already wearing too much clothing to wear the armor when they arrived. Make sure they're set to replace the armor. If that helps you should be able to change it back to wear over and they should balance out their clothing and armor properly like the dwarves do.

And check out what they're wearing already first of course. Not much point in investing the time to build fine copper human armour, when they're already dressed in iron.

[Hiarhu]

And check out what they're wearing already first of course. Not much point in investing the time to build fine copper human armour, when they're already dressed in iron.

I think but can't confirm that if you set the material type of a metal armor to a specific metal then military units will attempt to put on that specific material. If it isn't available they should go to the next best available metal armor piece. So if you set them to use iron they'll use it if they can but they'll still put on metal armor of a lesser quality rather than no armor at all.

Edit: Nevermind, they go with no armor at all.

[Shonai_Dweller]

And check out what they're wearing already first of course. Not much point in investing the time to build fine copper human armour, when they're already dressed in iron.

I think but can't confirm that if you set the material type of a metal armor to a specific metal then military units will attempt to put on that specific material. If it isn't available they should go to the next best available metal armor piece. So if you set them to use iron they'll use it if they can but they'll still put on metal armor of a lesser quality rather than no armor at all.

I mean, if all you have is copper, as is the case early in some embarks with a lack of material, you may be better off letting mercs wear the armour they came with.

Or does a merc's armour automatically become part of the available fortress inventory?

[Hiarhu]

I mean, if all you have is copper, as is the case early in some embarks with a lack of material, you may be better off letting mercs wear the armour they came with.

Or does a merc's armour automatically become part of the available fortress inventory?

I think the mercenary armor counts as clothing they own so you can't do much with it. I think I gave bad information because I tested it and they don't seem to pick up the best available armor. Perhaps I was remembering a planned feature or something, my apologies.

[cyrohound]

I'm not convinced that they'll wear fortress armor in this patch after playing around with this for awhile. I have an entire stockpile of various iron, copper, and steel armors, of sizes for both Dwarves and humans, and none of the mercs will wear any of them unless they aren't wearing anything in that item slot. The only thing some of them have are gauntlets because some arrived without gloves. I guess my next course of action is to wait until their clothes rot off so they can wear armor.

I wonder if that's a bug? They were happy to wear any armor in previous versions. I'll look into reporting it I guess.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I'm not convinced that they'll wear fortress armor in this patch after playing around with this for awhile. I have an entire stockpile of various iron, copper, and steel armors, of sizes for both Dwarves and humans, and none of the mercs will wear any of them unless they aren't wearing anything in that item slot. The only thing some of them have are gauntlets because some arrived without gloves. I guess my next course of action is to wait until their clothes rot off so they can wear armor.

I wonder if that's a bug? They were happy to wear any armor in previous versions. I'll look into reporting it I guess.

And you're certain each of them is set to 'replace clothing'?
Hmm. I'd check it myself, but my current fortress is blissfully visitor free.

[cyrohound]

Yep that was the problem. Odd though, usually I set them all to "Over clothing". Before now it's never been a problem. My dwarves before this point were happy to go get equipment with that option selected. Even now, only the mercs need that option turned to replace clothing. The native fortress dwarves are perfectly happy to accept armor with "over clothing" on.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Yep that was the problem. Odd though, usually I set them all to "Over clothing". Before now it's never been a problem. My dwarves before this point were happy to go get equipment with that option selected. Even now, only the mercs need that option turned to replace clothing. The native fortress dwarves are perfectly happy to accept armor with "over clothing" on.

Perhaps it's because they're already wearing armour and they can't wear multiple suits. Whereas non-military dorfs are usually wearing tatty rags which armour fits over just fine.