Dwarf Fortress > DF Dwarf Mode Discussion

0.31.01: How does military work?

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Sowelu:
I've figured some of it out--I can create a squad and load it with dwarves on the military screen, I can kind of fuss with its settings, and I can put it on active duty through the squad menu.  But that's about it.

It seems like my military dwarves always just kind of randomly train on their own time, whether they are active or not.  How do I force them to train?

My head honcho military noble has good teaching skill and all-around fighting abilities.  He has never tried a group demonstration.  Nobody has ever sparred, only solo practice ever happens.  Why?

When I try to fuss with uniforms, some of them have things set like "Metal Shield/Buckler".  I can only select things like "Shield" or "Bronze Shield", not Shield/Buckler or Metal.  How do I do that?

How do I ACTIVATE my squad to go hunting baddies?!  I can't figure out how to give them orders!  When I set up a new alert status and try to add an order, absolutely nothing happens.  Can someone walk through, in extremely small steps, exactly how to make a totally new squad of dwarves get ready to kill bad guys?

No matter what I do, I can't get my dwarves to go from open-face "Civilian" to closed-face "Military" icon.  This is probably related to the above...

(Mind you, I'm totally screwed because a squad of six bowgoblins ambushed me at the end of the first winter, because there's all kinds of huge hidden architecture value in the caverns I haven't explored, but hey.)

Valdemar:
To give a direct order, go into the squad menu (s, not m), select the right squad (a, b, c, etc), press m for move or k for kill, then select where you want to move or what you want to kill. This seems to override any orders in the schedule. When I do this, they immediately go to closed-face, drop their business, and do what I said, then go back to open-face and their previous duties when I cancel the order.

I've also had trouble getting them to spar correctly, but it sometimes works. Are you sure that 1) their schedule includes 'Train' 2) They are set to the correct alert level with the 'Train' schedule, and 3) you've created a barracks and assigned the squad to train there?

As for uniforms, I haven't really done much with them yet.

Phen:
I'd also love more info. I can't figure out how to set alerts to whatever... Meaning, I can create a new alert, but have no clue how to make settings for it. I wonder if I need to make a burrow first...

Valdemar:

--- Quote from: Phen on April 01, 2010, 04:03:09 pm ---I'd also love more info. I can't figure out how to set alerts to whatever... Meaning, I can create a new alert, but have no clue how to make settings for it. I wonder if I need to make a burrow first...

--- End quote ---

Depends on what you want to do with the alert level. If you want to use it to restrict civilians, then yes, you'll need to create a new burrow and assign the burrow to the level. Then, when you select the level, civilians will be restricted to within the selected burrow.

The other use for alert levels is for changing squad schedules. You can select which alert you're defining the schedule for in the schedule screen using / and *. Then, when you change the alert level (you can do this individually for each squad), the squads will change to that schedule.

I've started writing up a basic guide on the wiki.

Talion:
I have no idea how much effect it has, but try messing with the minimum number of dwarves needed to carry out an order in the scheduling screen.

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