about skillbooks.

[pmutzu]

skillbooks are a great addition to the game .... but i find i simply collect them saving them for the very endgame. my dwarves die too much to stupid situations. drowning in a one tile pond.getting knocked a hundred feet in the air from a yeti.fall damage .A giant unpredictable underground beast. so i save the books. untill i am done mining the depths completely.only when i dont need to send my dwarves out can i safely use the books.
why cant i have the game remember the skills a dwarf had when it died. and why cant the same dwarf respawn when its time to respawn a dwarf. at least i wouyld be inclined to use the books right away then and actually get use out of them.

[Yoyi]

Honestly I thin that would make it kind of meaningless. It actually gives you something else to do if your dwarves die. I try to distribute the skills every 3 or so dwarves so if one dies is not much of a loss.

[Mean.Cloud]

Right now, there's little use for most skills anyway since there's absolutely no prioritization of skill utilization. You could give a dwarf a bunch of milling skill but it may pick other dwarves to mill every time, even if he's available. It's just random if he happens to use the skills he has.

[mikeydsc]

most definately use the skill books for fighting - helps - swordman - archer mage and climber and swimmer - shot I use them all No sense sitting on a shelf collecting dust

[Pestilence]

I use them all the second I get them, but then again, I have not had a dwarf die yet. Mine run away at low health.

[fredingue]

Lol, you never had a dwarf trying to escape through 12 skeletons ?! :p
Or an archer never shooting while he is in a too nearly space, does not get out and is eaten bit by bit by a monster?
Or a dwarf low on health fall from a 10 spaces ladder ?

[pmutzu]

point is,,,, right now we cant control our dwarves enough to prevent every accidental death from A.I stupidity. until that time using skillbooks on my dwarves is a waste. .... unless they retained the skill even after death. it would not be hard to implement. it would not break the game... you already got the permanent death option. but this way i can get use out of my skillbooks and maybe actually max someones skill out for a change.

[fredingue]

Well, i like this system, despite in my first game where i built the portail i lost a 12 of dwarves.

Usually i have a lot of spare books to replace lost skills. The only ones that i really want is archer and melee (swordsman) but if i don't have any in stock i do with it.

Moreover, losing a dwarf is sometimes the proper time to built a new cool one with the books you have (archer/hunter/climber or swimmer is one i like) :)

[Bytebreaker]

Originally posted by Zombie Crusher:

Right now, there's little use for most skills anyway since there's absolutely no prioritization of skill utilization. You could give a dwarf a bunch of milling skill but it may pick other dwarves to mill every time, even if he's available. It's just random if he happens to use the skills he has.

When a new task appears it is checked for an unbusy dwarf with the corresponding skill. But if such a dwarf is doing something else at this time, this task will be taken by somebody else.
We plan to increase the influence of skills. So, if player has skilled dwarf the appropriate task will be waiting for him.

[pmutzu]

that is good to hear.