Marksdwarf not equiping ammo issue

[ccwscott]

Has anyone found a solution for this yet? I have tried every last thing suggested and my marksdwarves will not pick up ammo. I've made sure both the barracks and the archery range have containers for the arrows, I've tried deleting the squad and recreating it, they have an assigned archery range set to train, a barracks set to storage and sleep, tried creating stockpiles within both of those zones, they have quivers, they're schedule is set to train, nothing yet has worked. I've seen some people suggest customizing the contents of the chest, but I'm not aware of how to do that. From what I've read, the fact that I accidently deleted the original ranged template may mean I'm screwed. I'm hoping I don't have to scuttle my entire run and start over.

[Vivisectus]

Same here - cant get them to pick up bolts

[FishEnjoyer47]

Yeah I got marksdwarves to pick up bolts and train in one of my forts, but in my current one they won’t touch bolts ;-;

[FishEnjoyer47]

Ok I created a new squad and gave them the default "archer" uniform and assigned a kill order, and the ones with quivers immediately picked up bolts and now they train at my archery ranges as well!

[Haethei]

The uniforms appear to be quite important. I suggest assigning your dwarves one of the default uniforms (archer, metal armor, leather armor) and then assigning the specific gear you want to give them after that. Assigning them the Archer uniform might toggle something in the code that makes them behave like an archer, seeking ammo.

If you deleted the default archer loadout and are unable to fix the issue otherwise, you've encountered something we call an "unintended challenge run". See what you can do without using any marksdwarves for the rest of your fortress' life span. I really think it's possible to do fine with only melee dwarves, especially since you'll have *more* of them now

If that sounds boring to you, that's fair too. I think it'd be interesting to try

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

It's a long standing issue with uniforms. Potential solutions range from "use a default uniform" to "remake the uniform" or "remake the squad". You may simply need to fiddle with it, but whatever you do, do not assign a hunter to become a marksdwarf without extra weapons/ammunition laying about.

[Alocrin]

Originally posted by ccwscott:

Has anyone found a solution for this yet? I have tried every last thing suggested and my marksdwarves will not pick up ammo. I've made sure both the barracks and the archery range have containers for the arrows, I've tried deleting the squad and recreating it, they have an assigned archery range set to train, a barracks set to storage and sleep, tried creating stockpiles within both of those zones, they have quivers, they're schedule is set to train, nothing yet has worked. I've seen some people suggest customizing the contents of the chest, but I'm not aware of how to do that. From what I've read, the fact that I accidently deleted the original ranged template may mean I'm screwed. I'm hoping I don't have to scuttle my entire run and start over.

You shouldn't have a barracks if you want your marksdwarves to train archery. only an archery range. only use a barracks for sleeping. Make sure the fire direction is is correct. I find they won't pick up bolts if they have nothing to do with them. Make sure your bolt stockpile has bins disabled. Then make sure they are scheduled correctly. If not try bruteforcing the training order

[Alocrin]

Also make sure your sleeping barracks and archery range are two separate rooms. If none of those work I'll get you to post some screenshots to diagnose your problem.

[An Ambidextrous Goat]

Been messing around with the Steam version's marksdwarves and they definitely seem broken. I have done every possible combination of custom/default uniforms being equipt before/after squad creation with bolts in stockpiles/loose and nothing is behaving consistently. I have one squad in my fort that can equip bolts, somehow, not 100% sure how it worked because it's a custom uniform, but nothing I do gets the second squad to equip bolts. Hopefully they get this fixed soon, cause only one marksdwarf squad isn't enough for most medium-large forts (how can I train up newbs while the experts patrol my fortifications?)

My functional marksdwarf squad is setup as follows:
1- Bolts in bins in a stockpile, stockpile outside archery range
2- Squad setup with custom schedule alternating between training and patrolling
3- Archery range set up to have squad train there, no other barracks assigned
4- Custom outfit with helm, greaves, crossbow, nothing else. Does not work when applied to second squad
I don't think any of this solved the issue, it's just a miracle one squad worked at all. I cannot recreate the solution with a second squad.

IEvery attempt to recreate my functional squad has resulted in dwarves getting drunk during training without any bolts in their quiver, the uniform system just seems very inconsistent (the only hypothesis I've seen that might hold water is that marksdwarves will only pick up bolts that were made after the squad uniform is assigned, but I haven't tested it yet with my squads). All other possible causes of the issue I've seen have been disqualified through my testing, other than quivers+uniforms just being straight up broken, which I suspect is the case, given you can't assign quivers in uniforms like you could in acsii.

Even if it isn't a uniform issue, it's definitely a bug. I tell dwarf "shoot crossbow", dwarf picks up crossbow, looks at stock of 1000 bolts and says "nope, no ammo available sir" then goes back to drinking themselves silly.

[Lexyvil]

I have that issue too.
1. I made many wooden bolts, which are stored in the ammo stockpile.
2. I made my Squad use Crossbows
3. Made sure they have quivers.
4. When I send them to kill a target, they use melee. They seem to never pick up the bolts from my ammo stockpile during on or off duty.

Edit: Seems like the bug is only present for user-made uniforms, from what I read around Any confirmation on this?

[Mystomex]

I have been able to consistently get my archers to behave properly even with custom uniforms. For the bolts I put them in quantum stockpiles with no bins. The problem I have noticed with bins is that they get picked up and carried around alot which causes no ammo issues. I also set ever single archer to hunt this will make them grab crossbows and bolts on their own. For the archery range only 1 dwarf will use a range at a time, so I make 10 ranges 1 for each target and set the squad to practice in each one. They still do not all go in and practice I have never seen more than 2 practice shooting at the same time but when I check their equip screen it shows that each one in the squad has ammo and when I get attacked they definatly shoot them.

I should also mention that I have a constant supply of bone bolts being made. Bone bolts can still pierce armor and they are easy to obtain. I also sprinkle in some higher quality bolts from time to time.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by Alocrin:

snip

Early on, yes, you should restrict archery/marksdwarf skill training to an archery range. However, the moment you have at least one adequate marksdwarf, there's significantly less reason to do traditional training, rather than using demonstrations for mass training. The same is generally true of melee dorfs, though demonstration/sparring regimens will always produce much more diverse skillsets.

Originally posted by An Ambidextrous Goat:

snip

I had issues with ammunition early on (never experienced it in Classic despite it being a 12 year old bug, probably due to lack of playtime). However, between forcing all uniforms to be worn instead of clothing, not allowing hunters/woodcutters to be marksdwarfs/axedwarfs respectively, and ensuring that the ammo/armor/weapon stockpile overlaps the barracks, barracks dining hall, and all archery ranges, the issue has since cleared up. Using equip always orders also cleared up the food dropping issue entirely.

[Morkonan]

I just "reassign" armor and it seems to clear things up nicely.

Adding a new unit to a squad can sometimes make things a bit confused, for some reason. So, whenever one does that, just reassign the uniform to the squad and it should cycle through things fine.

Don't assign Hunters to any Squad. Just FYI.

And, when in doubt, always have the Squad wear their armor "Always." Armored boots do not fit over "shoes" and this should also force them to wear any profession/skill "uniform" setups, which causes problems.

Even so, they can still seem to be a bit wonky with ammo. Dunno why, as i've got all the bases covered there. /shrug

PS: Don't have any backpacks in your Fortress at all if you want to avoid food being dropped all over the place and causing Miasmas. They shouldn't need to eat/drink during combat and won't leave combat, even if they did.

[Panic77]

Originally posted by Tomandpug:

Ok I created a new squad and gave them the default "archer" uniform and assigned a kill order, and the ones with quivers immediately picked up bolts and now they train at my archery ranges as well!

Hmm I bet it was the quiver not being included in the uniform for me.

[ccwscott]

Originally posted by Commisar Jon Fuklaw:

It's a long standing issue with uniforms. Potential solutions range from "use a default uniform" to "remake the uniform" or "remake the squad". You may simply need to fiddle with it, but whatever you do, do not assign a hunter to become a marksdwarf without extra weapons/ammunition laying about.

It's not really a long standing issue. It's unique to the steam version which came out a few weeks ago.

[Lexyvil]

Sadly I already deleted all of my default uniforms to form my own sets, for my current fort. Hope they do fix that though, I really want to defend myself against giant birds.