40d Talk:Archery target

Dwarves don't practice with metal bolts.

"Any sort of bolts can be used to practice with." This can't be correct, unless it's been changed in this version. I have never seen a dwarf practice with metal bolts. --Kjoery 09:15, 7 November 2007 (EST)

You are correct. In my new fortress, the dorves only practice when I finally built bone/wood bolts. FFLaguna 17:53, 25 November 2007 (EST)

Experience

Does the distance to the target have any effect on how effective the training is? Are longer distances better, or shorter? Does it depend on the dwarf's skill (i.e. shorter for novices, longer for professionals)?--Draco18s 01:23, 28 February 2008 (EST)

so, am i the only one who is disturbed by the archers happily firing away at the dwarves cleaning up their training bolts? Is this the kind of respect we should show our cleaning personal? --Koltom 20:22, 5 March 2008 (EST)

I've thought it odd, but as they don't get hurt its only a minor cosmetic bug.--Draco18s 20:19, 7 March 2008 (EST)

I dont think its a bug at all. I was kidding ;) --Koltom 09:48, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

It teaches them to shoot around friendlies... it's a feature, yeah, a feature. --Jurph 13:26, 20 November 2008 (EST)

Used ammunition immediately becomes 'forbidden by default... It'd be fun if the reason was to protect haulers from being forced to carry an uncomfortable number of bolts back in some uncomfortable places, but really it's just that stacks can't recombine yet! Training with one bolt at a time isn't very efficient, nor is carrying only one in your quiver... --Navian 15:00, 20 November 2008 (EST)

Distance

Anyone know the minimum/maximum distance an archer will train from? --Bouchart 20:06, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Well, they won't stand directly adjacent to the target. "... cancels Shooting at Archery Range: No floor space." One space in between is enough. The archery range room has a maximum size too -- can't designate beyond that. They'll still train at the maximum distance. Anydwarf 23:27, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

Any benefit from using a smaller archery range? Do the dwarves wait for the bolt to hit the target before firing a new one? If so, a smaller range may imply faster training.

Dorfs will fire as many shots as they want without waiting for their shots to hit their intended mark. I've seen this both with targets as well as fleeing goblins (heh heh heh.). Firing speed seems to vary from shot to shot, dorf to dorf (i've seen anywhere from 30 to 60 (k|.) presses before a second shot is unleashed). So on the contrary, a larger range may imply faster training since it allows them to practice their archery. Additionally, when faced with a small range and a large range, they usually take the longer range, even when it's further out of the way. --JeebusSez 23:47, 20 May 2008 (EDT)

Minimal Practice

When I have a barracks set up, my melee dwarves all spar like mad and happily paint the walls red with each other's blood. However, in my latest fort I had 22 archery ranges, yet only one or two of my twenty-four marksdwarves would practice at a time, despite an abundance of bone bolts (hundreds and hundreds). Is this a bug, am I doing it wrong, or what? I even tried separating the ranges with a wall between each. Do they need to be in distinct rooms with a door? What's going on here? --Xaddak 18:00, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

Does each target have its own room defined? HeWhoIsPale 19:17, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

Yes they do, and all of my dwarves are off-duty or in the Fortress Guard, too. --Xaddak 19:26, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

I had the exact same problem. It turned out that most of my small army was wearing TWO backpacks: one for food, the other one empty or loaded with bizarre stuff (one of them had blood from various species of humanoids and animals; Another one had like two dozens of live rats and roaches inside his pack. I went "lol, WTF?"). After I marking the extra backpacks for dumping, I had to expand the shooting range :) Tann 17:21, 8 December 2008 (EST)

Do you have any wooden bolts? For me, just now I had trouble finding out why none of my marksdwarves wouldn't practice. Wooden bolts I had in the hundreds but no bone bolts. I had set it up that way so I could create armor from the bones I had. The dwarves walked around clad in the armor I had designated, the weapons, backpacks, quivers and did everything -except- practice with the wooden bolts. Once I crafted some out of bone the archery ranges filled up in seconds. Maybe .. you're on the other side of this buggy coin and your dwarves mysteriously prefer wood? Aspgren 03:17, 17 December 2008 (EST)

Fortifications / Channels on Range

Experimenting with fortifications and channels to preserve bolts, I found that my dwarves would not shoot down a range with a channel or fortification in it- indeed, when I tried to re-make the room to make sure it was done right, it refused to expand past the channel / fortification. It's been suggested in various places to build channel/fortification types of things to preserve bolts; it might be good to add a note to this article about the counterintuitive blockage. LucienSadi 03:15, 11 December 2008 (EST)

The intent was to have your channel behind the targets, not in front. E.G.:

▒_...
▒_X..
▒_...
^^
| \Bolts fall here,
after hitting this wall.

Hope that helps! --Edward 05:53, 11 December 2008 (EST)

It does, but my dwarves are too accurate to -not- hit the target now, even with them shooting from the furthest distance ;_; --LucienSadi 06:11, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Which/how many tiles around an archery target have to exist? I dug a channel all around my targets, save for one tile in front which allows me to extend the archery range into the literal room, but my Dwarves don't seem to like this setup. Borrowing from the graphic above:

▒___.
▒_X..
▒___.

Also, the tile right in front of the target is a constructed floor. FJH 02:34, 18 February 2009 (EST)