40d Talk:Sparring

Miners using Mining skill

I've noticed my miners tend to get legendary in Miner rather than Wrestler while sparring. So not only do they use their picks and Mining skill in combat, they gain XP in that as well. Can anyone confirm? Anydwarf 13:45, 5 May 2008 (EDT)

I read the Dwarf Fortress forums a while ago, and picks indeed use the mining skill for combat.
Seems like picks are counted as spears with 40% damage reduction ( or atleast I think it was damage ) but have an insane critical rate.
So a legendary miner will be able to hold of a horde of goblins all by himself, provided you can get a civilian to attack and dodge, since civilians are not inclined to attack enemies and do not use armor...
--Karp 04:34, 9 June 2008 (EDT)

Draft 'im, I guess. I've occasionally had the fortune of having a legendary miner happen to be in the area when a goblin ambush was sprung, and they've generally done quite well for "recruits" - goblins go flying everywhere. Bryan Derksen 16:32, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

Speed of training in combat and in sparring

One thing I've noticed is that my crossbow dwarves seem to gain experience quicker in combat than in target practice at the archery range. Whilst this might be down to availability of ammunition, maybe experience from sparring isn't worth as much as from the real thing, which would make sense. Extar 11:22, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

It could also be that in combat, the marksdwarves are getting armor/shield user skill on top of their marksdwarf skill, which target practice doesn't do anything for --LegacyCWAL 14:34, 15 June 2008 (EDT)

They get it faster in combat. Perhaps by an order of magnitude. --Savok 08:42, 16 June 2008 (EDT)

...yeah, that'd do it. --LegacyCWAL 16:57, 17 June 2008 (EDT)

Well Savok would know. It certainly rings true with my experience with drafting miners/woodcutters/hunters becoming skilled wrestlers the first time they toe up with a kobold/goblin vs how long it takes to get good by sparring.GarrieIrons 09:20, 3 July 2008 (EDT)

I've witnessed something similar to this with recruits that are unarmed. What had happened was the recruits went into combat with some ambushers and jumped a few levels in wrestling fairly quickly. While Recruits who didn't fight but only spared took about a season to get the same skill in wrestling. Mission0 15:41, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

Training when and with who

Would it be better to train everyone at different times? People won't get as injured when sparring with someone with around equal attributes...I think. And to do that you'll need to deactivate or put on duty those with high strength in case thats something that you can do to prevent injury. Or put those who are strong defensively with those who need training. Also, what I thought, since every job might develop some attributes slower than sparring or pumping, is to put them through training when their skills and use are not as needed and when they are needed again, they would be more efficient. Is that painfully obvious to everyone else? Something for everyone to figure out for themselves? ...yeah.--Seaneat 08:25, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Danger

I once had a dorf who arrived in a migrnat wave and was and Axedwarf. As soon as he started sparring he cut of some guys head. Is there a way to change this? Hoborobo 10:52, 1 July 2008 (EDT)

Undraft him. Give him a worse weapon. Give the other guys armour. Don't put him on sparring. --Juckto 02:36, 2 July 2008 (EDT)

Heh, same question but my dorf is a swordsdwarf... the only one in the place with a steel sword and steel armour... my poor conscripts don't stand a chance with their leather armour and wooden shields apparently. Oh well at least he didn't kill my overly fertile recruit mayor (it seems she must be popular, maybe that explains all the babies she keeps having)...

My thought had been to use my first real millitary dwarf as the squad leader but what kind of NCO goes around killing the troops during training!GarrieIrons 09:18, 3 July 2008 (EDT)

Haven't dealt with a PO'd SGM have ya? :P --Edward 18:19, 3 July 2008 (EDT)

Dwarven soldiers never intentionally kill one another during training. However, imagine if during the modern world, karate teachers taught their students sword technique by using steel weapons. You'd have a lot of dead students there, too. In this sense DF is quite realistic; the problem is that the game doesn't yet allow dwarves to use non-lethal practice weapons instead, short of making players jump through hoops. --JT 20:57, 31 July 2008 (EDT)

I always put my trainees into a separate squad from anyone that hasn't undergone my training and equipping regime. Typically eliminates accidents like these, and helps keep my troops uniform, both in skill and equipment. Infact, they tend to stay in my trainee squad until they hit Elite level. Those that come pre-trained/equipped are usually placed into a 2nd squad and used as active guards. My civilian populace is placed into a 3rd squad lead by my favored dwarf.

Squad 1 is almost always drafted and off duty, Squad Two is always on duty and either chasing down cretins or standing guard at my entrance for thieves and the like. Third Squad rarely is activated except in times of siege as an emergency retreat measure to force them to evacuate to behind the barracks. --Edward 18:19, 3 July 2008 (EDT)

Metal Bolts + Target Practice

"metal bolts will not be wasted on target practice."

I'm not sure if this is true in the latest version - I think target practice uses the least valuable of all bolts available. In my current fortress I witnessed marksdwarves using no-adjective iron bolts for target practice when masterpiece bone bolts (most of them with extra adornment) were the other available ones. --Felix the Cat 23:17, 6 July 2008 (EDT)

Sparring Injuries From Furniture

I noticed that my soldiers were receiving a lot of brain and spinal injuries when sparring in a bedroom barracks. They were all wrestling, and using full bronze plate and bronze shields. The room layout looked like this:

####+####
#.......#
#.B.B.B.#
#.......#
+.B.B.B.+
#.......#
#.B.B.B.#
#.......#
####+####

Once I moved them to an empty barracks defined from a weapon rack, there were no more brain/spine injuries until they became legendary wrestlers/shield users and I switched them to weapon training. A single dwarf received a spinal injury afterwards, but not before achieving "great macedwarf" status. The others (9 of them) trained up to legendary weapon user status without incident.

Can anyone else verify that the presence of furniture in barracks increases the rate of sparring injuries? If so, this should be added to the artcle. --Chris Acheson 12:37, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

I haven't witnessed this. My barracks is littered with beds, and only one of my dwarves got a brain injury (light gray) while training up to champion (first marksdwarf, then wrestling, then weapons). I didn't even have them in especially good armor at first. Perhaps you just got unlucky.--Maximus 22:16, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

Fortress guard

I know that the Fortress and Royal guards spar with great zeal, but will they use archery ranges if assigned crossbows? HeWhoIsPale 11:26, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

Turns out yes, but not consistently. HeWhoIsPale 12:12, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

Can anyone provide some additional experiences with guards being assigned crossbows? In fort A, they practiced until they ran out of bolts and then proceeded to spar with the crossbows in melee; in fort B, they practiced like once a month and never sparred in melee. HeWhoIsPale 08:35, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

Speed of Training while Sparring

I have noticed something abnormal between dwarves that train.

I Drafted 8 or so dwarves at roughly the same time. I have them all off duty and in their own individual squads right now since all of them being in a squad didn't seem to make a difference.

What I'm noticing is that some Dwarves shoot up in wrestling skill tremendously fast, almost unrealistically. While some Dwarves train so slowly that while I have Dwarves at Champion level others are still only proficient wrestlers. Mission0 18:07, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

I noticed it as well --Jackrabbit 19:37, 17 October 2008 (EDT)