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[Grimmash]

I recently tried to use arbalests, to little effect.  I had built them, had bolts and siege operators, and when a siege came, i activated them for a month.  The siege ops grabbed bolts, went to the arbalests, transformed, then went into trances.  But when the enemies walked in front of the arbalests, no bolts were fired, no combat logs were updated, and no ammunition was visibly fired.  The arbalests were 1 to two z-levels above the enemies, directly behind fortifications.  The enemies ranged betwee 1 space and the map edge away while the operators were in the arbalests.  Also, although the reaction name says 1 month, the operators only stayed for about 2 weeks.

Is this bugged?  Am i doing it wrong?  From the manual it does not seem that elevation or fortifications should pose any problems.

[Meph]

The workers transform into creatures that are immobile and have a ranged interaction. Its the actual worker that fires, not the arbalest. They need line-of-sight, and I dont know if they shoot through fortifications or not. It certainly worked when I tested it, and I got reports about them working, and I havent changed anything on them.

[splinterz]

they can shoot up/down z levels but they don't shoot through fortifications

[razorback]

they can shoot up/down z levels but they don't shoot through fortifications

is there any way to let them shoot through them aswell?

[Grimmash]

Thanks guys.  The manual might need an update then.  It says arbalests can shoot through fortifications.  Not being able to do so may radically change how on decides to deploy or even research them .  If you go look at the Silvergoose thread, you can find pictures of how I laid out eight, in a pattern that will be decidedly useless.  The whole fortifications things makes them something to put outside your flying titan/FB defenses.  I will test them without fortifications and report back at some point.

[Meph]

They should be able to shoot, IF the worker stands right next to the fortification. But thats only possible if I make the workshop 1 tile wide.

If you want to give it a test: You can pasture the workers. Seriously, they transform into a "dwarf operating the arbalest" (or something similar) and you can move them like pets. Try pasturing one right next to the fortification tile. I am really curious, because these guys act like turrets, and turrets can shoot through fortifications.

[Grimmash]

While I think that is a cool idea, and I will test it once my current fort is a bit further along, it seems like a lot of micro-managing compared to a turret.  I haven't used turrets yet, though, so I may just be crazy.

Is there any simple way to make arbalests work like the other siege workshops, where you set an orientation, and then have the "worked" block be the middle top block? Like this diagram, imagine the arbalest is oriented north, and the R block is the place where a worker has to stand to use the space:

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XRX
XXX
XXX

[Meph]

No, no way. Warmist is working on a siege-engine plugin thing that uses magma to shoot fire. Fancy stuff.

And yes, turrets are easier, but arbalest/trebuchet hit a lot harder. 1 arbalest is about as good as 6 turrets. It was just the fortification that was in the way.