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Author Topic: Catapults throwing stone off the map.  (Read 1152 times)

Headless

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Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« on: December 20, 2014, 09:50:15 am »

Hi all,

I want to set up a couple of catapults with dedicated crews training full time.  If I run the crews long enough I will eventually throw all the stone off the map,  are their any ways to catch it?  I think I read it it hits a wall and then falls a few z levels it will stay, but I haven't been able to make it work.  Once I get some good crews I m going to switch them to ballista.  Defiantly don't want to waste any of those if I can avoid it.

Thanks
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Arx

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2014, 10:15:11 am »

I favour a design similar to this:

Code: [Select]
╔═══════
║▽++++++
║▽++++++╓
║▽++++++║Catapult
║▽++++++╙
║▽++++++
╚═══════

So that most of the shots fired fall down. If your siege operators are shooting short, I'm not sure there's anything to do about it.

Is it possible to channel out the entire area?
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I am on Discord as Arx#2415.
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Headless

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2014, 10:24:55 am »

I can channel or build anything so that design looks great. Pretty simple but I was having a hard time picturing it thanks.   I tried something like that to save bolts but it didn't work.  Can you save bolts the same way or are they always destroyed?
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Arx

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2014, 10:27:33 am »

I think bolts are more complicated because they need a straight walkable path to the target, so you can't channel out in front of the target where the bolts fall. You can channel out the area to the sides and behind, although I'm not sure it's possible for a bolt to get behind the target. Wood and bone bolts are really cheap, especially with the new trees, though.
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Hail to the mind of man! / Fire in the sky
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2014, 03:06:39 am »

Also, a lot of the bolts actually hit the target, which destroys them. Another problem with bolt recovery is that fired/recovered bolts are no longer bundled, i.e. you end up with a lot of single bolt stacks, and I don't think there is any restacking mechanism yet.
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Aslandus

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2014, 07:18:28 pm »

Also, a lot of the bolts actually hit the target, which destroys them. Another problem with bolt recovery is that fired/recovered bolts are no longer bundled, i.e. you end up with a lot of single bolt stacks, and I don't think there is any restacking mechanism yet.
That's why you can multiply metal with bolts...

but yeah, if you channel out in front of your archery targets then your marksdwarves won't train... generally I find it's better to just lose the bolts than to try digging out an area to catch them...

utunnels

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2014, 07:27:01 pm »

Well I used bone bolts to train in my previous fort. There were too many bones.
The only problem was I had to quantum stockpile them, because each bone only made 5 bolts.

Now I wonder if I could just build the crafters workshop near the range and forgot about the stockpile.
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Larix

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2014, 08:36:22 pm »

Yes, dwarfs will happily grab bolts directly from the workshop. If the shop's very full of bolts, it will clutter and work in there will slow down, but that takes something like a thousand bolts stacked in the shop, at which point fast production of new ones isn't vitally important.
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Arx

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2014, 01:29:51 am »

Well I used bone bolts to train in my previous fort. There were too many bones.
The only problem was I had to quantum stockpile them, because each bone only made 5 bolts.

Now I wonder if I could just build the crafters workshop near the range and forgot about the stockpile.

You can fit about two million* bone bolts in a bin, though. I don't normally run into storage problems for anything, using a ten-by-ten area for blocks, bars, bolts, and weapons.

It probably helps that my marksdwarves turn into machineguns after a little while. The bolts don't spend long in storage, really.

*Hyperbole.
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I've been waiting for you / On this day we die.

utunnels

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Re: Catapults throwing stone off the map.
« Reply #9 on: December 22, 2014, 01:42:33 am »

You can fit about two million* bone bolts in a bin, though. I don't normally run into storage problems for anything, using a ten-by-ten area for blocks, bars, bolts, and weapons.

It probably helps that my marksdwarves turn into machineguns after a little while. The bolts don't spend long in storage, really.

*Hyperbole.
The problem is they can't use bolts form a bin. Has that been fixed? Well the bug was still there when I was playing that fortress.
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