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[creepernaut]

New to the game from steam, addicted! But I was disappointed to discover that catapults only fire at targets on at the same height/z-level - had some suggestions to make catapults more fun^tm

1. projectiles fire in an arc - impacts with an AOE like a cavern collapse (would love to be able to put catapults on some towers)
2. select specific projectile type - rocks, goblin cages, dwarves, whatever
2. dwarves can change the catapult direction on their own, maybe possibly giving the ability to define a target area?

[brewer bob]

Improved sieges are on the development list.

And a FotF reply with stuff about catapults and arcs:

Catapult arcs:  Not 100% sure where the siege engines are going!  There's always been this feel that they are tied to the whole moving fortress thing, but that would put them after the siege rewrite (and more with the map rewrite), which also feels weird.  Fortunately we have arc projectiles ever since we did minecarts, so this isn't so unimaginable, anyway, though one of the issues has always been that our sky just isn't that high, so arcs run into some immediate trouble.  I don't remember what happens when projectiles hit the top of the play area currently, if they just vanish or what, but that would need to be dealt with.

[FantasticDorf]

Ah a fellow catapult appreciator.

They're a little under-utilized because they don't shear through armor, skin and bone like bolts for killing fleshed creatures, but i still highly recommend them still against the undead. Simply because the nonsentient undead really doesn't mind conga-lining across 1 wide walkways within a catapult, loaded with metal ore ammunition and doesn't bother to dodge.


If there is any sort of change to catapults, making them a bit more fluid with the ammunition would help them compete against minecart shotguns, which deliver a bigger payload & payoff by far.

[DuniteOlivine]

Ah yes, I too was thinking a similar thing of wanting to fire dwarves out of catapults. I think it would be really cool if you could craft parachutes for your military and airdrop your dwarves into the enemy, but I suppose even though they have the material to make it, historically speaking Dwarves wouldn't have parachute technology

Improved sieges are on the development list.

Siege engines like the catapult are just defensive tools against sieges. I think by "improved sieges" they are referring to increasing the ability for enemy sieges to breach your defenses. Yes catapults may improve the siege experience, but catapult changes are not mentioned in the improved sieges section.

[brewer bob]

Yes catapults may improve the siege experience, but catapult changes are not mentioned in the improved sieges section.

Not specifically mentioned, no, but there's a mention of "Siege engine improvements depend on state of boats, lifts/moving fortress sections, since these should all use the same framework", which I presume means (also) ballistae and catapults (I think Toady has mentioned it several times in FotF replies or somewhere else, but I could just remember wrong).

[eerr]

if toady one is working on multi-tile creatures to work with the new graphics, then that could mean multi-tile structures as well.

note that i'm pretty sure catapaults can fire at lower z-levels in the last few versions of 40d. It just never got noted. The stone flies out straight(not in an arc!) then suddenly drops straight down.

funny thing is, most objects that fall a z-level are one-hit kills, but not stones fired from a catapult.