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[lanceleoghauni]

Ah well. It seemed like a marginally less than terrible idea at the time.

[Azated]

I've heard that wooden ballista bolts can bounce off cloth.

I've never been game enough to try it, but I know for a fact that a kitten accidentally walking in front of a ballista as it fires will explode into meat and bones.

[Syrup Roast]

Also you might want to have a system of recovering the ballista bolts after being fired through the danger room. Chances are, however, that some bolts will end up on the side walls and you'll have to replace them with precious precious wood that can be used for crossbow bolts instead.

Consider replacing those training spears with menacing spikes to get more fun for the buck.

[acer_palmatum]

They can't block the bolts, and they won't provide much XP.

Actually they can block the bolts

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

and deflect or dodge

But no it does not provide much xp due to the slow reload time. Even with the piercing power of ballista arrows and legendary siege operators it is much easier to stack multiple squads in a danger room with higher spear counts for advanced rooms.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

9x ballista emplacement for the south west corner for an old fortress

Oh and the other downside is that even in adamantine armor bolts do serious damage if the user doesn't have high enough armor skill. Here is an elite marksdwarf before he collapses from pain (granted it was a steel arrow)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

they are also pretty inaccurate and difficult to align to hit your dwarves. however they pass through anything even when blocked so they are definitely a great siege defense

[Girlinhat]

Steel is a pretty powerful ammo, despite its lower weight.  It has a sharp edge, and is very likely to strike through something.