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[athenalras]

Just a quick beginner question.

Can marksdwarves shoot off from walls at any Z-level and hit enemies at ground level? or is there a limit to the height at which marksdwarves can shoot and target ground enemies?

[Niyazov]

Dwarves will shoot from the top of walls, but only at enemies within their sight radius. At least as of .34, height didn't convey any range or damage bonus- it actually reduced range, since the vertical distance was also factored in. The introduction of multi-story trees in the new edition adds new challenges for dwarves in elevated positions, since I think branches and the canopy interfere with line-of-sight.

[GavJ]

They can technically attempt to shoot anything at any distance with line of sight, under the right conditions. Usually though, they will restrict themselves to something like a 30 tile 3-dimensional radius. So yes, they can shoot down, but at 30 floors up, they generally won't, and at 25 floors up, they will only have a tiny circle on the ground within acceptable range, and so on. It doesn't take into account a realistic range boost.

I don't know if there's a small "shadow" on the ground where they can't shoot below a certain angle or not (like, nothing steeper than 30 degrees down). I'm not sure if them standing in the middle of the tile and the tile's own floor might get in the way, you see. There might be, or not. No guarantees on that, but they certainly can shoot at things further out than they are down, without a doubt, and possibly at anything.

[greycat]

I don't know if there's a small "shadow" on the ground where they can't shoot below a certain angle or not (like, nothing steeper than 30 degrees down).

At least in 0.34.11, Marksdwarves standing behind fortifications a Z-level above the ground could not hit targets in this setup:

Side view:

Code: [Select]

    F@    F = fortification    @ = dwarf
___g##    g = goblin           # = wall

The goblins had to be kept at least 1 tile back from the wall in order to be shot.  I don't know whether this changed in 0.40.

[Urist McVoyager]

The idea of a fortification is that you're not sticking your head out between the bars to make shots. It's like those archery holes you see in the walls of real-world castles. So the angle issue is accurate, and should be a feature, not a bug.

I read on the Wiki that it's a 20 tile radius, but you won't get a range reduction until you're about four Z-levels above or below the target. The first three only seem to affect that fortification shadow. After that you get a 1-tile horizontal reduction for each Z-level above or below.

[neblime]

strongly recommend you put your dwarves behind fortifications not just on top of a wall, gobbos can definitely shoot at them, and even if they dodgethe shots they might fall off.
as others have said height is bad as it reduces range by increasing distance to the target (and there's the shadow thing) however you want your fortifications 1 z level up so that enemies cant walk up and shoot through the fortifications at your dwarves (it does happen)
something else that helps keep your dwarves right next to the fortifications (which they have to be to shoot through unless they're accomplished+) is fill the room with statues except for the edges.  The dwarves can still dodge onto statues but wont stand there idly

[Urist McVoyager]

Another easy way is to only give the dwarves a single tile wide walkway to stand on. They have a 3-tile radius to play with when it comes to stationing, but if there's nowhere to stand away from a fortification, they'll be right where they need to be at all times. Easy way to do that in a tower room is to carve out the center of the room so it only has a one tile edge to stand on. I don't think ramps count as standing room, so having a few for access to the bottom floor shouldn't be an issue.

[fricy]

An even easier way is to paint a burrow next to the fortification and set up a defend "burrow order". That way you can send them to defend by changing squad orders and they'll always stand at the correct spot.

[Agent_Irons]

An even easier way is to paint a burrow next to the fortification and set up a defend "burrow order". That way you can send them to defend by changing squad orders and they'll always stand at the correct spot.

I gotta try this.

The fortifications meta has been tweaked significantly since climbing was added. You want 2z high walls, minimum, and maybe made of blocks? If you can't afford blocks, I recommend adding little platforms to the corners that allow crossfire of the walls themselves, so there's no blind spots where climbers can get at your dwarves but the dwarves can't fire back.

My current setup involves a long three-wide path with deramped channels along the sides, then fortifications on the other side of that. The dwarves can path to the baddies, and vice versa, but invariably breaks LoS so the damned marksdwarves will resupply instead of just rushing in crossbows at the ready. It's not the best though. Climbing marksgoblins are going to be a problem, as are necromancers.