Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[StagnantSoul]

Why not? A moving ballista would make them viable on low tree biomes. Tracks can't be too complicated, or almost everyone wouldn't use them. From what I understand, it's carve tracks, place minecart, push. Simple enough.

[Bumber]

Why not? A moving ballista would make them viable on low tree biomes. Tracks can't be too complicated, or almost everyone wouldn't use them. From what I understand, it's carve tracks, place minecart, push. Simple enough.

You'd to need to set up a hauling route, too. How do you tell your dwarves when the ballista needs to be moved? And with your ballista constantly being moved around you're leaving gaps in your defense coverage. You may never actually line up a shot.

If you can't afford the ballistae then you probably can't afford the ammo. 1 ballista = 3 wood = 3 ballista arrows.

[StagnantSoul]

It's a simple q push. Hauling routes aren't nessecary, and, I find, somewhat redundant, since it'll all get hauled anyway. A few moving ballistae on tracks is probably better for your defense than fifty static ones, half of which won't ever be used.

[Bumber]

It's a simple q push. Hauling routes aren't nessecary, and, I find, somewhat redundant, since it'll all get hauled anyway. A few moving ballistae on tracks is probably better for your defense than fifty static ones, half of which won't ever be used.

If they had a rotate option plus proper firing cones then any of them you don't use you probably don't need.

They shouldn't even need tracks to begin with if they're the type that have wheels (which they should if you're going to be moving them.)

[GavJ]

I don't think it even matters if it's the best solution. Automation options and contraptions are dwarfy and fun.

Go ahead and put firing cones on them. Go ahead and let them be wheeled. Then ALSO put an undercarriage on them to be able to go on rails as well.  If you want to do it with far less coding effort than the 3 tracks, there have been options mentioned (center tile acts as the minecart only, or make ballistas 1x1).

Really, just about everything (or parallel versions of things perhaps) should be able to go on tracks. Doors, traps, bridges, pressure plates, etc. It would make the game far more amusing

[Bumber]

Really, just about everything (or parallel versions of things perhaps) should be able to go on tracks. Doors, traps, bridges, pressure plates, etc. It would make the game far more amusing

Can't you do most of that already? There's definite mention of minecarts on the pressure plate page of the wiki (and vise-versa.) Bridges function as tracks. I know I've heard of track designs utilizing doors opened by pressure plates. I don't know about traps.

Now, if you're talking about stuff actually being moved around, moving fortress parts are planned.

[GavJ]

Yeah I meant moving the doors and bridges ON the tracks

[slothen]

make ballistas useful first.

[StagnantSoul]

Ballistas can slaughter fifty goblins in a few seconds. They are useful.

[Uristocrat]

Personally, I'd like to see them mobile and mounted on minecarts.  As in, you don't take it out of the cart to fire.

[Larix]

But if you don't set it on a track stop or brace it against a wall, the recoil of the shot should be able to move the cart backwards (or on a diagonal when a moving mounted ballista shoots to the side).

[Bumber]

I think something that we need to keep in mind here is that sieges will eventually use these too. That means invaders will either need to build tracks all over your landscape or constantly reassemble their siege equipment. The former is ridiculous. The latter would make sense for trebuchet but seems unusual for catapults or ballistae.

[GavJ]

But if you don't set it on a track stop or brace it against a wall, the recoil of the shot should be able to move the cart backwards (or on a diagonal when a moving mounted ballista shoots to the side).

Erm, brakes?

I think something that we need to keep in mind here is that sieges will eventually use these too. That means invaders will either need to build tracks all over your landscape or constantly reassemble their siege equipment. The former is ridiculous. The latter would make sense for trebuchet but seems unusual for catapults or ballistae.

There's no reason why we can't have ballistae that are slowly movable with their own wheels AND also have an option of running on a track (much faster, and automatable)... AND shoot within horizontal arcs.

Don't know why people are acting like these are mutually exclusive concepts.

[Bumber]

There's no reason why we can't have ballistae that are slowly movable with their own wheels AND also have an option of running on a track (much faster, and automatable)... AND shoot within horizontal arcs.

Don't know why people are acting like these are mutually exclusive concepts.

Yes, that's fine.

I wonder if siege equipment would work well implemented as a unit able to be given orders via the squad menu. Then, given a move order, available siege engineers would attempt to slide it down a track (given a decreased pathing cost) if available, or else wheel it around. We'd need an additional special attack order to fire along a trajectory instead of at a moving target. The hauling screen would need to be extended to accept units for tracks, which is fine because it ties in with using beasts of burden for hauling later.

[Larix]

But if you don't set it on a track stop or brace it against a wall, the recoil of the shot should be able to move the cart backwards (or on a diagonal when a moving mounted ballista shoots to the side).

Erm, brakes?

Exactly. Track stops _are_ the brakes we have now.