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[Im_Sparks]

I've seen other threads like this, but they were much too general. I do not want musketdwarves, or steampunk cannons. I don't want any of that. I'm thinking a much more straightforward cannon. Pig iron cast, made in parts at metalsmith's forge, assembled at siege workshop.

Uses iron cannonballs, and does insane amounts of damage to everything in its' path. It has the potential to take out about 4 or 5 gobbos in a row before stopping. It uses 2 bars of iron or higher for every part, made of 3 parts, each ball uses one bar of iron or other metal. Possibly rock. POSSIBLY.

Expensive, yes.
Deadly, oh yeah.

[[P]sYDoNiA]

This sounds pretty sweet...

Althought I suppose it would be too rigged in defending one narrow corridor...
But if I'm liking the idea so far.

With the implementation of the new physics systems, you could make mangonels and when you can finally siege other civs... FIRE THE TREBUCHETS!!

It would be awesome if you could encase magma inside a rock(?) ball and when you launch it, it shatters all over the place... burning the gobbos with magma

Napalm!

[Derakon]

Ballista already do "You got hit by a tree trunk" damage. They seem to one-shot anything they hit. So cannonballs wouldn't really be a step up unless you had way more metal than wood on your site.

[Strife26]

I believe that this is included with the stuff that Toady doesn't want to do list.
However, with the improvements that materials are getting, we might see modifiable siege equipment soon. Then it'll just be a matter of tweaking the bastilla entry, which is very similar to this one.
In fact, you could get very close to the same effect with a metal to wood reaction already.

[chucks]

Cannonballs would be interesting as a siege weapon ammunition if they could be made hollow and packed with black powder.  I think the only thing I would be fine with gunpowder and harnessing the power of explosives would be in cannonade siege engines.

[Luke_Prowler]

Hollow cannon-balls with gunpowder inside is what's know as a mortar, and a working one wouldn't be invented 'til after the cut off date.

Aside from cannons, another use for Black powder would be explosive charges, which can be used for mining or anything else that comes to mind.

[Wolfius]

Hollow cannon-balls with gunpowder inside is what's know as a mortar, and a working one wouldn't be invented 'til after the cut off date.

That's a shell, actually.

Wiki sez the first explosive shells used in Europe were fired from mortars(which is actually a type of artillery gun), however.


And personally, about the most advanced I'd like to see explosive use in DF become(if it must be implemented) is demolition charges, for mining or traps.

Although you could maybe implement your own cannon by constructing a short hall(iron block walls/floors, maybe?), open at one end, with a demo charge at the closed end and a pile of rocks/narrow iron armour/whatever next to it, the opening facing an enemy's only approach, and the charge linked to a pressure plate or switch. Or something like that, depending on how things work out.

Maybe fireworks, too, for trade, happy thoughts, and setting things on fire.

[Grimlocke]

I think that explosives shouldnt only appear in DF in their most primitive form, in the form of gunpower.

The weapons used could be:
The bombard.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Large caliber cannons made from wrought iron or bronze, usualy firing stone projectiles, but also metal, incendary, quickline coated or greek fire coated ones. Should be possible to be made of different sizes, all should cost massive amouths of metal.

The hand cannon.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The oldest and simplest form of firearm, its basically a small cannon on a stick. It requires manual ignition, thus rendering the user unable to have both his hands on the gun, and both eyes on the target. Its a rather clumsy weapon, but it kills things.

More advanced weapons that still fall under the <1400 cutoff are:

The Ribauldequin.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also called 'organ gun', its basically a rack with a whole bunch of small cannons attached. Takes ages to load, but can fire a lot of metal shot at once. Quite deadly against large numbers.

The matchlock firearm.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is smaller then the hand cannon and uses the first knows firing mechanism which is best discribed with a picture!
This mechanism is still a hassle to load, but a certain improvement from the hand cannon.

Note that all these weapons all fire round shots, and thus do not use any form of rifling. It makes them inaccurate at best. Weapons such as bows and crossbows are still more accurate.

[Rowanas]

I, personally, am not really a fan. There's no reason to, since we have missile weapons and instakill ballistas already. The only reason I would ever want to use one is to have pressure plate bombs, for the killing of the thing that actually steps on the pressure plate, since they're usually the only things that DON'T get caught by the trap set up to kill them.

[Im_Sparks]

I, personally, am not really a fan. There's no reason to, since we have missile weapons and instakill ballistas already. The only reason I would ever want to use one is to have pressure plate bombs, for the killing of the thing that actually steps on the pressure plate, since they're usually the only things that DON'T get caught by the trap set up to kill them.

What I'm proposing is that we nerf the ballistas, and make cannons able to rip through trees and stone and the like.
Cannons should also generate a small amount of smoke. I'd like a real 'BANG' powerful feeling to them, like it cost alot, and it hurts. Alot.

[Rowanas]

If Toady nerfed ballistas, I would just un-nerf them, and delete the cannon entires from the raws.

[Sensei]

Maybe we can reconsider cannons when/if weapons that can destroy walls and buildings are implemented?

[LordNagash]

I personally have never really liked the suggestions to add steam machines and explosives and crap like that to the game, mostly because I am not really a fan of the steampunk genre.

Plus I find it far more enjoyable to watch a squad of dwarves armed with axes carve through enemies with limbs flying everywhere and everyone ending up covered in blood than I do to watch one dwarf light a fuse from behind fortifications, but that might just be me.

[Strife26]

It's just you. A proper dfer wants that one dwarf to be lighting a fuse which sends axe wielding champions flying towards the gobs.

[Footkerchief]

It's just you.

Nope, it's not just him.  I don't want common usage of gunpowder in the game either.  At most I'd want it to show up as a very rare, exotic substance regarded as having quasi-magical properties.