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[King Cassius]

Wouldn't it be cool with a Dwarven Flame Cannon?
Like the ballista and the catapult, but it doesn't shoot a flaming bomb, it shoots fire like a flamethrower.

The ammo should be expensive to make, first you have to fill the flame cannon up with the flamable liquid, or the flamable liquid have to be loaded into some kind of barrel.

This cannon would be perfect to place at critical locations, but it isn't so fair with a cannon that powerful, so woudn't it be cool if the cannon also had a 5% chance of exploding in a flaming inferno!  :eek:

I got the idea from this: http://uk.games-workshop.com/dwarfs/miniature-gallery/images/flame-cannon.gif  

"Datan Shooma has been ecstatic lately.
he's been enjoying the smell of burning goblin"

[ February 26, 2008: Message edited by: King Cassius ]

[Cosmonot]

It doesn't fit in with the setting.

[jonnym]

do you understand how this would destroy any good fortress with the way firery items currently work....

first it would set fire to some of the invaders and the invaders clothes

then the dwarfs will try and stockpile the burning rags and in doing so will set their clothes on fire

this continues until your fortress is filled with bodies and smoke which is bad.....

other then that i think it could be a good idea but it would probably have to come out after potion making or alchemy for the creation of the flamable liquid unless it just uses dwarfen ale as ammo..... much powefuller then any explosive!!!

[King Cassius]

That's what i thought, but i always wanted a cannon shooting fire like a dragon.  

Maybe it's possible, maybe it's not, but i doubt it will ever be implemented to be honest.

[Heavy Flak]

What do you mean, it doesn't fit with the setting?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

It could be a multi-part siege weapon.  A metal chamber, that's connected at the top to an ammo reservoir (the Greek fire), and at the back to a screw pump.  Since Greek fire continues to burn when in contact with water, the pump acts as the propellant to spray the burning goo outwards in front of the makeshift flamethrower.

If anything, this sounds incredibly Dwarven to me.

[umiman]

Soap can finally have a use too. Make napalm.

Can you imagine napalm-based flamethrowers in DF? Friggin' sweet!

[The-Moon]

quote:Originally posted by Heavy Flak:
<STRONG>What do you mean, it doesn't fit with the setting?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

It could be a multi-part siege weapon.  A metal chamber, that's connected at the top to an ammo reservoir (the Greek fire), and at the back to a screw pump.  Since Greek fire continues to burn when in contact with water, the pump acts as the propellant to spray the burning goo outwards in front of the makeshift flamethrower.

If anything, this sounds incredibly Dwarven to me.</STRONG>

You beat me too the greek fire lol

[Jay Kayell]

If you used a screw pump it would trickle out rather than fly away. Hmm, holes in the ceiling perhaps?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Dwarven dragon:
Keg of booze,
Two kegs napalm,
Three-foot fuse.

Almost poetry, heh...

Btw, MythBusters did prove that kegs of beer can explode with deadly force. Or so I think.

[The-Moon]

quote:Originally posted by Cosmonot:
<STRONG>It doesn't fit in with the setting.</STRONG>

Yes i have to agree with you.

While it would be a fun extra to have. It would not fit in as well currently.

However depending on what toady does with the game, if he can fit fire cannons in and have them balanced with the game play, then i say its a excellent idea.

[Deon]

Greek-fire type cannons and firetraps are good for setting I guess. But it means more death by the mightest dwarven weapons... While the usual traps still work fine.
I think it would be cool after the traps are tweaked not to be so deadly as now/disarmed by some goblins/ other way. Thsu we could have a fine late-game defensive mechanism like this.

[Cosmonot]

quote:Originally posted by Heavy Flak:
<STRONG>What do you mean, it doesn't fit with the setting?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

It could be a multi-part siege weapon.  A metal chamber, that's connected at the top to an ammo reservoir (the Greek fire), and at the back to a screw pump.  Since Greek fire continues to burn when in contact with water, the pump acts as the propellant to spray the burning goo outwards in front of the makeshift flamethrower.

If anything, this sounds incredibly Dwarven to me.</STRONG>

Just because you found it on Wikipedia means it fits the game. It's likely that dwarves would have firearms given the knowledge they display in the game, but they don't because it's thematically inappropriate. I don't want to have to choose between what works well and what seems dwarven, and I think flame cannons would make that an issue. I don't think dwarves would ever demean themselves by using anything that doesn't function reliably, let alone occasionally kills its operators.

Already we have traps, crossbows and obsidian short swords that break combat to a greater or lesser degree. After the army arc is over, I would hope that the game favors the use of primarily melee armies using steel equipment, because this is both harder to get (compared to trap spam & obsidian swords) and more suited for cool stories (compared to crossbow spam & siege weapons). I'm also concerned that the AI wouldn't be able to deal with siege weapons without a lot of effort that could be better invested elsewhere, on any of the many other arcs that have yet to be completed.

[Draco18s]

I have yet to use seige weapons at all, due to the various problems they ALREADY have.

[Cosmonot]

quote:Originally posted by Draco18s:
<STRONG>I have yet to use seige weapons at all, due to the various problems they ALREADY have.</STRONG>

Aside from the operator running away, what's wrong with the ballista? I know the catapult is broken but I can't see a single large arced projectile being very effective against the sort of targets currently in the game anyway.

[Greiger]

Through all my messing around with ballistae I have only ever pasted one creature with it.

The seige operator's pet mule.

Maybe I'm just not positioning them right.