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Was playing around with the idea of improving the catapult. Currently it is only really useful when training siege engineers. Came up with 2 ideas.
1. Stone travel in an arc. The formula for calculating the trajectory of an object through 3d space is not that hard given force and angle (would be fun to pu this in manually and let'er rip.) I am sure this is planned eventually so no big deal.
2. Area of Effect - It seams the mechanics for this are already in the game. After a few cave ins I thought that you could use the same effect for a catapult stone landing. Just have a cave in happen in the square just above where the stone would land. The bigger the catapult the bigger the cave in. (reason to make bigger and better catapults, trebuchet anyone?) You have people thrown about, debris everywhere and minor damage all around. AND if it happens to land on a floor with nothing underneath it you get a nice cascade floor failure for bonus damage.
Random thoughts way late at night.
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Having the cave in rubble effect where a catapult stone lands would be FANTASTIC. Even if the "deadly" radius is only 3X3 it would turn the current useless catapults into a devastating siege weapon!
Now all we need is catapults that can fire over obstacles and target things on other Z levels. Same with balistas come to think of it.
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Oh shit that sounds so awesome, when can we see it?
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This has my support.
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Just think - then you'd get a "section of the cavern has collapsed" message, and would be zoomed to where each rock landed every time the catapult was fired.....
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A little coding could fix that...
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All the more satisfying.
SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
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The arc might not be necessary, I always imagined that the DF catapults seem to be designed for a low, near horizontal arc so that they are entirely usable in caves.
The boom-smash, now THAT is nice.
All it needs now is for the ability to designate a target area for continuous bombardment.
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You could leave the setting of [load, fire, ignore] set up and add [angle, power, elevation]. The skill of the siege operator would put a +/- variable in there. The better skill the less variation. AND they would just launch away until you tell them to stop. AND still a useful way of getting rid of stone.
We could then do our own version of Scorched Dwarf!
Yoj
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Maybe catapulted stones could tumble for a distance when they hit the ground, instead of just stopping there, unless they do this already and I was simply unaware.
Or we could have dwarves break up stones into smaller stones, suitable for grapeshot.
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seconding more kick-ass effects for catapult stones hitting the ground
edit - also, totems as catapult ammunition to make invaders unhappy/scared
[ June 14, 2008: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]
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Wouldn't it be a better idea to designate a "target area" and have the accuracy of the shots depend on the skill of the shooter?
a dabbler might send the object 25 tiles off but a legendary+5 should be able to always hit within 5 tiles.
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I think the deviation should depend on distance, the farther the shot, the larger the misses.
Perhaps you could even skew it based on general wind direction (8-way) and speed (0-20-40) if they are fired outdoors.
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Plus, this would set the stage for more exciting sieges later on, as it will have already been implemented.
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I support this, especially the cave-in dust/rubble effect. Would give the catapult a reason to use over the ballista, aside from the lack of potention dwarf-kabobs.
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Yes, Yes, Yes.
I support this.
A targeting area for catapults would also be good, as would making your siege engineers not run from enemies.
Rocks skipping along the ground would be even better, honestly. You can choose an area ahead of them, and see the rock slice through the enemy units... Muahaha.
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im not sure if i wanted to play scorched dwarf. personally id rather select lets say a 3x3 area (different ammo, would need to be crafted, for larger areas?) in a certain range of the catapult. also up or down some z levels.
then the game checks for a possible firing arc and sets it. maybe you could manually adjust those values to help the catapults "pathfinding" to shoot some of the weirder angles but i dont think that would be necessary.
i dont know about you but i wouldnt necessarily want to micromanage those angles, and i really like scorched earth. well, who didnt.
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Just a note, the bowling ball catapult would ned lead to cave-ins since these would be a result of the actual arc.
setting targets for catapults is really important, and would for instance allow for having multiple catapults with multiple siege dwarves raining stone into a confined area, such as a valley leading to you fortress.
More importantly is that siegers should set up catapults and bombard your defences. is they had a chance (say 5%) to break a wall or other construction, and often cause cave ins of roofs, collapsing bridges etc I at least would build my fort differently, and I would enjoy the added task of building something which can withstand an actual bombardment.
This would add so much flavour to the game it's simply ridiculous. having built a keep several walls thick to withstand fire, and manned in smaler fortified compartments with marksdwarves while stones rain down onto the castle, eventually breaching a fortification causing death and injury at the ramparts. Then the goblins attack, using ladders they aim to enter at the breach and i evacuate the marksdwarves and send axedwarves to hold the ground against the golbin horde.
Meanwhile the stones keep on raining down on other sides of the fort, causing the bridge to collapse. But the dwarven catapults have finally started to aim in on the goblin siege engines and with a few well aimed shots the menace is taken care of. The Staunch axedwarves hold their ground and the masons effectivly repair the fort closing all the breaches and gaps. Seeing their previous advantage gone the golbins have to decice wheter to flee or continue their attack by some other means. In a moment of bravery they decide to storm the gates. They run around the castle and place a ballista in front of the main gates of the keep, blasting the heavy gates to smithereens with their iron ballista bolts they place a ladder over the moat and storm into the keep.
The marksdwarves are now in a new position and quickly kill off the goblins in a hail of steel bolts.
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A targeting area for catapults would also be good, as would making your siege engineers not run from enemies.
Rocks skipping along the ground would be even better, honestly. You can choose an area ahead of them, and see the rock slice through the enemy units... Muahaha.
What he said. This idea definitely has my support.
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Perhaps some creatures/entities could have this attack? Of course it would be more of an AoE attack and not a real cave-in simulation, but imagine how cool fighting something like this in Adventure Mode would be.
Although it should wait for the Magic Arc.