Bay 12 Games Forum

Y'know, there was more than just ballistas and catapults, back in day. Sure, they were the core of the seige engine force, but even then, they could throw more than rocks. I have a few suggestions for different types of siege engine and munition.

Siege engines:

Trebuchet
Can throw multiple items at once, but takes slower to reload. the advantage it'd have over a catapult is that it can take out larger numbers of enemies, at the price of giving more chance for the enemies to catch up and scare the bejeesus out of the operators.

Battering ram
Deals massive damage to anything in front of it and capable of destroying constructions, but can only deal damage one space in front of it. Can be pushed in the direction it's facing with a certain job. (This is more likely to be used as an attacking mechanism.

Dwarven Hwacha
Following in the vein of the Korean Hwacha, This is a devastating seige engine  that fires a huge storm of arrows, sure to devastate anything in its path- at the cost of being really, really slow to reload and taking up a lot of resources. Requires saltpeter to work. While it's pretty out of the question that dwarves have gunpowder, It's quite possible that they invented rudimentary explosives- The far east did it, why can't the dwarves?

Types of ammunition:

Tar ball (Or other suitable equivalent): A thing that the dwarves light on fire and fire at the enemy. It would splatter all over the place and cause a localized fire and set fire to anybody unluck enough to be caught in the blast radius. (But considering how the AI reacts to fire, it might end up being more devastating to you than them...)

Shot bag: Something that splits apart midair and hits a lot of enemies. To compensate for the potential devastation, it should go a shorter distance than normal rocks.

Corpses, chunks, skulls, or other body parts: Why not? If a goblin corpse or skull flew down out of the sky and I was a goblin, I'd shit myself and run. Corpes of their own kind could demoralize enemies, and corpses of any intelligent being or fearsome animal could freak them out to a lesser extent. They obviously wouldn't be amused if you threw kittens at them, but even then, once disease goes in this could be a devastating long-term weapon.

Prisoners: The only thing more terrifying than a corpse of your own kind flying through the air is a live person of your own kind flying through the air, screaming, and splattering on the ground. Provides an amusing way to get rid of your goblin prisoners and train your siege operators at the same time! Also, should you use a suitably fearsome beast as the ammunition, It might even survive the fall and start wreaking havoc on the guys you launched it at...

(Warning: Do not try this with megabeasts or clowns, or whatever you just launched might end up very pissed and come after you after they annihilate your enemies for you...)

Anything else you can think of: Why not? Launch sand at your enemy and watch them die of a thousand tiny puncture wounds! Launch clothes at them and watch the hilarious lemming rush to collect the "Misplaced" clothing! Launch bothersome nobles and make them useful as ammunition! The sky's the limit!

Y'know what'd be really awesome?

Armor of size. Any dwarf that puts it on instantly has their SIZE value increased by one. of course, that might cause problems, because Then the poor dwarf couldn't wear anything.

Even more fun would be an amulet that periodically increases size, since size of acessories doesn't matter.

Of course, a fun prank to pull on the elves would be to give them a amulet of shrinking to give to their nobles.

Not sure if this is possible, but it'd be fun.

Sign me up for this Succession nonsense, if it isn't too late already. This place has a severe lack of tower.

I think putting a plot on for all 4 seasons renders it inoperable. I tend to have 2 fields, one for summer/winter and the other for spring/fall, allowing for plump helmets every season and fallow in-between.

Gar, I forgot to check.

I usually take:

Copious amounts of alcohol. My dwarves ran out of booze once. NEVER AGAIN.

Lots and lots of turtle, since it's cheap and the shells are useful.

And ususally, gems. Setting up a crafting shop early on and making loads of Gem-encrusted, Marble-Detailed stone Crafts nets you an anvil easily.

So i'm starting a nifty new fort, and things are coming along swimmingly. There's an exess of migrants recently, but i can roll with it. Suddenly, some random metalsmith is posessed, the only metalsmith I have besides the peasant wood burner.

Now, he claims his shop and gathers up some iron. He then stops in a deadlock. I check the workshop, and he askes for leather. No problem, I made a workshop and tanned the hides my new hunter kept bringing in.

However, The smith seemed not to register the leather. Odd, I thought. So I designated some useless animals (kittens) for butchering, and their hides were tanned as well. Nothing from the metalsmith.

Desperately trying to keep my only smith from flipping out, I bought several bins of assorted leather from the humans that had recently arrived. The smith wanted nothing to do with that, either, and ended up going melancholy looking for leather while there was a leather stockpile in the same room.

Not that i'm particularily dissapointed (It was a posession after all), but is this a bug, or do dwarves have some unreasonable high standard of leather quality for their hammers?

Of course, This should be affected by the new occupants of the fort if it was taken over. If goblins take over the fortress, old dorf furniture should be strewn across the landscape, old wooden walls should rot, et cetera, but workshops et cetera should still be operational- Goblins use tanneries and forges, too.

If it's a megabeast moving in, They should only inhabit a "Lair", where the dust and whatnot shouldn't accumlate. The old food storage could be ravaged by the beast's diet and the old bedrooms and whatnot could be left alone. Damage done by the beast should be there, too- Toppled statues, rubble from collapsed walls, destroyed furniture, etc.