Topic: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae (Read 61779 times)

Lagslayer · « **Reply #75 on:** February 21, 2012, 09:55:55 am »

Dwarven science at it's finest. Well done, Sphalerite McAhab.

Sphalerite · « **Reply #76 on:** February 23, 2012, 08:51:49 am »

It turns out I did have a fair amount of silver ore on site after all, so I have built a batch of silver ballista arrows. First I'll try firing them at a group of smaller targets.

The first arrow fires is very promising...

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That's two fish killed by a single ballista arrow. Admittedly, they were small fish.

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Still fairly effective against larger fish. Unfortunately, I'm still loosing as many fish to air-drowning as to ballista arrow hits. Two wall grates in a row just isn't enough to stop fish from being pushed through by moving water.

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Now, testing silver ballista arrows against whales.

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Still not lethal, but at least they're bruising internal organs now. This confirms the theory that ballista arrow damage is dependent on density, and that silver is the best material for ballista arrows in the default game.

My copy of DF has several heavier metals that can be made (rose gold, thorium, uranium, wolfram, etc) but this embark site doesn't have the required raw materials to make any of them. I'll have to try something different next.

Girlinhat · « **Reply #77 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:25:34 am »

Open the map edge briefly to allow traders and produce a few heavy metal bolts?

Sphalerite · « **Reply #78 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:30:18 am »

I could test rose gold easily enough that way. The other exotic metals in this mod are a royal pain to make, involving dozens of steps and many different raw materials, and half a dozen workshops which themselves require exotic materials to make. Don't know if I'll bother.

I have something else I want to test next, involving magma.

I also want to try and make a fortress that actually uses ballista firing silver ballista arrows as a siege defense now. Can't do that at this site, the location means it never gets sieges even if I open the map edge.

SirAaronIII · « **Reply #79 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:33:01 am »

You could always cheat and change some reactions to give you free metals... but that's not fun.

Girlinhat · « **Reply #80 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:51:41 am »

You could alter a reaction and cheat in metals, though we have confirmed that density = damage so further proof of "slade ballistae bolts" wouldn't actually prove anything. However, any test involving magma is a good test, and I encourage you on this path of action.

Di · « **Reply #81 on:** February 23, 2012, 11:07:16 am »

Isn't it possible to change one of available metals so it represents one more potent?

zubb2 · « **Reply #82 on:** February 23, 2012, 12:08:13 pm »

The Board of Fortresses approves.

Expect a shipment of wool socks to keep ye warm on that ocean, unless its a hot ocean then you can just put them in the "sock room" with the rest.

P.S.
The whales were asking for it.
Breathing air AND being a fish,what?

Noodz · « **Reply #83 on:** February 23, 2012, 01:59:11 pm »

I think few players contributed so much to ‼science‼ as sphalerite. He truly deserves the dwarven equivalent of the Nobel.

Also, what is this ‼well‼ thing? I think i missed this thread.

Girlinhat · « **Reply #84 on:** February 23, 2012, 02:06:47 pm »

The ‼Well‼ was a dwarven invention of Sphalerite's The idea basically goes "I like my dwarves clean, but the tiles near the well are always so dirty! I know, I'll set the well on fire!" So he did. And dwarves died. Check my sig, it's nestled in there.

Sphalerite · « **Reply #85 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:08:23 pm »

Next test: Firing through magma!

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I have created a second liquid-wall setup, using another pair of screw pumps. This one contains magma! In theory, the bolts fired by the ballista should catch on fire or something while they pass through the magma, right?

I admit I completely cheated to make the magma, using DFhack to add the magma in. I have reached the magma sea, and have a perfectly working magma force setup over a magma pipe, but the magma in this embark is just silly far down. I decided to skip a week of work by using dfliquids instead of building a hundred-pump pump stack. Meh.

The setup is just the same as the previous one, with a wall of pumps (these ones made from green glass) on each side of the liquid wall, pumping the magma back onto itself to keep it from flowing out.

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First, since I already have them set up and ready to go, I'll fire a silver bolt through the magma. It should melt or something, right?

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Huh. Nothing unusual result. My siege operator decided to fire a steel arrow through the magma next.

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Nothing unusual happened there, not that we'd expect it to. Ok, time to get serious. Forbid all metal arrows, fire some wooden ballista bolts through the magma.

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Half a dozen wooden ballista arrows fired through the magma, not a one of them caught on fire. And it's not that the water is putting the fire out, I'm pausing the game and examining each shot before it hits the water wall.

As an additional check, I dug up some graphite and set up a catapult. Let's see if we can get burning graphite boulders flying through the air.

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Nothing. A dozen graphite boulders fired through the magma, none of them caught on fire. None of them hit any of the whales, either. That was disappointing.

I'd try and figure out a way to set the ballista bolts or graphite boulders on fire before firing them, but I suspect the siege operator would either refuse to use burning ammunition, or bleed out in the process of trying to fire them. Still something I might test.

Save has been updated, for anyone who wants to do their own experiments.

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=5632

MrShovelFace · « **Reply #86 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:39:40 pm »

have you attempted the use of a fire based FB?
regular marksdorfs?
DRAGONS?!?!?!

Sphalerite · « **Reply #87 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:45:04 pm »

I did try stationing a marksdwarf near the whales. It was difficult to get him to actually shoot at them. Ordering him to kill on of them resulted in his firing a few bolts which missed completely before wandering off complaining 'can't follow orders'. Just having him stand near resulted in nothing at all happening.

MrShovelFace · « **Reply #88 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:46:19 pm »

designate a target for target practice across the pond

also the use of a fire based fb will pull water into your harbour at a rediculous rate that not even 1000 nuclear powered pumps could attain

btw this is such an awesome experiment im so jelly i never thought of it

NW_Kohaku · « **Reply #89 on:** February 23, 2012, 09:50:08 pm »

Why can't you just mod silver in your savegame raws to have 10 times the density?

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Author Topic: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae (Read 61779 times)

Lagslayer

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Sphalerite

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Girlinhat

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Sphalerite

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

SirAaronIII

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Girlinhat

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Di

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zubb2

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Noodz

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Girlinhat

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Sphalerite

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

MrShovelFace

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

Sphalerite

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

MrShovelFace

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae

NW_Kohaku

Re: Oceanshoots: Hunting whales with ballistae