Under Powered Ballista towers?

[zipdad]

It seems to me that the ballista towers are underpowered making it nigh on impossible to defend a city against a superior force which not only hurts game play but seems a tad unrealistic. Do the custom settlements even get this upgrade?

[Bungo Baggins]

No, I'm afraid ballista towers only work for generic settlements.

[Guurt]

No, I'm afraid ballista towers only work for generic settlements.

What about ballista towers for a city like Moria?

It costs 4,500 to build it and it is new. Wasn't available to Moria in 2.1 version, so I assume this tower will do something for Moria.

I haven't bought it yet, so curious.

Not sure when Moria will get attacked, if ever... not exactly the weak link in the Orcs of Misty mountains set up.

what really bothers me is it is to hard to destroy siege equipment. even when i have 8 archer units firing on flames at a ram nothing happens. maybe that is the root of the problem im seeing...maybe ill do some self experimentation. thanks for the replys

I have destroyed rams with ballista shooting flaming ballista arrows, but yeah, seems impossible with regular flaming arrows... I have tried a lot... never happens except with ballista.

[zipdad]

its availability doesnt take battle effects. i bought them at Minas Morgul and nothing, and im not sure about Minas Tirith but it appeared to not be available...

[Ultra123]

problem is look at it from the other side if you attacked a city with your beloved elite force, you would hate to see it decimated by towers, and not the blades of the enemy.

[zipdad]

what really bothers me is it is to hard to destroy siege equipment. even when i have 8 archer units firing on flames at a ram nothing happens. maybe that is the root of the problem im seeing...maybe ill do some self experimentation.
thanks for the replys

[Ultra123]

yes i agree the siege equipement has been set so its very uinlikely that you can burn it, though i suspect that this is KK personal preferance and if it is it wont be changed.

[zipdad]

does anybody know how to edit it to vanilla values?

[Bungo Baggins]

yes i agree the siege equipement has been set so its very uinlikely that you can burn it, though i suspect that this is KK personal preferance and if it is it wont be changed.

You still can change it yourself.

Do do so, copy the file I attached to Third_Age_3/data and overwrite.
That should reset the flammability of rams and siege towers to the M2TW standard.

Or alternatively you can play around with descr_engines.txt yourself.
Look for engine_ignition and change the appropriate value.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

type tortoise_ram
culture all
class ram
pathfinding_data none

engine_model_group normal
engine_skeleton tortoise_ram
engine_bone_map siege_engines/BoneMaps/ram.xml
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/ram_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/ram_model.mesh, 40.0
engine_mesh siege_engines/lods/ram_model_med.mesh, 80.0
engine_mesh siege_engines/lods/ram_model_low.mesh, max

engine_model_group dying
engine_skeleton tortoise_ram_dying
engine_bone_map siege_engines/BoneMaps/ram_destroy.xml
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/ram_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/destroyed/ram_model_destruction.mesh, max


engine_model_group dead
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/ram_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/destroyed/ram_model_destroyed.mesh, max

engine_shadow none

engine_radius 5 ;4.6
engine_visual_radius 6
engine_length 9.2
engine_width 4
engine_height 3.3
engine_mass 16
engine_dock_dist 5.0
engine_mob_dist 6.3
engine_flammable true
engine_ignition 0.52
fire_effect engine_fire_medium_set

obstacle_shape rectangle
obstacle_x_radius 2.0
obstacle_y_radius 4.6

engine_formation 10, 10

engine_spo physical_obstacle

engine_push_point dummy -2.5 0.0
engine_push_point dummy -2.5 -2.3
engine_push_point dummy -2.5 -4.6
engine_push_point dummy 2.5 0.0
engine_push_point dummy 2.5 -2.3
engine_push_point dummy 2.5 -4.6

engine_health 150

attack_stat 10, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_simple, blunt
attack_stat_attr no

[Ultra123]

extremely useful bungo rep to you sir.

[zipdad]

thanks man, cheers

[Spits32]

I built the ballista towers in Edoras thinking it would help stave off the dreaded EYE invasion. The towers did NOT upgrade. There were 5 full stacks of armies attacking me. I lost my faction leader after the second army attacked. Got to turn 125 as Rohan, killed Isengard around turn 85, only to have EVERY evil faction declare war against me. AI cheats, making the game annoyingly difficult.

[k/t]

Is Edoras a custom settlement? Between screwy pathfinding and useless ballista towers, custom settlements are more trouble than they're worth.

I think there has already been a thread about how to switch back to generic settlements. If there hasn't, you can ask in the Mod Workshop.

To increase the power of the ballista towers, go to descr_walls.txt and find this

stat 40, 0, tower_ballista, 150, 10, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, ballista_tower, 350, 1
stat_attr no


and change it to


stat 40, 0, tower_ballista, 150, 10, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, ballista_tower, 350, 1
stat_attr ap, bp, launching


By lowering the numbers in these columns

fire_rate small 2500 5000
fire_rate normal 2000 4000
fire_rate large 1500 3000
fire_rate huge 1000 2000

you should be able to increase the rate of fire of the towers.

[Lazy]

I
To increase the power of the ballista towers, go to descr_walls.txt and find this

stat 40, 0, tower_ballista, 150, 10, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, ballista_tower, 350, 1
stat_attr no


and change it to


stat 40, 0, tower_ballista, 150, 10, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, ballista_tower, 350, 1
stat_attr ap, bp, launching


By lowering the numbers in these columns

fire_rate small 2500 5000
fire_rate normal 2000 4000
fire_rate large 1500 3000
fire_rate huge 1000 2000

you should be able to increase the rate of fire of the towers.

Thats 100% right!
Perhaps... be aware the left one is the "normal" bolt... the right one is the burning bolt!

Additionally you can check out:
descr_projectile.txt
Here you can change its mass, accuracy and a lots of other stuff!
Just search for "tower_ballista"!
The burning bolt that is used is just below that!
Its name should be tower_ballista_fiery and its usesd automaticlly!

[marceror]

Is Edoras a custom settlement? Between screwy pathfinding and useless ballista towers, custom settlements are more trouble than they're worth.

I think there has already been a thread about how to switch back to generic settlements. If there hasn't, you can ask in the Mod Workshop.

Blasphemy! Seriously, can't folks get behind the idea of varied strategies to defend different types of settlements? Well, I can, but to each his own, I guess.

It should be pointed out that custom settlements actually don't have arrow towers either -- at least not that I've encountered. Perhaps they don't fit closely enough to the original mold of the M2 settlements to have functional towers. Or perhaps it was a design decision to leave them out. Not sure.

[TheXand]

Blasphemy! Seriously, can't folks get behind the idea of varied strategies to defend different types of settlements? Well, I can, but to each his own, I guess.

It should be pointed out that custom settlements actually don't have arrow towers either -- at least not that I've encountered. Perhaps they don't fit closely enough to the original mold of the M2 settlements to have functional towers. Or perhaps it was a design decision to leave them out. Not sure.

Probably the former, but turned out for the best in terms of design since few factions have easy and early access to siege equipment like catapults to level those towers.

[FC Groningen]

To a degree, most of them are relatively hard to defend yes. Has an advantage as well, as people will be tempted to assume the attackers role more often then instead of sieging the AI out. Edoras actually, should be relatively easy to defend, because of the massive hill and the one route to the town plaza.

[johntarmac]

Cmon guys seriously, a battering ram would never catch fire no matter how many burning arrows or bolts you shot at it.

Picture this, you're going to siege a castle so you send a bunch of men off to grab the biggest tree they can find, hopefully 4 feet/1200mm or more in diameter.
Then sling some wheels under this big fresh lump of timber still green and full of sap.

You'll want something to protect your heads from big rocks so grab another tree and split it into planks, say 4 inches/100mm thick (also green and full of sap) and make a roof over your big log.
Things like arrows or oil coming through the gaps in the boards would be bad so get a load of cow hides and put several layers of these onto the roof. Soak these with liberal amounts of water.

Having been an avid pyromaniac for over 40 years I can tell you no amount of burning arrows or ballista bolts is gonna affect this. Not today or even tomorrow.

Cheers

[Pinkie Pie]

Cmon guys seriously, a battering ram would never catch fire no matter how many burning arrows or bolts you shot at it.

Picture this, you're going to siege a castle so you send a bunch of men off to grab the biggest tree they can find, hopefully 4 feet/1200mm or more in diameter.
Then sling some wheels under this big fresh lump of timber still green and full of sap.

You'll want something to protect your heads from big rocks so grab another tree and split it into planks, say 4 inches/100mm thick (also green and full of sap) and make a roof over your big log.
Things like arrows or oil coming through the gaps in the boards would be bad so get a load of cow hides and put several layers of these onto the roof. Soak these with liberal amounts of water.

Having been an avid pyromaniac for over 40 years I can tell you no amount of burning arrows or ballista bolts is gonna affect this. Not today or even tomorrow.

Cheers

+ rep for getting there before me, it is very rare for a beseiging army not to cover their towers and rams with, at the very least, raw animal hides soaked in water.

[k/t]

What about ELVEN ballista bolts???