Siege weapons

[cupido2]

What I asked myself since I got Dom 3: Why are there no siege weapons like catapults or ballistas in the game (except as defence in some forts)? I really missed them in my first sp games, especially in LA. Is there a reason for their absence?

[Saulot]

I can't speak for the devs, but there are several reasons I can come up with. (This topic came up in the mod subforum)

1. it has to do with being a high magic - low tech environment.

2. A further problem arises with operation. Do you have a single machine that operates on it's own? Loading ammo, firing, moving, etc? Like you see in games like Warcraft 2, etc.
Or do you have operators? What happens with the operators? How do you target the machine or operators with spells? What happens when you kill one?

3. Another problem is size. Catapults, Trebuchets, Battering Rams, can all get quite big. In fact, often outside the limit we have. Furthermore, this issue is aggravated with having multiple weapons next to each other. It looks really strange, since Dom tends to use clump formations, instead of traditional spaced out formations you'd see for things like siege weapons.

4. Furthermore, we have the issue of mobility. Most siege weapons larger than a ballista are not mobile. They're constructed for a specific siege only. This is a difficult mechanic to represent.

5. Lastly, we have the issue of abstraction. Outside of battering rams, most siege weapons destroyed the walls of the fortification in question. This can't be done in the Dom system.

So, I'm pretty certain the Devs don't hate Siege weapons, after all, they were around in the COE days, it's just that they tend to come with a lot of baggage and problems.

Fortunately, if you still have a hankering for some siege weapons, they sometimes come up in mod nations, Skaven has something like that, and I'll be using a few in my dwarven Underkings mod nation.

[Professor_Dyar]

There are siege weapons in the game. They just are "off-stage".

The rationale is that the reducing power of an army besieging a fortress represents the ability of the attacking army to build siege engines to level the fortress' walls, while the defensive power represents the ability to repair the walls. Engineer units are particularly good at designing powerful siege engines, or well-constructed walls, which is why they get a bonus.

It has nothing to do with magic.

[Dedas]

I thought the units tore down the walls with their bare hands. Guess I was wrong...

[Sombre]

Siege weapons are best abstracted imo, but anti personnel war machines can actually work rather well in dom3.

[kasnavada]

Hum, and about that "toring down the wall"...

Why is there always a only tiny opening in the wall ? I'd sure love to have more that one invading point and / or being able to break some other part of the wall.

[Renojustin]

And why does it happen that sometimes a fort will have no tower weapons? Is this just related to the type of fort you build? Do any forts have tower weapons except for home provinces?

[Sombre]

That was covered in the 'problem of fort types' thread.

[cupido2]

O.k. thanks for the answers. Perhaps "siege weapons" was a bit misleading, I meant war machines on the battlefield that could be thematic like Scorpions and ballistas that could easily be implementent for nations like Phytium, MA Ermor or the like. E.g. Ballistas could be treated as giant crossbows that fire once every 3 turns.
Was just wondering though.

[Zeldor]

That is really a thing that we can add to Conceptual Content Mod. Size 4-6 is enough for normal war machines. Nothing fancy like huge neurobalistas.




You can add many things to that, including AoE fire, poison, decay...

Greek artillery