Ballista to "non-siege" artillery

[R'as al Ghul]

Hello,

does anybody know what I'd have to change to disable the ballista's function to shoot at buildings?
Imo the ballista is an anti-personnel weapon and shouldn't be able to tear down walls.

R'as

[pat the magnificent]

i'd love to do this too, or at least make so they do virtually no damage to buildings.

it makes my blood boil when a couple of units of ballistae create a gaping whole in my huge stone wall.

[R'as al Ghul]

Well, you could always decrease their attack value. That way they wouldn't be able to do much damage. Or you can increase the walls hitpoints which are too low anyway.
I'd like to disable it completely.

[Foz]

Pick a Ballista (I prefer NE since England is the default player faction in custom) and go play with it in the EDU. The secondary attack line details the attack of the ballista (that's stat_sec) while everything else is presumably about the men that use it. The original for NE is:

stat_sec         55, 3, ballista, 180, 50, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, none, 25, 1

I'd suggest trying this:

stat_sec         55, 3, ballista, 180, 50, missile, missile_mechanical, piercing, none, 25, 1

That's me basically guessing that the missile type may be responsible for allowing it to attack walls - using the standard ones for archers might keep it from doing so. Of course it may just be the case that siege equipment attached to units can always target walls and towers.

In either case, you'll want to set ballista to the following in the descr_projectile.txt file:

projectile ballista

effect	    large_arrow_trail_set
end_effect   large_arrow_explode_set
end_man_effect			man_impact_small_set
end_package_effect    	wall_impact_small_set
end_shatter_effect		large_arrow_explode_set
end_shatter_man_effect		man_impact_small_set
end_shatter_package_effect	wall_impact_small_set


damage		0
damage_to_troops 5
radius		0
mass		0.8
accuracy_vs_units		0.005
;accuracy_vs_buildings	0.05
;accuracy_vs_towers      0.025 
min_angle	-30
max_angle	35
velocity	60
;bounce		0.5 0.6 0.5 0.4
body_piercing
display		aimed particle_trail invert_model_z
model		data/models_missile/missile_ballista_bolt_high.CAS,  40.0
model		data/models_missile/missile_ballista_bolt_med.CAS,  80.0
model		data/models_missile/missile_ballista_bolt_low.CAS,  max

Do the same with flaming ballista shot (it's the very next entry).

At the very least that change should keep them from harming walls at all... and I'm guessing the AI will avoid targeting walls if it knows it will do no damage. Could be wrong though...

[R'as al Ghul]

Thanks Foz,

it seems to work. The unit description now says "ineffective against buildings".
I've not had time yet to test it in battle, though.

R'as

[Jerek Kruger]

I tried copying the stat_sec line from the ballista onto Pavise Crossbowmen's stat_pri and it didn't allow them to target walls so I'm guessing the first change Foz describes isn't the correct one.

[Foz]

Thanks Foz,

it seems to work. The unit description now says "ineffective against buildings".
I've not had time yet to test it in battle, though.

R'as

Which part seems to have made it work? LOL. Keep me posted on how it goes, of course.