Originally posted by Smetrix:

Originally posted by warrenchmobile:

"

Why on hell my own ballista shoot me?

Because it is an inanimate not sentient object. Why does your campfires, bonfires, or hearths burn you if step on them? Why do snares, traps, and landmines operate when you step on them.

A better question would be: Why on hell would I build a ballista to cover a certain area and then go traipsing through that area?

Except everything other than the ballista is a static defense, so it makes sense that you take damage from stepping on your own trap. It does not make sense to have a non-static defense that you built also target you.

Given some of these responses, I wonder how many of you would defend something like the bear traps sprouting legs and targeting you lmao.

The amount of people defending this decision is beyond silly.

yeah, my analogy would be what if all the animals you tamed decided to attack you because you got within agro range. I would hope people would not defend that decision

"
Because it is an inanimate not sentient object. Why does your campfires, bonfires, or hearths burn you if step on them? Why do snares, traps, and landmines operate when you step on them.

A better question would be: Why on hell would I build a ballista to cover a certain area and then go traipsing through that area?

Originally posted by warrenchmobile:

"

Why on hell my own ballista shoot me?

Because it is an inanimate not sentient object. Why does your campfires, bonfires, or hearths burn you if step on them? Why do snares, traps, and landmines operate when you step on them.

A better question would be: Why on hell would I build a ballista to cover a certain area and then go traipsing through that area?

Except everything other than the ballista is a static defense, so it makes sense that you take damage from stepping on your own trap. It does not make sense to have a non-static defense that you built also target you.

Given some of these responses, I wonder how many of you would defend something like the bear traps sprouting legs and targeting you lmao.

The amount of people defending this decision is beyond silly.

Originally posted by Smetrix:

The amount of people defending this decision is beyond silly.

I'm betting it's a bug and the devs have not figured out how to fix it just yet so in the meantime the goons are out defending it with whatever they can conjure up.

Originally posted by Smetrix:

Originally posted by warrenchmobile:

"

Why on hell my own ballista shoot me?

Because it is an inanimate not sentient object. Why does your campfires, bonfires, or hearths burn you if step on them? Why do snares, traps, and landmines operate when you step on them.

A better question would be: Why on hell would I build a ballista to cover a certain area and then go traipsing through that area?

Except everything other than the ballista is a static defense, so it makes sense that you take damage from stepping on your own trap. It does not make sense to have a non-static defense that you built also target you.

Given some of these responses, I wonder how many of you would defend something like the bear traps sprouting legs and targeting you lmao.

The amount of people defending this decision is beyond silly.

yeah, my analogy would be what if all the animals you tamed decided to attack you because you got within agro range. I would hope people would not defend that decision

Yeah, the only problem with your analogy is that tamed animals are sentient beings, ballistas are not.

We can just say it's a game balance matter and leave it at that. We wouldn't want events to become automatically resolved simply by spamming enough ballistae. Or, if you do, you can use mods for that or just disable the events if they are that troublesome to you.

@warrenchmobile Explained it best; a non sentient object you placed that can determine neither friend nor foe and merely does what is does: shoot stuff.

And I have to call you on your counter argument @Smetrix because the ballista (which is static) even though an active defense versus a passive one, cannot identify friend vs. foe. It is non sentient. Active vs. passive does not inherently mean the active defense can differentiate.

Is it annoying to be targeted by your own 'stuff'? Yes.

Is there a reason for it? I can see a few scenarios in which ballista could be used to cheez some mobs, but ultimately the real reason can only be revealed by the developers.

So for now we can deal with it or not build them.

If the ballista didn't require ammunition and essentially manual activation, I'd understand the frustration. It's far more important to make it effective against targets, even if it includes players. Right now it's utterly useless overall but shouldn't remain like that if the public test branch changes are working.

And finally, ballista use isn't the only choice you get to make in this game that has drawbacks. Almost everything you do in Valheim creates drawbacks in some sense or reduces your options. What do you carry in your inventory? Which weapon skills will you focus on training? What food are you eating? Which Forsaken power are you going to take? Are you going to prime this ballista (or the other one pointing other way) or fight the event off on your own?

Originally posted by Eightball:

@warrenchmobile Explained it best; a non sentient object you placed that can determine neither friend nor foe and merely does what is does: shoot stuff.

And I have to call you on your counter argument @Smetrix because the ballista (which is static) even though an active defense versus a passive one, cannot identify friend vs. foe. It is non sentient. Active vs. passive does not inherently mean the active defense can differentiate.

There are no pre-established rules in game that justify this, you guys just made that up to rationalize it lol.

Its a dev intended feature.

Everything wants you dead. Even the trees try to kill you.
Except deer. They just want to be left alone.

Motion sensor logic I guess, if it moves, kill it

I'd rather not have Valheim become tower defense game. It's silly but it works. Other features of ballista like the inaccuracy are bigger issues IMO, but they're already addressed in the PT branch.

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

I'd rather not have Valheim become tower defense game. It's silly but it works. Other features of ballista like the inaccuracy are bigger issues IMO, but they're already addressed in the PT branch.

To be fair, there's really not much of a need for them at all. Not much really comes at your base, and you can always just dig a moat around your base or make it up in a non destructible tree.

They are good for taking out the blimps near your mistlands base if you make sure they can only shoot up. Getting a bit annoyed about how many biomes you have to keep a farm in now though. There are mistlands recipes that require barley, carrots, and onions in addition to mistlands mats.