Ballista (Alpha)
The Ballista is a siege unit belonging to the Ancient Faction which has long range and does high A.O.E. (Area Of Effect) damage.
Appearance
The Ballista resembles a giant crossbow with a large bolt. It also has wheels which allow it to move. Its mounter appears to drag or hold on to the string which launches the arrow or bolt.
Usage
The Ballista is mainly used for separating large clumps of enemy units or for directly killing individual units while doing AOE to nearby units to separate them. It also has a very long range which most users take advantage of. It is recommended to keep it in the flanks or the back of your army to take advantage of its long range. The placement is important since it can't take many hits from enemy units. They have the longest range out of any unit in the game, surpassing even the Beamer.
It tends to be ineffective against theCannon Crew as the Ballista tends to shoot its bolt over the cannon, missing it most of the time.
but as show in this [1] but it also had problem in development of the new system as show here [2] and here [3]
Trivia
- The Ballista was based on its real life Roman counterpart the Ballista.
- In the Open Alpha Update v0.3.6174.523, the Ballista was in the Crusaders Faction until the Closed Alpha Update (Neon Update) to where it was moved to Greece (Ancient Faction). It can be understood why since the original design of the Ballista called the Scorpion, originated in Greece, and Greece is underpowered in the Open Alpha.
- As of the Closed Alpha the Dark Peasant is able to take many more Ballista shots, about 47 were needed to kill it.
- Greece got a name change (Ancient Faction) to allow a whole new variety of units to be relevant and to be added to the faction. Also, the name change was necessary because the Romans took the original Scorpion design which was Greek and modified it. And then they renamed it to a Ballista which is Roman. And the Ancient Faction is a combination of the Greeks and Romans as stated by Landfall Games. The Crusaders also got their name change (Medieval Era).
- This unit used to fire a slow and limited range arrow that would explode. The range and speed are now buffed
- Originally called a Scorpius.
- A Ballista bolt, if hit by a cannon ball, will start to fly backwards in a choppy motion.
- In the Pre-Alpha, the Ballista shot more in a mortar style than a crossbow's shot.