I am always happy to see someone thinking in such detail no matter the Topic! :) It really mans that people care for the idea,for the game and for the Mod! :) Thank you for the feedback firstly! :)
1. People Bring the Earth Shaker because even if he is currently Weak he still is an Extra Unit which other Kingdoms do not have! :) And I personaly like the idea about the Earth Shaker but all it needs is a little buff to make more useful and I will love to play him more! :) May some Extra Protection or Armor and little bit more Damage or new Ability in addition to the current one! :) We just need to improve him a little! :)
2.Well I love the Iron Hills Catapult but we just thought that since aall 2 Kingdoms have Catapults may one of them should have a Ballista! I guess it is about having something diffrent than Catapult and it seem some people like the Iron Ballista and if adding it as an Exra Unit is no good we decided to give an option to replace something! :)
3. The idea with Limiting it is based on the fact that Earth Shaker are Limited and if the Iron Ballsita is ever added as an Extra Unit for IHs then it is logical to Limit it too,especialyl if is strong,thats all! :)
4.Abou the Knocback,I agree with you about the Old Version thing! :) But with the Iron Hills Ballista we can think of something better and more unique! :)
For Example we can have CHain Bolts which wil lbe stronger than Infantry and will do some Moderate Knockback but the Ballista will need like 10sec CD (or more or less) before it can "reload" and fire! :) Next we can give it Normal Piercing Bolts which wil lbe strong agaisnt Singe Targets as korner said Trolls,SIege Units and such and will not need to Recharge so much or not at all! :) What you think about that!? :)
And if the Ballista is an Extra Unit like Earth Shaker then of course we shiould find one for Ered Luin too! :) I my odl topic I suggested a Siege Unit which can protect your Units doruing Castle Attacks but if that is not good enough I have found this really cool and interesting idea from WETA Designs which can be used for Ered Luin! :)
(http://i.imgur.com/7i7rcyj.png)
Thats how I called it of course do not take it litterally! It wil lbe strong against Multiple Foes or something liek that but I have to go now and we can discuss it later!Hope yo uguys like it!
Greetings to all! :)
I think the IHs Castle Defence should be their Three Stone Catapults while the Ballista should be use instead of Catapults! :) Being Strong against Buildings and doing some moderate DMG or Knockback to Units! :)
(http://i.imgur.com/ik6aa9R.jpg)
About the Ballistas and thei Speed and slowing Down the Army on this picture you can see evidence that they ahve been actually pulled by Something,being it the Chariots or few Ram Riders we never Know!But they weren't pushed by Dwarves if that is what you mean! :) And as I said PJ just used the opporutny to create a Full and Compelte Dwarven Army since Toolkiend haven't and WETA and PJ even had awesome ideas about Iron Hills Crossbowmans which I bet no one here will like plus Edain uses Crossbows for Ered Luin even thoguh I think Crossbows are more DMG oriented than Short Bows! :) So the Ballsitas were jsut to show the skills of the Dwarves! :)
Well I could begin explaining again how the Chains are possible but too much time adn I already did it,you can look in LOTR Threads if you wish! :)
But still it is possible to be Extra Siege Unit which will be even better but woulnd't it be too much for Dwarves to have so much War Machines,but then again they are Dwarves so it is natural for them to have so...really tough decision for me at least [uglybunti]
In any case, I don't think it would be a good idea if the balista is implemented without replacing the catapult, because then the balista will not be an unique siege weapon for the Iron Hills.
In my opinion the balista from BOTFA should replace the catapult of the Iron Hills; this will give more diversity to the Dwarves and give a chance to the Team to implement something unique for the Iron Hills :).
By the way, I have heard that Weta was planning to include in the EE Dwarven Crossbowmen, but I have never seen any pictures/concept art of them. If anyone has, can you post a picture of the Iron Hills crossbows by Weta?
About the Crossbowmans,I have suggested long time ago that Iron HIlls should get Crossbwomasn because the Crossbow is more DMG oriented Rage Weapon and DMG is IHs Main Strentght while Ered Luin should get Short Bows because Bows are better in deffense esepcialyl siege for their bigger Ranger and Volley Effect,plus Thorin and Kili used Short Bows which suggested that Ered Luin values and usses Bows as their primary Range Weapon but the Team said they will not chnage them because they think this way is better!Well Ia am fine with,nothing we can about that,but if you want I can show you COncept Arts of the Crossbows WETA Designed,the Soldiers would have look like all the others from the Movie ,the Crossbows would have been rather Unique! :)
(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/members/1/762/761504/thumb_620x2000/Iron_Hills_Heavy_Crossbow.png)
(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/members/1/762/761504/thumb_620x2000/Iron_Hills_Crossbow_Concept.jpg)
(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/members/1/762/761504/thumb_620x2000/Iron_Hills_Multiple_Boilts_Crossbow.png)
I doubt the Team will dcide to ever use them but here you can at least see thm if you haven't already! [ugly]
PJ added Elves for the dramatic effect and to show that Elves actualyl take part in the War for the same reason he could have send Dwarves from Erebor there?
The reason is as Dunkler König has already mentioned, that there was not presented any Dwarves in the movie as a living and caring faction.
And by the way; Haldir himself tells the audience and Theoden King why PJ decided to Show them up at Helm's Deep:
"An Alliance once existed between Elves and Men. Long ago we fought and died together. We come to honor that allegiance"
Differently than the Hobbit movies they the developers tried to create a reference within the trilogy itself. The first great battle shown in the first movies is connected events and decisions. The motivation is logical and it is a good way the complete the character of Haldir appeared in the first movie as well. An negativ example in return would Beorns presentation in the Hobbit movies.
The dwarves had to arrive at the mountain very quickly, why should they bring these heavy ballistas? And why did they use them at all, they could have protected themselves with shields and armor.
Because they knew it is clone war time. Dain had foreseen that Thranduil's clone soldiers would shoot their arrows very porbably at the same time with the same angle and the most exact row you could build with elven clone eroopers. Therfore he could manage to place every ballista in the right distance to the elven army so that arrows and bolts would meet exactly in the air and do not miss each other.
In real wartime Dain just would have sent an ordinary army of dwarves and would not count on elven "clonish" behaviour.
Isengard needs a siege unit therfore their ballistas must do damage to buildings. And because of the fact that there is a good and logical reason for them beeing introduced in the LotR movie they are accepted by most players. The dwarven ballistas do not make any sense at all.
And that is a huge difference between Isengard and the Dwarves using ballistas in the movies.
OT Edit: It is quite annoying when there are introduced capital letters automatically by an auto correct programm instead of the correct small letters.
It has nothign to do wit Dwarve not being loving and caring,as we saw Dwarves are one ofthe most loyal friends once you earth their respect!It is just that the Dwarves haven't been shown llike the Lorien Elves back then just as korner said!And Men of Dale and especialyl Erebor Dwarves had key Role in the win of the Free People agaisnt Sauton i nthe Battle of Dale! :)
While what you say is true about the "Last Alliance",PJ negelcted and didn't show the presence of big Khazad-Dum Dwarven Host led by Durin IV so yeah it is not only Men and Elves! :)
About the quick arrival,I think I ahve proved good enough evidence that the Dwarven Ballistas were Pullled by Animals or Chariots not pushed by Dwarves so yeah they weren't as slow as you think! :) And if Dain thought they coudl reach the Montain quick enough even with them then it is better to come prepared than not!NOt stationing the Ballista within Range is not unrealistic nor not possible he simply knows the range of his Artillery and positioned it so that Elven Army can be in Range from that Hill,Elves beign Clone has nothing to do with their Arrow Volleys,thats what a Arros Volley are all the Archers in range Fire their Arrows from same Angle around 40-45 degrees depending on where their Target is so that they could do more DMG and Firing the Ballist when they see the Volley Flying isn ot mere chance nor luck it is siple calibaration and observing and knowing your Machines! :)
As I said please guys let's stop hating the Movie,let's stop discussing things we alread ydiscussed long time and just talk about on how and where we can and should we intagrate the Iron Ballista WITHOUT the CHAINS!? :)
Greetings and best regards to all! :)
OFF TOPIC:
Today is not the day for misunderstandings or apologises, Elite :)
http://en.modding-union.com/index.php/topic,32030.msg417472.html#msg417472