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Ballista

That's very much a matter of opinion. I kept it without because that's what miss chance always used to do. If you like it more with some actual penalty, then please feel free to make it whatever you prefer in your mod.

Okay. When I'm ready to publish some small mods of mine I'll add those two tiny compatibility patches and ToW additions. The later will be non compatible only with mods that change the description of those buildings while using the Ballista mod.

On a side note, I also had the idea to accompany the "Missed by a boulder!" effect by a real penalty such as one round of a bit of morale loss or slightly hindered status (-25%MP). What do you think? It would be too much for someone who is missed by a fair margin, but for someone who is grazed?

Patch should be trivial for anyone, just a single Link Data between the unit and Shadow Elves race. As for TOW, I don't like doing that because it might make this mod incompatible with others that do, and those others probably have more important changes.

Hi, would you add some ToW integration (SIEGE_WORLSHOP/MASTERS_GUILD@DESCRIPTION) and compatibility patch for Shadow Realm (Shadow Elves faction) if I provide the files (or precise locations of changes/additions)?

Not by me, but would be easy to make for everyone. Only the link records are required.

Hey, any plans for a submod that adds it to Eomolch's Archon and Tiefling races?

I wanted it to resemble the old catapult. It has 100% chance to hit obstacles, and high chance to hit high defense targets. This keeps it's role similar to what it was in AoW 1. Meanwhile, the Balista is better against units.

Just tried this mod for the first time and I really like it! I always loved the ballista in AoW1, especially the orcish one that shot black bolts : ) Thanks for making this mod! I just had one question, why did you change the catapult to miss so often? Was this for AoW1 mod or something? And does the "that was close" debuff do anything? I mainly ask because this makes summoning the catapult with the dread spell kinda useless.

In general, I think it's the other way around - for example, a horned god is easier to hit than your average halfling. Machines also all got decent defense. Generally, higher tier units have both higher defense and are bigger. Giants are also an example. However, I couldn't select on size and therefore had to pick something else - and it was defense that made the choice. I might instead have gone for a flat % chance, but sadly we can't build that into the game.

I wasn't clear, I meant that a "9% - That what's close! 1 turn" case (that I'd interpreted as a chance "to hit") illustrated what you explain indeed: that the percentile is the chance to miss, as you say, and a further reading of the logs shows that the more defense, the lower this percentile, hence the greater chance to actually hit. Just as you said. (well, a 9% attack might have missed as well, but it was marginal, like... 9 out of 100)

Not to be pernicketty, but sometimes though, a high defense stat stands for a greater agility or combat expertise, not a greater armor or size (see assassin in my example). Poor nimble assassins. Perhaps they (and like units) could benefit from a new ability or one of their abilities might be checked in order to specifically lower their chance to be hit?