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Ballista Turret

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- WHAT IS THIS MOD -
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This mod adds an auto-targeting, levitating, rotating, mobile, automatic, Dwarven Ballista Turret... Simply drop the compressed version from your inventory, and watch it decompress. After activating, it will target your enemies as would a follower (or you could set it to target you), and shoot bolts towards them. The Ballista Turret will need to be loaded with ammo. There are 4 different types of ammo, each having their own damage. The 4 different types of ammo and the Ballista Turret are craft-able through the forge.

This mod does NOT require any DLCs or any other mods.


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- USING THE BALLISTA TURRET -
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WARNING!!!
Only use one Ballista Turret at a time or it might not work correctly! (more testing needed)

Simply drop it anywhere you want and wait for it to decompress. Activate it and click the [Start] button to start it. Load it with the type of ammo you have and exit. Whenever you have enemies, it should automatically rotate towards them and shoot 3 bolts, using up 3 ammo, dealing 3x damage of the ammo used. There will be an explosion on impact and you will get blamed for whatever damage it deals, so be careful on where/when you deploy it.

The Ballista Turret also have a health of 10, which go down on every hit from any source except itself. At 0 health, it will decompress, and it will go back to your inventory, along with any ammo loaded in it. You can also set it to target you and will re-scan and try to look for another target whenever it is hit. If the Ballista Turret does not function correctly, try packing it up and redeploy. Currently, I haven't figured out an efficient way to stop the BT from attacking enemies that are not in the line of sight, making the BT shoot at walls. There is a settings option that re-scans for a target after a certain amount of shots to help with this issue.

If the Ballista does not seem to work, pack and redeploy it. I advise to always pack the Ballista Turret when done using.


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- CRAFTING -
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You need the Dwarven Smithing perk to craft the ballista parts as well as the ammo, all under the Dwarven smithing category. To craft the Ballista Turret (Packed), you will need 2 parts and the materials needed for each of those parts. All 4 ammo recipes have a 10x version for faster crafting.

Ballista Turret (Packed)
.... 1 BT Part - Ballista
.... .... 1 Dwarven Bow
.... .... 3 Large Dwemer Strut
.... .... 5 Dwemer Scrap Metal
.... 1 BT Part - Base
.... .... 1 Centurion Dynamo Core
.... .... 2 Dwemer Gear
.... .... 2 Dwemer Cog

BT Ammo - Damage [25/50/100/200] (30)
.... [1/2/4/8] Dwarven Metal Ingot


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- UPDATES -
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1/19/2014
- Follower mods compatibility fix.

1/17/2014
- Load/Unload Ammo UI now has "-ALL" and "+ALL" buttons.
- Added a "Re-Scan Shots" option that automatically re-scans for a target after a certain amount of shots.

1/16/2014
- Settings UI delay increments fixed.
- Cleaned with TES5Edit.
- Initial Release.


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- TECHNICAL -
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This mod is basically a script (a really long one), and will run whenever the Ballista Turret is out and there are enemies around. Make sure to pack the Ballista Turret when you are done with it. More tests are needed for leaving the Ballista Turret in another cell, and coming back to it still functioning. Packing it will ensure it has been disabled and deleted and will stop the script.

Do not use more than one Ballista Turret because it might not function correctly. More Tests are needed for having more Ballista Turrets out, but in another cell.

It's always good practice to back up your saves before installing any mod. If you need to uninstall this mod, make sure you have no Ballista Turret out before uninstalling. If you want to let me know of a bug, let me know in detail how you got it, so I can try to replicate it on my end. This mod might not work properly in laggy areas or cells, or there are other heavy script mods running at the same time.


Comments/Feedback appreciated!

Alternative Download Links:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=217328862
http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/1652-ballista-turret/
http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/652-ballista-turret/