How to make the ballista not kill teammates (and myself)?

[DJ Protogen]

I know you can set the target with trophies, but I want it to target all mobs without killing me and other players.

[DeMasked]

Put it up against some walls to create the sight line where you wish for it to fire, maybe use a window shutter to open up and refill it with ammo if that would be needed.

I haven't used them in my solo run through awhile ago but I imagine positioning is key.

[Mharr]

Or build a *lot* of 'em with a different totem each.

[Zathabar]

Honestly your best option is to forget this useless add on the the game and mod properly designed ones into the game!

They say use Mods at your own risk? True enough I also say USE THE BALLISTA to YOUR OWN RISK.

They are pointless unless you do as Mharr say and have one for every likely foe. If you don't then you wont be able to keep up with their ammo needs as they try and shoot anything that moves (usually missing) and 40 odd shots wont last a day

[Mharr]

All they really need to be genuinely useful is slots for more than one totem at a time.

[Prowler™]

They are deliberately designed to waste your time for no reason other than the developer wants to waste your time for a laugh, its one of the only issues i have with this game and its kinda sad really as it would be a really great game if the devs stopped going out of their way to drag out playtime for no benefit to the player.
Does it improve the game in anyway having hostile turrets? No, it wastes your time and your resources and you gain nothing and you still get harassed by mobs which is why you wanted the turret in the first place lol

[Mharr]

You say that but they just put out a patch full of huge quality of life and time management world settings... which are a big ol' pain to access on dedicated servers. It's clearly more misunderstanding than malice.

[Oakshield]

Simply don't arm the things.
Keep a chest with totems and bolts near them, so you can actually set the preferences of the weapon the moment an event happens.

They're most useful when being raided anyway, so no need to keep them active while you're not even at your base. And in case a raid does happen, you should have enough time to arm them before the first monsters even get to your base.
Only exception may be bats; but better to deal with those personally anyway.

Thorin :)

[GreyBeard512]

When they first came out, I built one and loaded it. Then I walked a very short distance away to build a second one. The first one promptly shot me in the back. I gave up on the second one and tried some experiments on the first one including building walls partially around them. Worked great until I stumbled into base in its field of fire. I decided I didn't like them and managed to deconstruct it. I haven't thought about them since.

Thorin Oakshield might have a workable approach, otherwise avoid them.

[6h0$t942]

So they do shoot friendlies...that is so ridiculously stupid. I hope there is a mod for that. Imagine building your first missile turret in fallout 4 (dont play it anymore) and have it instantly shoot you in the face.

To quote a zoomer... "like what? Wtf is that?"

E: i havent used this myself, havent gotten the components for ballistae yet, but here is a mod that looks promising https://valheim.thunderstore.io/package/MadBuffoon/TurretTweaks/

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by Facts Don't Care About Feelings:

I know you can set the target with trophies, but I want it to target all mobs without killing me and other players.

you cannot do that at all in vanilla.

[jonnin]

I put mine on kill everything. It should not kill anyone who has done enough of the game to make one if they forget and run in front of it. I keep a trophy in a chest (along with refill ammo) so you can turn it off if you need to walk out there.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

Originally posted by Facts Don't Care About Feelings:

I know you can set the target with trophies, but I want it to target all mobs without killing me and other players.

you cannot do that at all in vanilla.

Sorry, medieval tech doesn't include FriendOrFoe ID tags. Trophies is all you got (and even those are more "magic" than some would prefer); just build a bunch and set them for individual targets with trophies, or tread very carefully around the motion-activated death-spike throwers.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Ballista

[Mharr]

Medieval tech obviously doesn't include any autonomous artifacts at all, the turret is visibly a magical device animated by dragon tear channels. You can handwave justify any target selection.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by Mharr:

Medieval tech obviously doesn't include any autonomous artifacts at all, the turret is visibly a magical device animated by dragon tear channels. You can handwave justify any target selection.

A fair point, but think about where you are. This quasi-realm is a Viking purgatory, a place for Odin to discard those not deemed worthy of "proper" realms; a junk yard, a trash bin.

You don't throw powerful enemies into a bin that doesn't have a way to make sure they don't get out, so powerful magics would logically be verboten.

I'm imagining a hypothetical conversation between, say, Loki and Odin, as Odin is dragging Loki off by the ear and threatening to send him to Valheim as punishment for some mischievous deed. I imagine it would go something like this:

"Okay, fine. But I would like a stationary weapon that attacks everything it sees."
"Sure."

"Can I have something that only targets a specific type of thing, if I show it one I killed?"
"Alright."

"Can I have something that can actually 'pick sides', so I can fight great battles?"
"That might be used against me, so... not so much, no."

[Mharr]

Or, actually... Maybe Loki is the magical systems admin for this realm. That seems on point as a godly inter-departmental snafu and would perfectly explain everything forever.