Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-27831234-20160225060317/@comment-26172435-20160226095308

Realistically, siege engines, whether it's towers, ballista's, catapults or trebuchets, are massive, heavy structures that can only be moved slowly across any area, and only if it's flat. These structures were typically constructed on the spot where they were to be used, and if constructed elsewhere, scores of men and beasts of burden were required to pull the structure to it's destination at crawling pace: max. 1-3 km/h. Mounting them on a carriage would have made transport a bit faster, but shooting a catapult from the top of a carriage is simply very impractical: single-use only. :)

A catapult mounted on the back of a large creature should be considered 'single or at least very limited use' only, both regarding the catapult and the creature. It certainly would be a fun aspect to equip a mountain troll with the devastating power of a catapult, but it shall be costly: troll and catapult should be worn off after 10-20 rounds of massive 2*2*2 rock launches (that's 8 metric tons of material folks: enough to snap the trolls spline with one round only!). Question: Is that movie feature actually supported by lore?

Siege towers can only be moved, and used, on flat terrain. I would just advise Mevans to assume players will erect them on the spot, near the place where they are to be put to use, and that the offensive party will also ensure the terrain where the tower is to be moved upon, will be flattened and/or slabs will be used to ensure no step heights of 1 block or higher shall be overcome.

Same holds for battering rams and trebuchets.

Catapults, ballista's may be mounted on wheels, but I'd just advise to not code for that. Let players build such structures, and trebuchets, where they need them for battle/siege, and not

This should make the use of siege towers most realistic and less of a burden to code. Same for the other devices.

Dawn of the Ring has implemented the Pistronics mod. This may offer other interesting viewpoints for coding and mechanics of siege engines for the LOTRmod.