[394] Using spikes to fortify a tower against catapults

I was just playing around in Sandbox mode, testing the durability of different blocks against catapult fire. I made this tower to drop rocks on, and I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the line of spikes on the front held it up after I'd destroyed the foundation.

Test subject before catapult fire and after.


I've known that spikes are capable of holding up structures for a long time, but I neglected that they're immune to catapult fire. I've never seen them used this way for this purpose, I've only seen spikes used this way to kill enemy bomb jumpers. I haven't thought of any good designs to incorporate this into a tower, but I'm sure it can be useful in some manner.

EDIT: Forgot the [394] in the title. Can a mod please add that?

 

hmm, I've never thought of using spikes like this as well...
Handy discovery... :)

 

It's a good thing to know. Of course spikes should be placed on the opposite side of the structure, since on the front it's easier to disconnect the spikes off it. On the back side it will require to ruin entire tower no matter what, and your enemies can always collapse the entire thing if it's has been captured before it will be repaired. I personally see it as a bug, since spikes must fall off like the Workshops as soon as there's no solid objects nearby to which they might attach to.

 

It is probably a bug, then for some fairplay reason, it would be better to use backwall.
The other problem is teammate who will hurt themself against their teamtower.

 

What Chinizz said, but it IS a neat little discovery! Well done!

 

But backwall gets destroyed by catapults... :p

 

That is true, unless it's placed in an efficient and clever way, like in the wonderful thread he linked to done by killatron. I suggest reading it if you're a builder!

 

Upon further testing, I discovered that spikes are only immune to catapult fire if they don't have backwall behind them.



I also tried using different materials for the for the middle column between the spikes. It doesn't seem to matter what you put the spikes on, as long as there isn't backwall on the same tile as the spikes.



The only block that won't connect with spikes are ladders without backwall. All of these spikes will still be standing after stone rains down on them from a catapult.

Unfortunately, I still haven't thought of a good way to implement support spikes into base defenses. Perhaps a catapult nest of some sort? If anyone thinks of something, please post your ideas.

 

Obviously it can't be placed in the front because it will take an enemy builder only one second to destroy all of it. For traditional towers it will most likely be placed in the back where teammates can't be hit by it.

This might be very effective against catas on skybridges. Usually those catas will destroy any enemy tower climbing up to it.With spikes the tower will be invincible to cata fire. That ladder, backwall, spike combination, (the fourth one from the right of MacD's picture above) might be more effective than the narrow stone+ladder combination that is usually used.

 

Dayum boy, you're findin a lot of handy hints :3

 

Yay, instead of solid stone skybridges we will see uncollapseable spike skybridges . . . I think this is getting removed (doesn't make sense that spikes can hold stuff up?) soon so don't blow your mind on it too much. Still fun to mess around with the different blocks though!

 

Just tested, yeah, its removed in the test build right now. :P