LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ballista
built 237 days ago
Ballista boxes are a new invention that have begun appearing through-out the spheres as the weapon of choice for attacking groundling settlements. No one knows who exactly invented these weapons, although many races have taken credit for them. These are war machines that fire a dozen, four foot long missles. The missles are similar to spears, although some users have developed miniature versions of the projectiles that ballistas fire(the ones with the barbed heads). The boxes have cylindrical tubes on the front facing of the weapon, and tightly coiled springs in the base of the box that shoot out the projectiles with devastating force. The rear of the box can be opened to re-coil the springs through the use of hand cranks.
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By definition a Ballista is a Greek Siege Engine resembling a crossbow, used in hurling missiles or large arrows. They were originally developed in 399 BC. by the ancient Greeks. It designed to be a a powerful anti-personnel weapon, capable of "perforating" several armored men with a single bolt or arrow. A crossbow works by tension in a strong bow. Most ballista's used "torsion". Torsion is two skeins of rope or animal sinew wound very tightly. A very sturdy wooden frame carried the two torsion bundles vertically, with the projectile resting in a groove in the horizontal track of the weapon. Two horizontal wooden arms pass through each bundle and are linked by a strong bowstring.
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Ballista Points are rewarded to each competitor based on his or her performance in a single Ballista match. The maximum number of points that can be accumulated per match is 1000. While it is taken into consideration, scoring Petras is not the only way to earn Ballista Points. Assisting allies and defeating members of the enemy forces can ... earn a high score.
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Wearing a chevron during a Ballista match will automatically change a player's current title. Outside of a match, it is possible to revert to this title by talking to a certain NPC. Also, while wearing a chevron, players will be able to trade Ballista Points for temporary items not available to all players.
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Ballista can be played in two different ways. The first being one giant match that generally lasts about 45 minutes to 1 hour and the second being the best of three short matches. In either case, the objective is the same.
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The goal of the Ballista project is to automatically test off-the-shelf software components for robustness problems. These results will apply to as broad a class of software components as possible, but in general will work best on modules that take all inputs from a parameter list.
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Ballista