Bay 12 Games Forum
Dwarf Fortress => DF Dwarf Mode Discussion => Topic started by: Arkenstone on April 17, 2012, 09:21:00 am
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So, I've started this thread to accomidate the discussion of potential applications of minecarts, since I don't see a focused/directed thread already existing.
So, I guess I'll start off with the 'main' purpose of minecarts, namely moving stuff around.
I propose that a good automated system might consist of a series of tracks connecting two points, one source and one destination. All sources would be refilled with carts from a central cart hub, which would have collection points at all destinations. The destinations would have to be able to hold multiple carts to prevent overflow from occuring, and/or overflow carts should be collected at a central 'junkyard'.
As for automation of departure, based on the Devlog the dwarves should be able to handle that.
Now, Discuss!
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Make a 5x5 of minecarts to move the Trade Depot around to pickup items instead of taking the items to the depot.
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You mean a thread like this one? http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106473.0
;)
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though that one got a bit derailed lately as most options have been discussed already.
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The first thing I am going to do is remake the large hadron collider....
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I'm not really looking forward to carving ramps connecting my foundry to the mines. I've gotten too used to stairs :(
The first and most practical use will probably be goblin bowling. I'm picturing a 3x20 entrance with a relativistic minecart launcher on the fortward side and tracks down the entryway. The far end of the entryway will have tracked ramps to the surface. Solid lead carts (loaded with heavy stones?) will barrel down the entryway at relativistic speeds, launch up the ramps into the sunlight for a moment, crash into a backstop, fall through another narrow opening in the soil and then land in an "airport" area so they can be sent back to the entryway launcher.
Sending the Red Baron unwanted nobility along for the flight will be optional, but if carts don't derail and there's a safe way to land them a marksdwarf in the cart might be able to shoot at things mid-flight, which would be fucking sweet.
A more boring (but potentially more effective) solution would be to have a lead cart full of pitchblende oscillate at high speed along a U-shaped track that crosses the entryway. When not in use, it would be blocked with bridges to trap the cart up high. When in use, the cart just goes right-left-right-left....
ŻŻŻ\ /ŻŻŻ
\___/
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This adds a new level of fort security; you can have the supplies far away from the depot, so even if the enemy breaks in, you still have your +granite harp+s to trade with the traders for enough supplies to fix the problem.
Heck, you could have all supplies in their own section far away from the main fortress, with the only way in being the rails; the goblins would be roadkill by the dwarves running them over.
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Minecart marksdwarf patrols. YES!
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A forth minecart thread? God damn.
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Minecart marksdwarf patrols. YES!
old news, very old
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A forth minecart thread? God damn.
Hopefully the mine-carts themselves won't get derailed as often as the threads about them do.
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A forth minecart thread? God damn.
Hopefully the mine-carts themselves won't get derailed as often as the threads about them do.
They will.
Trust me.
They will.
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If not, you're not trying. Too bad toady fixed the unlimited energy - high speed thing he mentions in the dev log
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lets see if we can shot dwarfs at are enemy
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devlog states he's working on cart/creature collisions now, so it sounds promising
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Wanted: rails that can't be used for walking (you don't walk on roller coaster rails) so I could create parts of fortress that are accessible only by rail (or flying).
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Toady has stated that it is possible to send a cart into the air and land it on another set of rails facing the right direction. So, if you want cartable-only areas, you'd just dig chasms across their entrances and arrange the rails on either side so that the cart makes the jump safely.
The weight/mass of the minecart may eventually have to be restricted to certain ranges because weight/mass, while it won't affect the acceleration of gravity while flying through the air -- that's practically constant at the same general distance from the Earth's center -- may affect the acceleration/deceleration on ramps and/or rollers and thereby affect the horizontal speed, which is as crucial to landing the cart where you want as the vertical speed. But if you guaranteed the carts to be made of X and be full of Y, or if Toady allowed you to set the cart routes based on their reaching a weight threshold, it would be fairly easy to get carts across a gap consistently.
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I'm not really looking forward to carving ramps connecting my foundry to the mines. I've gotten too used to stairs :(
The first and most practical use will probably be goblin bowling. I'm picturing a 3x20 entrance with a relativistic minecart launcher on the fortward side and tracks down the entryway. The far end of the entryway will have tracked ramps to the surface. Solid lead carts (loaded with heavy stones?) will barrel down the entryway at relativistic speeds, launch up the ramps into the sunlight for a moment, crash into a backstop, fall through another narrow opening in the soil and then land in an "airport" area so they can be sent back to the entryway launcher.
Sending the Red Baron unwanted nobility along for the flight will be optional, but if carts don't derail and there's a safe way to land them a marksdwarf in the cart might be able to shoot at things mid-flight, which would be fucking sweet.
A more boring (but potentially more effective) solution would be to have a lead cart full of pitchblende oscillate at high speed along a U-shaped track that crosses the entryway. When not in use, it would be blocked with bridges to trap the cart up high. When in use, the cart just goes right-left-right-left....
ŻŻŻ\ /ŻŻŻ
\___/
I like the latter idea a lot, but it'd need a way to handle the turns. Perhaps if the cart gained speed on a long, straight ramp but then lost it again going up the other side; a roller pointing towards the center on each end should turn it around nicely, and can probably even be powered by a single pair of windmills so there'd be no need to make another entrance to the rest of your fort there.
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Wanted: rails that can't be used for walking (you don't walk on roller coaster rails) so I could create parts of fortress that are accessible only by rail (or flying).
This is something that is very easy to design a fort around.
Personally, I'm seeing utility floors for Minecarts that dorfs have seldom business going into.
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if a path is 'cartable only' we can fix some pathfinding induced fps trouble
now I can send all those sweaty smelters down to magma sea and have bars/foods moving without their little brains telepathically scan every fortress square, searching for booze