Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarves should be able to make cannon as an artillery piece.  It would be quite dwarfy, and its perfectly historical for the target time period.  (In fact, catapults would likely have been an anachronism by 1400).

Cannon have been in use since pre-1400 in europe.  They were used on the Iberian peninsula in the 13th century, and England used its first cannon during the hundred years war at Crecy.  The earliest documented use of gunpowder artillery in combat is in China in 1132AD.

The cannon becomes standardized and effective at both siege and anti-infantry roles during the medieval period in europe.

Gunpowder itself goes back to something like the 9th century in China (and was certainly weaponized in Korea and China pre-cannon, so there's something else cool to do)

Dwarves have the metallurgical and engineering know-how to make a cannon.

Cannon make saltpeter a valuable commodity, and give the alchemist's lab a reason to be re-instated (saltpeter -> gunpowder).

Gunpowder could be stored in bags or barrels.

Early cannonballs were shaped stone, although forged metal ones appeared before the end of the medieval period.

The earliest evidence for a handcannon (handheld gunpowder weapon) appears in the middle east in the 13th century, and there is evidence for their use in both europe and the middle east by 1250.

Grapeshot is first reported by 1350.

Sorry if this has been suggested, but the search engine appears to be down.  (At least, it keeps telling me it can't access the search daemon).

G-Flex, if you actually checked out the Heron works, you know, the ones from Roman times, you'll see steam used in other applications where it actually causes stuff to move.  Its simply that only the aeolipile qualifies as an *engine*.  But using steam to move stuff?  Yeah, they knew that.

I am going to agree with the 'knowledge was not the limiting factor'.

Historically, the aeolipile proves steam can cause stuff to move.  Hell, it even proves steam can cause rotary motion.  So knowledge isn't an issue - we know people before 1400 knew steam could cause stuff to move.

Historically, one of the major limitations in developing commercial steam power was making a boiler that wouldn't explode.  That's not a problem when you carve the open space for the boiler out of solid rock.  Heck, dwarves are super-awesome at metallurgy and metalsmithing, ie, beyond 1400 technology levels, so even building a plausible boiler isn't too unreasonable.  But the solid rock boiler is enough to justify being able to do something with steam.

And generating enough heat?  We harness fricking magma!  Much more efficient than any real-world boiler heating system.

So not only do we historically have the right knowledge, DF gives us the tools to avoid the historical problems.

Wow, I had forgotten how much I hated 'standard' character sheet formats.  So inefficient.

I put my PP/day in the level 0 spells known slot, since the character sheet doesn't like psionics.

I'll put a physical description in the 'notes' section when i've cobbled together enough things i like from random elf descriptions =)

I'll post a backstory... uh... somewhere... when i'm done with everything else.  Probably this thread since i don't see a place to upload one.

I just see a place to upload a character sheet, not a place where there is a character sheet.  I suppose i'll poke around a bit more...

Quote from: Squirrelloid on April 19, 2010, 12:21:51 pm

To get a functional steam engine all you have to do is add a shaft to the spinning object on the aeolipile so the rotational power can be exported.

You're assuming that the aeolipile was at all efficient, and that it was sturdy, and that it could be fueled quickly enough. I'm willing to bet that at least first and probably also the second of these were not true, and there are probably other problems that I'm not thinking of.


Also, from that very article you just linked us to:

Quote

The most likely reason the Romans never developed a steam engine was that the materials available to them were not strong enough or finely worked enough to allow an industrial steam engine and their lack of understanding of the principles of vacuums, atomspheric pressure and the properties of gases such as steam meant they did not have enough theoretical knowledge to build a steam engine.

In other words: No, a functioning steam engine (as in, something that actually does work, not just a spinning toy; the aeolipile was a steam engine in the same sense that a child's hand-held pinwheel is a mechanical windmill) was not something within their reach, either in mechanics or in theory.

They also couldn't make plate mail.  Our dwarves have much better metal-working skills, and are just better engineers in general.  The design work is all there.  I mean, we're 1400 years later technologically and have no reason to believe there was a dwarven dark age.

And i linked the article for the references, not the article itself.  The important citation is the Dickinson citation.

It makes setting up channels more difficult, and has more uses than just the "dig empty space" command.

More tedious =/= more difficult.

And the new version has no uses.  Its just carve up ramps designated on a different level.  Stop pretending new functionality was added.