Bay 12 Games Forum

I'd also add soap a soap stockpile in there, prioritizing that over splints/crutches.

I've generally assigned bedrooms manually, because I want all dwarves to have a room assigned to them ASAP after the rooms are ready. Because I'm neurotic like that. I'm thinking of switching from using 1x3 rooms to 3x3 for my future forts, just for a bit of extra challenge, and trying to make my dwarves as happy as possible, with their favorite materials used for furniture etc. Also 2 beds for couples and attached dining rooms and bedrooms for kids, if they have more family.

When (=how soon) will dwarves claim rooms? The next time they get drowsy/go to sleep? Do they just pick at random/the closest room, or do they also consider e.g. if a room has a bed/other furniture/walls/floor with a material/color they like, then they prefer that one?

...I deconstructed the track, laid down a highest friction autounloading track stop then placed the route stop on it, telling my dorf to guide once the cart was empty of all desireable items (I set this to all of them, any of them, no matter what. So, empty cart.)
...
It's not acting right because either the cart goes flying (ramp down, three straight, ramp down, etc) or it just goes too fast and it completely blows the track turn. Track stop time.

Huh. It seems to me that fucking around with track stops (breaking the rails) after the cart starts working right will screw up stockpiles associated with the stops, effectively clearing them out. Happened twice, but it could just be them warping away or becoming unseen, IDK.

Ok, first of all, if you're pushing carts (not guiding), all track stops should have a track underneath, I think. So you removing the track from underneath was unnecessary/possibly harmful to smooth operation. Second, if you're having carts derail on turns, just build 1 wall tile in the tile it would first derail to.

Regarding stockpiles getting "cleared out" do you mean the items disappear? If so, this is probably a known bug about nearby items (16x16 area?) teleporting to a deconstruction site when removing constructions (like tracks, but not track stops, I think).

Were you using the arena? With trolls? They're building destroyers (some others are too), and will tear apart any bars/grates/other furniture and buildings they can reach.

It has one down ramp, and then a magma-filled down ramp and up ramp.    When I had a single magma tile, a V shaped ramp, it wasn't picking anything up.    And I don't know if the first down ramp is needed, I just wanted to be sure it had enough speed to make it.

It might've just skipped over the magma with only 1 ramp. Dwarves push carts hard enough that if there's a 1-tile gap close enough on the track, the cart will jump over the gap.

I do tend to butcher at least one of the draft animals ASAP (unless they're a breeding pair). Yaks and Water buffaloes have quite a bit of meat, not really what I'd call "a small boost". They'd only end up starving on a glacier anyway, and if you want grazers you can order and buy them from caravans once you've established underground pastures (or just tame some Dralthas). If you have a female(s), you can squeeze an extra food out of them by milking them before butchering, then making cheese.

Eggs are nice, but don't really have anything to add regarding them. I don't know how much sweet pods cost to take on embark, but you could take some and make syrup (1 pod = 5 syrup). Could also use quarry bushes in a similar way, but then you need bags (Harder to get than rock pots).

They do.
At least normal up/down connections work, don't have any X stairways but i dont think they should be problematic.
What i noticed, though, is that the hauled cart was slow and only loaded with 3 rocks each trip.
guess without a track we don't get the Minecart physics

Well, most people use up/down stairs (the X stairways) as their "normal connections", and ramps only/usually only when dealing with Trade Depots, or cart tracks. Of course the ramps work, I was saying that they might not use up/down stairs. Sure you don't have the cart set to leave when 50% full? Or maybe it takes long enough to load up to 50% that the default 2-week timer for that is already full?

You can also avoid crashes by using non-dump stops. Just alter the friction so it slows down the cart without completely stopping it, then a roller will be able to turn it without crashing.

It's still probably easier just to carve a turn into the track and use walls (if it's going fast enough that you need walls to avoid a derail).

From what I've read so far in other threads, the !!science!! of frictions rollers is still pretty iffy.  How much is enough?  What about varrying mass of cargo?  And what of the cart itself?

The testing I've done so far indicates that lowest rollers don't have any extra friction (beyond the track tile they're built on). A low track stop + the track it's on have a friction 5 times that of a normal track tile. Above that, it's a bit iffy still, but medium is about 50, high is at least 800, and I've yet to see a cart go through a highest friction track stop. For comparison, a dwarf pushes/1 tile of low rollers pushes with an energy of 200, 1 tile of lowest rollers at 50, medium at 450, high at 800, and for highest my best guess so far is 1250. Exact effects of longer or multiple rollers I haven't tested yet. I'm still halfway through testing ramps, but 1 ramp down gives something in the area of 500ish energy (depending on how fast it's going before ramping down, interestingly). For more info see this thread.

Yes, without a track, you're limited to guiding, and when guiding, a minecart is almost just like a big wheelbarrow (except you need to define routes, and they're not attached to only work with a specific stockpile).

Errr.

I just made a track work.

but... when they put the cart back, they ignore the track. I built a circle. Push it down a pit, stop it with a constructed stock, dump wood, guide it back up through a fork in the track.
All working fine. Then they just leave the track when they're back out in the open, guiding the cart diagonally through grass to reach the 1st stop.

What are tracks for then? If i don't care about using dwarves for guidance, can i just have a dwarf-powered, entirely trackless hauling network?

If I make hauling networks, I prefer having them be push&roller-operated. I think if you only use guide, you can leave out the tracks. Should be easy enough to test. Even guided minecarts still won't go up/down stairs though, I guess.