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[Trif]

Thanks for the encouragement!

I think getting the marksdwarfs into the minecarts shouldn't be very difficult - all we need is an additional burrow on top of the stops and the marksdwarfs assigned to it. I would love to try it out, but a) I don't have any good targets right now, and b) to get them out again, you have to stop the whole M.A.D.S. - and I don't know if they will survive getting smashed into a wall. Plus, they aren't very accurate right now on their own feet, so if I did it, we would have to take the experiment with a grain of salt.

Anyway, if a siege shows up, I'll try it, and if not, my successor can do whatever.

[DrKillPatient]

Here are some questions I've thought of while reading this thread (an excellent read indeed!). Perhaps they're worth investigating:
- Can a melee-weapon-armed dwarf hit enemies while riding past them in a minecart?
- Does the additional momentum from the minecart will supplement the force of the swing?
- Can enemies strike at a dwarf in a minecart, and if so, do they suffer any penalty for doing so?
- If a weapon is embedded in a minecart-riding dwarf, will it be yanked out of the wielder's hands and carried along? If not, will it be pulled out of the dwarf by the advance of the minecart, subjecting him to additional blood loss?


Some more detailed ideas, if the above concepts work:

I envision a three-tile-wide tunnel with a track on either side (leaving a 1-tile-wide walkable path down the middle), down each of which are sent dwarves in minecarts (a squad per track?) in rapid succession. The dwarves ride past enemies in the tunnel and brutalize them as necessary. Since the dwarves come from inside the fortress and ride the minecarts toward the entrance of the tunnel towards (and past) the oncoming foes, they will be in an excellent position to stop anyone that attempts to flee.

Another, somewhat more ridiculous, idea: Drop an enemy into a pit, then fire four minecarts at them simultaneously, one each from N/S/E/W (floodgates would block those openings in the sides of the pit until they are fired). Place a silver-warhammer-wielding hammerdwarf in each minecart. A trash compactor, if you will.

[Trif]

Seasonal Report 4 - Summer

Events

Two elven traders just didn't want to die. I had to make a modification to the Auto-Trader to get rid of them.

I dumped a few glass disks on the hatch covers and pulled the lever. One elf dodged, the other one got sliced into bits.
The remaining elf survived way too many minecart collisions, but died after a month or so by skidding on his head.

The dwarfs were very suicidal in this season, too. They either tried to clean up a blood-covered underground track while another dwarf pushed the minecart, or wandered on the tracks for no reason. There were quite a few additions to the hospital and the graveyard. Unfortunately, one of the marksdwarfs died, too.
All this dying produced some unhappy thoughts, and a lot of dwarfs were close to tantruming. I still got some more migrants, though.

I did my last experiments, and in the process of shooting the last minecart, the dwarf who recovered the previous minecart got hit. Another dwarf went to recover the cart, and they both uncovered an ambush.


The goblins went after the wounded glassmaker, who thankfully had no friends. This allowed the miner, one of the most popular dwarfs, to escape.


The active denial system was loaded, the dwarfs pulled the lever and were ordered to put three more minecarts on the tracks. The goblins were too close to try out the minecart squad, and just one death of a popular civilian might have been the end of the fortress. Instead, I placed the marksdwarfs on top of the windmill platforms.

The minecarts worked as intended.


Two marksdwarfs on the windmill level took care of the axegoblin and three crossbowgoblins were injured by minecarts, the rest fled to the north. One marksdwarf got a bolt in the leg and passed out. The third marksdwarf was late to the party and didn't get in position to fire, but tried to bash the unconscious axegoblin in the head - there might be some relation to the fact that I couldn't get him to train.
Honorable mention goes to a stray giant mantis, who first strangled the axegoblin to death, and then tore two marksgoblins limb from limb.


The last marksgoblin was problematic because he landed on the tracks, and mantis and marksdwarf tried to engage him in melee combat. The giant mantis retreated after a few of its legs got fractured, the marksdwarf continued pushing the crossbowgoblin in the head even with a broken upper spine. Luckily, he was friendless, too.
At this point, I stopped the M.A.D.S. and let the last capable marksdwarf, the militia captain, take care of the problem. He emptied his quiver into the goblin, and bashed it in the head to no avail.
Just in time, the previously injured marksdwarf emerged from the hospital, bearing a leg cast, a crutch and a quiver filled with bolts. That was the end of the ambush.
Results: two dead dwarfs, four dead goblins. The giant mantis is fully healed.

End stats:


Progress

I finished my minecart trajectory experiments by extending the rollers to a length of 20 tiles.


Surprisingly, the resulting trajectories were identical with the previous ones using 10 rollers.
Conclusion: Using more than ten consecutive rollers is a waste of energy.

That's it for me, here is the save.

Advice for my successor

Don't forget to set the population cap! Don't make my mistake.
The dwarfs are still pretty unhappy. I'm especially concerned about the mayor - she hates her rooms and she hates dwarfs complaining about their dead friends. I ordered a few platinum bars to be made, maybe some platinum furniture will cheer her up.
Putting a wall at the end of the roller platform could transform it into a high altitude shotgun - that might be a more practical application than examining flight paths.
Only two marksdwarfs are left, reinforcements might be a good idea.
And if you ignore all of this, that's fine, too.

I would like to close with an overview of the main level.

Spoiler: z-level 0 (click to show/hide)

Whoops, my bad, that was the end of Naryar's turn. This is the right picture:


I like red

I had fun, and it was a very carthartic experience.

[tahujdt]

Can I take this turn?

[Gilihad]

We should probably keep this moving, so I vote yes.

[Naryar]

Go on, Girlinhat doesn't seem to follow this anymore, but i'm quite certain she will not mind.

[aussieevil]

What the hell, I'll take a turn.

[Gilihad]

So... what's up? Are we still performing science?

[Aseaheru]

i hope so

[Trif]

A lot of minecart science has been done in other threads. Still, in my opinion, if anyone wants to grab the map, have some fun and tell us about it, feel free.