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[Naryar]

Got it.

I will post updates frequently, with pictures, maybe once per season or once per two seasons.

[Naryar]

I have quite a bit of stuff to do today, so expect an update in less than a day.

I will finish my turn this week-end.

[Mr Frog]

Please, don't hurry :p  I'm still trying to come up with something creative and original to do with minecarts.

Unfortunately, I -- having the engineering flair of a slightly-rotten potato -- have been unable to come up with anything beyond "ram the minecart into the unwanted creature", which I'm sure we can agree is the minecart equivalent of cheese and crackers

I'm worried that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this...

[Girlinhat]

When in doubt, add flight.  Crash a minecart into an undesirable creature while flying.

[Naryar]

Please, don't hurry :p  I'm still trying to come up with something creative and original to do with minecarts.

Well I just had. It's a minecart external active defense system.

Instead of simple stone walls, put several tracks around fortress entry, with frequent wind-powered roller systems. Each of these tracks has plenty of minecarts on each.

So when a goblin puts foot on the outer track, activate the system and release minecarts  ! WHAM ! Fatality !

May take more than one year and seven months, but maybe Mr. Frog wants to continue my project...

[Komra]

Ah, I see that the particle force-shield is already in place, then. Frog, any thoughts on lava delivery systems?

[Mr Frog]

Actually, assuming that magma-filled minecarts heat up their surroundings, it may be better to just line up a bunch of magma-filled iron carts in a corridor to route invaders through, because they'll just take the shortest path and ignore the fact that said path is lined with 12000šU magma-powered 'heating elements'. Dwarven Toaster?

Minecarts only seem to carry two units of magma at a time, so you'd probably need two magma carts operating side-by-side to fill areas before they can dry up, and even then you'd need a reservoir in case you need to do something faster than 2-4 units per cycle.

I'm thinking an easy-ish way to get magma up would be with a spiraling rampway wrapping around a long vertical pillar of gear assemblies and axles, with rollers being powered by the assemblies. I'm not fond of the potential mechanism or power requirements, though (and I think you'd also need to make the rollers out of magma-safe materials). Care would have to be taken to minimize the number of rollers needed (how many up-ramps can a single max-speed roller launch a cart up?)

[Komra]

(how many up-ramps can a single max-speed roller launch a cart up?)

Sounds like our next experiment.

[Aoi]

Reading that last bit about carts rolling magma around brought something to mind-- A ramp, a magmafall, a waterfall. Not sure if it's possible/feasible [and certainly not efficient, I'd think] though.

I'm not sure why I find it so amusing, but I have the image of a dwarf crafter pulling a lever to signal that he needs more obsidian, turning around and diving for cover as a cart full of freshly-made obsidian (from those two LOVELY shimmering blue/red curtains visible outside his window...) comes slamming into the wall right next to him.

[Girlinhat]

The issue with the obsidian caster, is that any way you build it, it generates a floor.  You'll create exactly one tile of obsidian which will not fall - it will be supported by the tracks.

Instead, I believe you need to "shotgun" magma and water out towards each other to collide in the middle.  The problem is, I believe they're "items" while in flight, and only become liquids when they stop moving.  So it may not be very easy.

[Trif]

Any news?

[Naryar]

Yeah, sorry about being late. IRL stuff is in the way, expect an update in... 3 - 4 hours ?

[Naryar]

Early Autumn, Year 5, Kelnimar

So it has been only one season.

The dwarves were crying for beer when I arrived. Being a mostly pragmatic overlord, I accepted their demands. Booze production has been installed and booze stocks are now sufficient. After all they will not work as well without beer. May as well slaughter a few animals to give them meat... when the horse population will be a bit bigger.



I have started the building of the minecart active denial system (aka minecart shield). It will take a bit of time, maybe I won't have enough time to finish it, at least I can make most of the infrastructure.



On z-1, , on the pits of Girlinhat's caravan FUN machine, there is a lone survivor trader elf that refuses to leave. While I develop dark, minecart-y plots to break some of his limbs, they seem not to succeed for now. Let us see what the future will hold for him.



Migration wave and a baby have brought population to 31. I just hope the pop will not explode. Am I allowed to limit popcap to 40 ?



Next update will be start of year 6, then I will probably make another update at the half of year 6 and then last update at year 7, with the stockpile. That will not take more than a day from now on, I believe.

[Girlinhat]

I didn't have Therapist, so my popcap was 0 (two waves).  You can do as you will with the population, let's try to keep it reasonable but I feel this fort will suffer many deaths, so some buffer population may be needed.

[Komra]

A more reasonable value may be 60 or so.