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[Footkerchief]

Yeah, most of the uses I can think of are fancy traps and execution methods.  Also, falling objects (boulders, etc.) currently don't do damage.

Hey, here's an idea -- what if you could link up a pressure plate or lever to the winch that would drop the load when triggered?  Then you could create a REAL stonefall trap -- hoist a bin full of stone blocks and build the pressure plate directly underneath.

[DiscountNinja]

All awesome ideas!

I must say, the idea of a z-level variable floodgate is an awesome one (though it woul dbe immensely difficult in practice - you'd really be better off using normal floodgates, which is a shame as the concept rocks).

I know the trap applications must be hilarious ... but, honestly, it's the use of it as an elevator that really intruiges me (my forts are adorned with drawbridges, retractable bridges, magma/water/chasm traps ... I love the idea of resitricting/denying/controlling entry to a seige force. I try and mix as many defenses as possible -seige engies to fire on approching forces, several sets draw bridges to keep them out with traps inbetween to kill any I let through, marksdwarfs firing through holes the whole time ... elevators could only make this more awesome).

It's the sheer diversity of Dwarf Fortress that I love - the number of crazy features it has (I mean, irrigation is plain awesome - the idea you can build a series of pumps and floodgates to control water around your fortress boggles my mind).

So, winches - bring em' on!

[MagicJuggler]

I would find a winch useful for hauling construction materials around (e.g. bringing up wood to a construction site).

[CobaltKobold]

Relatedly, this could be nice should we get a more...detailed representation of drawbridges. After all, the insta-slam is kind of silly. Being able to cut the rope or chain as you ride up to the castle you're seiging (with a cutting arrow?) so the drawbridge falls back onto the moat while the winchers work would be grand.

Levers with magic link mechanisms are kind of...abstract and gamey. Turning the crank and having the chain/rope wind seems a lot more thematic and rich. Allows sabotage, possible upkeep, things rusting to frozen state...

short: interesting uses (not just for a crane-type winch)-realistic drawbridges, portcullises, remote traps And, because nobody's mentioned it, and weights/pulleys seem to suggest it, dwarven clock towers

Also, manual power input option sounds nice.

[Geb]

Nice expansion. But what'd you have in mind as to usefull things to attach?

I have to agree about the difficulty of connecting large sections of wall and/or an elevator, just from an interface perspective. But what does that leave, other that item hauling?
...

You could handle the interface aspect of this in one of two ways. Either have an option during construction of walls and floors to have the block disconnected from all surrounding material, so making it possible to move that section of construction with a winch, or have a special extra type of construction called winch platform. To keep things simple, the winch platform would only connect to other blocks of winch platform.

[LumenPlacidum]

Some problems with the concepts:

A lot of things in DF don't really have associated weights.  What, for example, is the weight of an obsidian wall tile?  How strong should a rope be, or a chain?  How strong is the power behind the winch?  You could say that it's "strong enough" for whatever, but then what happens if you have two working against one another?  Or, a winch lifting a platform that has a winch on it lifting a platform that has a winch on it which is pulling on something solidly on the ground!

For elevators, you'd need sections of floor/walls that are supported solely by ropes and chains.  When that happens, you're opening it up for things like tilting of the platform.  This would probably have to be ignored, leading to such oddities as enormous square siege platforms supported solely from above in one corner of the square, but not having any problems.

Lowering a section of floor or walls down onto an already occupied area raises some questions.  What happens to the stuff there?  More dwarven atom smashing effects?  Can DF even keep information about multiple kinds of floors in the same place?

Most of the time, elevators will imply that there are totally separate areas of the fortress with items of interest on them.  Using the elevator in pathing is probably not going to happen for a while even AFTER something like this goes in.  There would be paths being made and not found all the time between items of interest in different sections of the fortress.  This will kill framerate.

I wholeheartedly support the idea of introducing another basic machine to DF, but there are a lot of big problems for this one.

[smjjames]

Some problems with the concepts:

A lot of things in DF don't really have associated weights.  What, for example, is the weight of an obsidian wall tile?  How strong should a rope be, or a chain?  How strong is the power behind the winch?  You could say that it's "strong enough" for whatever, but then what happens if you have two working against one another?  Or, a winch lifting a platform that has a winch on it lifting a platform that has a winch on it which is pulling on something solidly on the ground!

Right now there are no such values for that kind of thing, but if you take a peek at the revealed raws (yea they are nearly a year old and some changes may have been made), you'll see that the new version will have tags that will define how a material acts. So in the next version this should be possible. We just need to figure out how things work and possibly a crash course in metallurgy or something.

[LumenPlacidum]

Yes, the new raws will have densities for different materials.  And, yes, they'll have tensile strengths (which does invalidate my question of how strong ropes should be).  However, the question remains how much obsidian/basalt/granite/whatever is there in a single tile of wall?  A fortification?  A floor?  All things like statues and beds and such have weights already.  But due to the abstract nature of the size of a tile, the density of the material is fairly meaningless except for relative weights (like saying that a tile of basalt flooring is MORE heavy than a tile of obsidian flooring).

[Geb]

The material to be lifted has undefined weight, and the chain has undefined strength, so why not just credit the dwarf mechanics with some sense and assume they've requested a big enough chain? It isn't any worse an assumption than talc mechanisms being able to transmit the power of forty water wheels, or a length of sand floor being able to support a tower.

There's obviously going to be the potential for ludicrous constructions with this, but most common uses could be made a bit more realistic by having the winch platform deliberately built light - taking up only one material per three tiles or so, like bridges.

[CobaltKobold]

You can sidestep the winch physics by just going with material weights (an obsidian floor tile weighs the stone that you made it of) and also being simple for now, that is, like the cavein physics.

[Doro]

i actually like this idea. Winch could be built out of wood, bars, chains or ropes. Winch built out of metal bars and chain could carry more heavier items than wooden winch with rope

[EvilTwin]

another crazy idea: what, if you could remote-control it? so, for example, a large goblin siege appeares, and you're pretty scared... you might just want to lift the whole fortress to where the goblins can't get to it...
or a giant elf fry... ohhh, i love the taste of magma-fried elves sooo much