Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Montague]

Erm, what would be the purpose of this? A computer? What is it going to compute?

[Loud Whispers]

Erm, what would be the purpose of this? A computer? What is it going to compute?

Bees?

Also, in the OP there are designs for repeater spikes and swimming pools :p

[Hotaru]

Erm, what would be the purpose of this? A computer? What is it going to compute?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

I've currently thought up the following
- the automated swimming and danger designs in the OP
- a lever-engaged system to only let a particular amount of permanent resident dwarves be outside the fortress at a time
- obsidian factory (duh)
- conveyor belts for animals, where you will constantly lift up a bridge after them and slam one down before them (may destroy animal)
- a system to save files (configurations of levers) with filename (into arrays of water cisterns), then search for filename and open file ie basic abstract read/write functionality (a way to store one byte of data inside DF for hundreds of megabytes on your computer)

...because the beekeeper's routine resembles so much a classical turing machine, if it's combined with any type of memory system (e.g. water cistern array) I'm inclined to think it might be an universal computer, capable of executing basically any kind of program there's time and memory space for. Definitely can't be assed to prove it since I'm no mathematician.

Unfortunately that's not a lot, I'm not into building z-level size memory chips like BloodBeard (orz), that's why I originally thought about using beekeepers as this is very, very simple.

[wierd]

The obvious application is for a fully automated "URIST" (Universal Remote Infrastructure State Toggler).  Rather than having "mcNoble" pull levers all the time, you can simply set him an impossible task within his luxurious crystal glass palace adorned in slade and candy instead! He will keep trying until he exhausts himself, take a nap, then start all over again.

Do you want drawbridges and floodgates to rapidly open and close in your ultradwarfy walk of doom, such that it is deadly even to you own dwarves? Beekeeper McNoble to the rescue!

Do you want a pseudo random firing sequence for your high powered orbital water/magma cannon battery, that *wont* eat nearly as much fps as a fluid logic controller, but still keep the automation? Beekeeper McNoble is your dwarf!

Do you simply want to automate a "safe" atom smasher? (Alternatively, an automated drawbridge catapult?) Beekeeper McNoble rides again!

Simply keep Beekeeper McNoble busy so he won't make any friends, and won't cause a tantrum spiral when he meets an unfortunate accident for demanding a slade bed in his room? Beekee...wait.... that's not right..... (imaginary hives inc does not encourage nor condone the political assasination of any dwarven nobility. This message brought to you by BeekeeperREPEATER. The mechanical logic source that doesn't eat your fps like it was a plump helmet.)

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Hatches open instantly, so the dwarf won't fall.

However, bridges open only after a delay.  A version using a retractable bridge would work.  You would actually also need a raising bridge to block off the dwarf's return path, as dwarves can dodge when dropped.

Vampires simplify all borg logic projects, as they don't sleep, eat, or drink (if suitably quarantined).

This kind of computing doesn't rely on beekeeping bugs; it has always been possible to make dwarves run a repeating loop.  Consider the following:

Code: [Select]


 #######
 qh^ ^hq
 #######

Top view.  h is hatch over open space.  ^ is pressure plate (all weights, civs trigger) linked to adjacent hatch.  q is quern with a "mill plants" job queued.

The quern itself is fairly unimportant-- what's important is that the dwarf have a pathing goal-- but pathing goals are easy to give to dwarves.

Drop a miller dwarf in, and he will run back and forth between the two querns, unable to reach either, taking occasional breaks for sleep, until he dies.  It is perfectly possible to extend this path and introduce branching-- this is the basis of creature logic, although because of the limitations involved with dwarves, other creatures tend to be more practical.