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[Shonai_Dweller]

Yeah, I'd hate for Today to just one day say, "hey I fixed the kea/anvil bug. That was easy". And discover that minecarts had become an essential mechanic for gameplay rather than an amusing way to kill stuff (with hauling benefits). If that's the way Fortress Mode has to go, then fine, but I'd expect plenty of consideration and supporting features first, not just, hey I tweaked a number, enjoy!

[therahedwig]

Er...

Hauling Improvements

    Being able to haul multiple objects
    Having multiple dwarves involved with item hauling for a job
    Wheelbarrows
    Minecarts
        Wooden, stone-carved and metal tracks
        Can be filled like stockpiles and moved between destinations
    Work animals to tow carts and haul objects

But, for what it's worth, that moment has already happened. Before the minecart update, Dwarves could haul stone much much faster than they can now (like, as fast as they can with a wheelbarrow right now), and even Keas get super slow when they run off with an iron anvil.

Presumably two dwarves on one hauling job just means that if your dwarves are having trouble moving a lead cabinet now, two dwarves will do it faster, similar with tow carts.

(The only thing that really always baffled me was the limitation of three wheelbarrows on a stockpile, but I guess the idea there was to reduce the overreliance on haulers and have people use minecarts, but it doesn't seem to have worked really...)

[PatrikLundell]

How would you even move the miasma spreading FB corpse once you've finally built a track to it anyway? Firstly, it's too heavy to move into the cart, and secondly, the cart has a finite carrying capacity which I think is less than the volume of the corpse (at least that's what I think is causing FB feathers, chitin, etc. to sit and clog up the refuse minecart QS feeding stockpile).

With many dorfs or animals it might be possible, but there would have to be some serious balancing to make things work in a reasonable manner.

The wheelbarrow/stockpile limitation is annoying, I agree. One possible reason for it is that they take up stockpile space. Minecarts aren't as useful as one might think since you have to build track stops and haul stone to the minecarts anyway, and can't use wheelbarrows for that hauling because of the "infinite loading wheelbarrow into the minecart and hauling the cart back with the stone still in it" bug. A significant difference between DF mining and real mining is that the volume hauled away is very much smaller in DF than in real life.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Er...

Hauling Improvements

    Being able to haul multiple objects
    Having multiple dwarves involved with item hauling for a job
    Wheelbarrows
    Minecarts
        Wooden, stone-carved and metal tracks
        Can be filled like stockpiles and moved between destinations
    Work animals to tow carts and haul objects

But, for what it's worth, that moment has already happened. Before the minecart update, Dwarves could haul stone much much faster than they can now (like, as fast as they can with a wheelbarrow right now), and even Keas get super slow when they run off with an iron anvil.

Presumably two dwarves on one hauling job just means that if your dwarves are having trouble moving a lead cabinet now, two dwarves will do it faster, similar with tow carts.

(The only thing that really always baffled me was the limitation of three wheelbarrows on a stockpile, but I guess the idea there was to reduce the overreliance on haulers and have people use minecarts, but it doesn't seem to have worked really...)

Yes, actually thought out plans to implement features. Not "fix the keas by tweaking a number" as the "why does Toady not bother to fix this" crowd imagine.

[therahedwig]

you have to build track stops

You don't have to build stops, actually. Track stops are only for automated rails. Wheelbarrow bug is annoying though.

I think most of the minecart problems are rather that it takes a lot of time to learn how they work, so hence I feel that it would help if the wiki page had a section of 'recipes' of how to use minecarts, so people can just copy those. I am working on some, but I am a pretty slow person :x

[PatrikLundell]

you have to build track stops

You don't have to build stops, actually. Track stops are only for automated rails. Wheelbarrow bug is annoying though.

I think most of the minecart problems are rather that it takes a lot of time to learn how they work, so hence I feel that it would help if the wiki page had a section of 'recipes' of how to use minecarts, so people can just copy those. I am working on some, but I am a pretty slow person :x

Hm, that means you could actually use a sliding minecart track implementation that sort of mimics how they're used for mining...
Now, if I didn't use stairs (through [heavy] aquifers) it might actually have been used to move newly mined out stone to the stone stockpile. It might be worth trying out though.

[therahedwig]

Yeah, I can't blame you for thinking it, the current wiki page insists on stops in it's initial section though it later says they're not necessary, and you do need stops if you're using tracks to quantum stockpile...

[PatrikLundell]

The tracks I've made have all been automated, and even when carried, I've needed track stops to empty the carts (of magma). I'll definitely try to make some use of actual mine routes when I start playing again.

We've derailed this thread, but it's track didn't have much of a useful destination anyway.