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[Freddi]

I know that this has been suggested before, but I wanted to put my version of this suggestion out there.

Dwarven Coal Engine
___________________
Building.
Requires:
2 mechanisms (for two gears)
1 pipe section
1 Block
1 Dwarven Engine Block (Forged from 4 iron/steel bars)

Provides 25 power for 5 days per unit of charcoal/coke. Attach to pumps.



Dwarven Seige Wagon
_____________________
Creature (once completed at Seige Workshop)
Requires:
10 mechanisms
4 pipe sections
12 Metal Bars (Each bar is an internal organ and "limb" of the wagon, with proportunate damage resistence)
2 Dwarven Engine Blocks
(up to Three, but at least one trap components)

Using the fact that caravan wagons are creatures, so is the Seige wagon. It has the same dimensions. It requires 1 piece of charcoal, loaded by a civilian dwarf with the seige operating skill, per 10 3x3 squares that it travels. It moves foward one 1x3 space every 20 frames when in motion. It can only be directed to move to a waypoint, cannot go up ramps or stairwells. AI goblins do not recognize it as a wall and try to attack it rather than walking around it. Any hostile in a space in front of the wagon (see diagram 1) recieves 1 blow from the cooresponding trap equiped to the wagon at twice the rate of a weapon trap. Any creature that is on a square which the seige wagon moves on when it moves is dealt an instadeath blow.

The primary purpose of this device is to set up a seige army killing tunnel or for the army arc, although its attacking ability is limited.

[Draco18s]

That is an amazingly inefficient engine.

250 power and it might be useful.

[magikarcher]

A mobile Ballista would be cool too.

[sarcasm]
Perhaps you could have dwarven cars, dwarven pickups, nuclear reactors, and several others. Of course the dwarven cars would be eco-friendly, running on the unwanted gross elven booze. Seeing as this would obviously create jealousy, and unrest in the poorer spectrum of the economy, you could add ridiculously underpriced wannabe sportcars named  mustangs Mountain Goats. All of these cars would also come with cupholders specially shaped to fit your beer kegs. Also, since dwarves have blatant disregard for safety, the nuclear waste could be used to fill public swimming pools. Also, nuclear reactors would be 3x3 workshops that produce 25 power for every piece of pure uranium you issue to them. Screw firesafe materials, engine blocks could be made of wood! [/sarcasm]

Edit: I do not see 'Diagram 1'. Have I gone temporarily insane?

[Proteus]

Well, after all a steam engine is a rather old invention. The first one was invented in the first century AD by Heron of Alexandria. But thanks to the demise of the roman empire and probably also thanks to the clerical control on science during the medieval ages it took till the 18th century to create a steam engine that performed practical tasks.

It would be well imaginable that in the world of Dwarf Fortress (with practical minds like the dwarfs and maybe less clerical control) steam engines that do practical work would be much earlier in use than in our world.

[olemars]

The game isn't supposed to be an experiment in applied history though. Just because it is supported in history doesn't mean a piece of technology fits into the atmosphere of the game.

[Granite26]

It's the 21st century.  All that history crap was so long ago, it doesn't really matter whether it was 20 decades or 20 centuries ago.  The point is, it's not now, it's not even yesterday.

[mainiac]

Ancient steam engines had nowhere near the efficiency of an industrial age device.  They operated off of conservation of momentum, not steam pressure.  The only resemblence to a steam engine such as your thinking of one is that they both involved steam.  Practical steam turbines didn't start showing up until the 19th century, well outside the technical scope of the game.

[Idiom]

That's an awesome comic. 

I don't think dwarves and elves were circa 1400 either.

[Granite26]

I don't think I like the idea of a steam engine as a stand alone device, but I would like to be able to build a steel boiler (resevoir) next to a furnace(incinerator) and produce stable amounts of steam, which would create pressure and flow out.

Steam traps, whistles, etc.

[Ajikozau]

the only usefulness I see in having a steam boiler is to have it explode when overpressurized to kill nobles, excess cats and invaders 

[sjmarshy]

I really think the dwarves would possess the ingenuity and knowledge to build a steam engine, we're not talking a complex thing of pressure and pipes and dials and lots of controls here, just something that steam gets put through to make something spin.

[Silverionmox]

Introducing moving engines in the game will have unforeseen consequences. Look at what happened with the industrial revolution. If implemented at all, steam power should require a steel-plated engine chamber hollowed out in granite or something like that, so they could exist as a local oddity in fortresses with too much coal (ha!).