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[Timeless Bob]

   Based on the "Railroad Tycoon" games, Players will compete to build a series of minecart tracks from one Town to another in the least amount of time, while also producing the greatest total value of goods at each embark.  Once a section of track has been completed from one side of an embark to the other, the fortress will be "retired" using Dfhack and an "adventurer" game begun where an adventurer will load up his/her backpack with all the goods created at that fortress and attempt to ride a minecart all the way back to his/her starting Town to sell it to a trader for coins.  The amount of coins an adventurer ends up with from sale of those goods provides the base score for the Player.  Minecart "track jumping" will be used to transfer it from one section of track to another, with a 5% penalty to the base score for every section where the minecart needs to be manually placed back on the track.  Players whose adventurers are able to traverse a 16 embark square section of track receive a cumulative 5% bonus to their base score and a 10% bonus for successfully joining two Towns or Cities containing markets together.  Time = money: The total score including bonuses will be divided by the number of months it takes to lay the track and transport the goods to a trader, resulting in the profit made by that Player on their turn.

Trade value of embark goods = Base score.
Base score x [(-5% per episode manually placing minecart back on the track) (+5% per 16 embark squares traversed) (+10% per new Town or City with a market added to the track network)] / [(Months taken to build this turn's section of tracks) + (Months adventurer takes to travel from the embark back to town)] = Profit made this turn

A one time bonus per Player of double their current net worth will be given to the Players whose adventurer is able to ride their minecart from one coast to the other (Pacific or Atlantic) without having to be manually replaced for the entire journey.  Those Players will be honored as one of the "Transcontinental Elite".

Are you ready to take on the challenge of being a Minecart Tycoon?

How to retire a fort using Dfhack:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1) "clean all" (improves FPS when visited again)
2) "lair".
3) Loo"k" at an individual ---> 'dfusion' --> 'adventurer tools' --> 'change adventurer'
4) "mode set" --> '1'
5) 'Esc' --> "Retire as a peasant/give in to starvation"

"---" = type this into dfhack console
'---' = choose this option/press this button

How to ride a minecart in Adventure Mode:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1.If the minecart is in your inventory, drop it. If it is already on the ground, proceed to step 2.

2.Press "u" when you are 1 tile away from the minecart (or standing on the same tile as the minecart).

3.You will be presented with the following options:


4.If you "Push" the minecart, if will move a few tiles in the direction you chose. Physics comes into play here, so it will gain/lose speed depending on the usual factors.

5.If you "Ride" the minecart, you will hop into the minecart, even if you were a tile away, and it will move in the chosen direction with you in it. It will gain/lose speed depending on the usual factors. Whilst the minecart is in motion, you should press "." (period) to skip your turn; if you attempt to move whilst the minecart is still in motion, the laws of physics come into play, and you will take damage. Alternatively, you can push the minecart whilst it's still in motion (although I'm not quite sure how one can bend physics so as to push a moving minecart whilst the person is inside the minecart). If you push it in the same direction you were travelling, you will greatly increase the minecart's velocity. You can also push it in different directions, and this will cause it to gradually change direction-the amount of pushes this requires depends on the minecart's velocity. Once the minecart has stopped moving, you may move out of it safely, or you may want to give it another push. Note that if you "Push" a minecart right after having ridden it (still on the same tile as the minecart), it will act as though you chose to "ride" it.

And that's basically it.
Tip:If you want to test this out yourself, arena mode allows you to spawn minecarts.

_{(Thanks, Piemaker for this awesome "How to")}

Other minecart stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Minecart Physics
Minecart physics depend greatly on the departure mode set in the route stop conditions.

When set to "Push" or "Ride", minecarts will move according to the regular laws of momentum, gaining speed when going downhill, losing it slowly due to friction when on a flat plane, and more quickly when going uphill. In these modes, minecarts will move along the track in a straight line until they either run off the tracks or encounter a turn. A minecart will continue straight at a T junction if possible but if it is not possible the track is treated as a dead end and may jump track. The cart's behavior also depends on the weight of its contents (including fluids and dwarves): heavily loaded carts are harder to accelerate and to stop, and gain more momentum when going downhill. In either case, dwarves can not push nor ride an unpowered cart up a ramp, bouncing back the direction it came. At best, this is a waste of time; at worst, it will give your cart-pushing individual a !!FUN!! surprise. To solve this, the player can either use Rollers (see below) or set the cart to be Guided.

The difference between "Push" and "Ride" is whether the dwarf will go along with the cart or not. When set to "Push", the dwarf will give the cart an initial push, not enough to go up a ramp, but enough to go some way along flat track, and the dwarf will remain at the first stop, ready for a new job. When set to "Ride", the dwarf will give the cart the same initial push and then hop aboard the cart riding with it to the next stop.

When set to "Guide", minecarts seem to ignore all laws of physics. They:

    Ignore the weight of any and all items inside. Therefore:
        Move at the speed of the dwarf that is guiding them. It is thus recommended to pick the most agile of your dwarves for cart-guiding tasks.

•     Ignore working rollers.
•     Will not collide with other guided carts even when a full frontal collision would be expected.
•     Will go up ramps like nobody's business.

This is therefore the recommended method of transport for simple non-powered rail systems, despite it diverting a dwarf from other, potentially more important tasks.     

Skipping

If a minecart is moving fast enough, it can skip over water or magma, making splashes of mist (or magma mist) as it attempts to move on them horizontally. This horizontal movement is independent of the minecart and its content's weight.

Track Jumping

If a minecart encounters the end of the track or a T junction with no "exit" in its movement direction, it will simply leave the track and continue on its course in a parabolic line until it encounters an obstacle, slows to a stop, or encounters another (properly aligned) Track even if the tile at which it joins the new track instantly sends it around a corner.

Turn list:                               Turn length (in game)                                       link
1) Timeless Bob                                                                 http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8310
2) Proto105
3) 4maskwolf
...

      Player                         Minecart Company (Group name)                     Net worth
1) Timeless Bob                 The Quick Trails of Trading
2) Proto105
3) 4maskwolf
...

Transcontinental Elite
1)
2)
...

[FireCrazy]

This is an awesome idea. However, what I'm more interested in that map of America... I must have it!

[WoobMonkey]

I don't know enough about adventurer mode to join, but this looks pretty amazing!

PTW

Also:

This is an awesome idea. However, what I'm more interested in that map of America... I must have it!

[4maskwolf]

I guess I can join. This looks really cool.

[4maskwolf]

Actually, Timeless, my turn will have to go on hold because I'm literally swamped with fortresses and work right now.  Sorry.

[Proto105]

I'd like to request a turn

[Proto105]

Edit: Oops, somehow I posted twice...

[Proto105]

Sorry, I didn't know it was my turn. Where can I get the save? Are we using EmbarkEverywhere to connect everything directly?

[Brewster]

Love Railroad Tycoon 3!
The Dfhack part sounds too rough... I never get Dfhack to work correctly.
Posting to watch.

[Timeless Bob]

The old map went kaput, so I'm re-doing it using the latest version of Masterwork Mod (v.4e), further modded to have all civs make villages and cities, and furthermore to have dwarves to be able to start in forests as well as mountains.  This way, there will be a reason the elves hate dwarves so much - they compete for resources in the forests and tend to burn or chop down huge swathes of the trees elves revere.  Chaos Dwarves still inhabit only the mountains, but this allows Minecart Tycoons to have a series of friendly Dwarven towns that reach from the east to the west coast and from Alaska to Louisiana. (Florida is currently claimed by serpent-folk, which is ironically cool.)

The game will start on the island of Cuba, trying to connect those three dwarven towns, and maybe dig a tunnel over to orc-controlled Hispaniola. (Haiti/Dominican republic).  The Orcs must be driven out of Hispaniola, or turned into allies by becoming trading partners with them.  The reason for this is that they've built a great shipping port on the eastern side of the island and the Cuban dwarves will be able to use that to contact their long lost colony on the northern shores of Venesuela, "Gurgletorment" (Named to remind them why dwarves usually don't use boats - they're highly prone to seasickness).  The Orcs have put down colonies there too, but the native elves have challenged both sets of settlers, so an uneasy truce exists between the three races. 
It will only take a small spark to set the entire region aflame with war.

Book 1: Beginning with the westernmost town (Eyework), Players compete to join the four Dwarven towns of Cuba, gaining titles and riches along the way.

Part 1: "The Eyework Express"
Traders from Eyework pay a high premium to caravans taking the road east to the other dwarven towns of the island, but only one in fifteen caravans ever reach their intended destinations, the rest succumb to wild beasts, bandits, and even darker horrors of the wilderness.  The First Lute, Bin Hardylaborious, has agreed to give the title of "Baron" to the first dwarf that is able to find a way to reliably get trade-goods from one town to another.  One night, as you were drinking in the local mead hall, you overhear a miner relating the traditional tall tale of Urist McMoonus:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Urist McMoonus was riding in a minecart that went so fast it jumped clear over a mountain and landed on a cloud.  As the story goes, he found bright riches up there, mining the silver lining from the clouds and weaving cloudstuff into moonlight, but couldn't find a way to get down, so he floats around up there still, throwing down moonlight from his cloud because he has no more room to store it.

Something clicks in your head and the next day you consult your head architect and head engineer to see if it would work - An elevated track following the caravan road east, connecting Eyework with the other dwarven towns, safe from any wild beasts, orcs, or bandits - you can almost taste that barony!

   Victory condition:
Be the first to successfuly bring goods from Eyework to Moralsteal along an elevated mine-track and sell them in the market there.

     Group: The Quick Trails of Trading
     Fortress: Eyework The Home of Trading
     (Last minute rename from "Artifice" to "Trading")

Chapter 1 "Year 114: The beginning of the project"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The site for the planned elevated trading cart rail line

24th Hematite, 114
   One of the local woodcutters has gone missing, a dwarf by the name of Coal.  There have been some big cats heard yowling nearby and we fear poor Coal may have had some troubles with them. 
   In other news, we've established our headquarters at the head of the storm-drain leading into Eyework.  The passage is convieniently next to a house that we aquired with the property, another of which we set up as the broker/bookkeeper's place.  We've expanded the corridor to ease passing and have begun mining the layer of chalk for block-making material.  The house next to the storm-drain has been converted into a well-house - we plan on begining the elevated tracks from it's roof.  The trading depot will also be situated here - a one stop shopping area for caravan or traveller.

26th Hematite, 114
   Dwarves looking for work have begun to trickle in - we got our first batch today.  The lumberjacks have almost finished clearing the plot, so it's about time to get the open-air and underground farming plots up and running, as well as setting up worker's housing.

8th Malachite, 114
   It's as we feared - Coal's body was found today, ravaged and torn.  We'll give him a decent burial at least, and make a memorial alcove to remember him by.

19th Limestone, 114
  Our second group of dwarves looking for work arrived today.  There's still lots more work to be done, but not until we get the worker housing, catacombs and underground farm plots excavated!  I may have to halt tdigging in the marble quarry until we can get this taken care of.  Also, the amount of blocks being produced may attract the criminal element, hoping to take out site away from us, so I've deputised the lumberjacks into the "Worksite Security".  They begin training today.

9th Sandstone, 114
   Our broker, Hatchet Handleserpent, was taken by a fey mood today - pray the Gods he doesn't ask for what we cannot provide!  ...Of course, he has to start asking for raw gems!

17th Timber, 114
   The trading caravan from Eyework passed by today.  We've opened negotiatoions for raw gems in exchange for Coal's clothing using a replacement broker for now - damn the timing of these fey moods!

23rd Timber, 114
  Too late! Too late!  Hatchet has gone into a berzerk rage.  Our bookkeeper and trader is lost to us!

24th Timber, 114
   Hatchet was given the axe - our security force has proven itself first against one of our own.  Today is a sad day.

7th Moonstone, 114
   One of our security staff, Whip Housenet has just given birth to a bouncing baby boy. She will be given maternity leave from the security staff until her boy is able to move about on his own.

26th Obsidian, 114
   The catacombs have been begun - both Coal and Hatchet have been interred there.  In other news, the security tower, nicknamed affectionately, "Security HQ", was able to add the dining floor to it, with a generous balcony affording any who wish to dine or play there plenty of room.  (There's even talk of setting up a dance floor, which should be fun during the off-duty hours.)

Chapter 2 "Year 115: The project continues"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The completed Security HQ tower and initial section of track.

16th Granite, 115
   A bowmaker named simple "Influencebridge" has built a workshop today after pondering some idea for a week or so.  We pray to the gods he doesn't ask for something we can't give him to realize his vision.

20th Granite, 115
   Influencebridge has made a marvel of a javelin thrower - he calls it "Radianceappear". It is encircled with bands of wingfruit wood and menaces with spikes of sappanwood.

27th Granite, 115
   Another group of dwarves looking for work has arrived, which is good, because we are now in a position to finally start laying tracks in the next month or two!

28th Granite, 115
  A strange thing happened today.  As far as we can tell, one of the migrants suddenly exploded as they were travelling to Security HQ to be registered, instantly killing a dwarven mining monk and a fishery worker with the blast, knocking a few others down and startling everyone's pets.   Nobody knows what happened - the victims' scorched and burning clothing were the only thing left behind.

4th Slate, 115
   Influencebridge has given birth to a bouncing baby girl.  She will, of course, be given maternity leave until her new daughter can walk on her own.

24th Felsite, 115
   A mason's mistake has dropped a paving stone through five floors and four dwarves today.  Nobody's dead (yet), but one of out two miners has had his leg broken, the expedition leader was kmocked unconscious,  a lumberjack was struck and one of the security staff as well.  Fortunately, our doctor is unharmed we'll see what he can do for them.  Masons will attempt to clear this mess up, and the Expedition leader mentioned that we'd this was as good a time as any to start laying tracks, so that is what we will do.

22nd Hematite, 115
   We've run out of marble to make into blocks and furniture today.  With half our miners out of action, I fear it will be slow going to find and mine more.  The doctor's been taking good care of our injured miner in the dormitories, but a quick word with the expedition leader had a new sub-basement planned specifically for injuries like this.  They call it a "hospital".  In other news, a peasant named Seam Esteemloyal has given birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Our family grows by one more, it seems.

2nd Malachite, 115
   Rim Veneratepoison has given birth to a beutiful baby girl.  Are we on the begining of a population boom here?  It's a good thing we have our farms running full tilt.  While everyone on the site has enjoyed sipping our fresh well water, the real money's in well prepared foods and good alchohol.  If we're ever going to do more than just break even on this venture, we'll need to start making both of these in large quantities.  But first: the tracks!

4th Malachite, 115
   Relic Laborsink, the child of Guild Ropeshaower and Granite Torchpastime, who traveled with the group that arrived earlier this year, has celebrated his coming-of-age today.  We all welcome him into adulthood and wish him a long life and many children!

8th Malachite, 115
   Another group of workers arrived today, ready to help the project to completion.

16th Galena, 115
   Thankfully, we've found another deposit of chalk a couple levels farther down.  The first section of tracks is designed and the masons are all hastening to thier work.

18th Sandstone, 115
   A child simply "Meanbed", this time from from the most recent group to arrive back in Malachite, celebrated his coming-of-age today.  We all wished him a long life and many children.

21st Sandstone, 115
   Our replacement broker, Shield Mansionknight, has been possed by an idea he can't seem to get out of his head.  We pray to the gods once again that he won't ask for something we are unable to give!

22nd Sandstone, 115
   Another group of dwarves have arrived, willing to trade their labour for food and drink.  Time to expand the number of farmers, it seems.

5th Moonstone, 115
   A baby named Sack Sleevedune, suddenly grew more hair.  This was thought to be a sign of early maturity until he began to grow a snout and ears and attacked a child named Key Earthamuse, throwing his up a ramp into the dining hall.  In an instant, two gold javelins expertly pierced the yammering baby thing, knocking it from the arms of its shocked mother who fled what had once been her gently cooing baby son.

6th Moonstone, 115
   The baby wolf-thing has been cornered by our gaurd-drake while two javeliners attempt to put him out of thier misery.  A cragtooth boar joins in on the fun, squealing with excitement, but has about as much effect on the quick little bundle of teeth, fur and claws as the drake, chasing it around the dining hall and interrupting at least one celebration already in progress.  Under and over the tables and chairs, around and around the dining hall those three careened. One baby werewolf pursued by a drake and a boar, dwarves scattered hither and yon in their wake, until Rim Veneratepoison, on maternal leave from Site Security arrived and put a stop to the merry chase with one swift blow of her axe.  "I'm not happy about not being in active duty", she confided later, "I had to go find my axe before I could come back up here today - someone could have gotten hurt in the mean time!"  Where was site security as all this was happening, you may wonder: Squad Leader of security and Expedition Leader Disloyal Raypost was unconcerned. "The boar and the drake had it covered, that thing would have succumbed eventually.  Until then, I didn't want any other dwarves to get bitten and possibly inherit the curse."  The baby's mother has decided to go into train as a healer under our Chief Medical Dwarf. "I didn't know what I'd do if my baby had hurt anyone!" She was heard saying shakily. "I'd die of ebarrassment if that happened!"  To show she means business, she's changed her profession to "Nurse".

7th Moonstone, 115
   Our moody Trader has gone berzerk, after recovering from watching yesterday's scene.  We don't really know what he wanted, just that he kept muttering to himself over and over.  She'd registered as having undergone legionaire training in her past, so Site security was quickly called to deal with her.  After a breif but violent fight resulting in a fractured shin for one of the team, Shield was decapitated by Seam Esteemdisloyal.  All those who were injured will be put on medical leave until they are healthy once again.

9th Moonstone, 115
   Another young dwarf has grown into adulthood.  We welcome Palace Lensleech into full maturity and wish him a long life and many children!

11th Moonstone, 115
   Additional site security was warranted from these recent spates of violence, prompting the creation of a squad of sharpshooters.  These will assist and possibly replace site security when close contact with a combatant is overly hazardous to the security team.  Besides, we have almost a full complement of archers on staff already - it makes sense to use those skills.

14th Moonstone, 115
   We welcome yet another young dwarf, Barbarity Flashlash, into full maturity.  We wish her a long life and many children!

27th Moonstone, 115
   Both Lens Razorscorn and Guild Ropeshower (A hunter and a cleric respectively), have given birth to baby boys today.  I'm sure they'll grow as close as brothers soon enough.

7th Opal, 115
   Tower Abate has given birth to a beautiful baby girl.  What a charmer she'll be!

9th Opal, 115
   Today is an auspicious day indeed!  We welcome the young dwarf, Demon Ragedoom into full maturity and congratulate Relic Hammerdimension on bringing a new son into the world!  Welcome to both of them, we wish Demon a long life and many children!

21st Opal, 115
   Palace Lustwrack has just given birth to a baby boy.  Congratulations on your new son!

26th Opal, 115
   Today we welcome Seal Lorddye into the ranks of adulthood.  We wish her a long life and many children.

28th Opal, 115
   Today we welcome Manor Tunneldistrict into the ranks of adulthood.  We wish him a long life and many children.

5th Obsidian, 115
   Today we welcome Labor Artificecrypt into the ranks of adulthood.  We wish her a long life and many children.

8th Obsidian, 115
   Flute Lambsilver, of the Mason's Guild, now has a reason to be an insomniac - she just gave birth to a baby boy.

12th Obsidian, 115
   Today we welcome Mansion Bronzeviryue into the ranks of adulthood.  We wish her a long life and many children.

18th Obsidian, 115
   Today we welcome Key Earthamuse into the ranks of adulthood.  I'm sure we're all glad he survived the "were-baby" incident.  We wish him a long life and many children.

21st Obsidian, 115
   Fortify Plaguewipe, an "archeologist", has given birth to a beautiful baby girl today.  With all of these new families around, it's about time we started excavating a more permanent housing option for these families than just using the worker's dormitory to sleep in.  The tracks are reaching steadily northward, with a second set of tracks being laid parallel to the first - one for outbound trading carts and one for the inbound ones.

Chapter # "currently untitled"

Part 2


Victory condition: Be the first to successfuly bring goods from Moralsteal to Slaughtergem along an elevated mine-track and sell them in the market there.

Chapter 1 "currently untitled"
Chapter # "currently untitled"

Book 2 "The Tunnel"
Players will build a minecart traversable tunnel to Hispaniola (using two embarks and carving tracks through the subterranean caverns that underlie the two islands.)  The completed tunnel will traverse a few less than a thousand squares, not even adding the descent/ascent tracks. Players compete to blaze a path from Slaughtergem to a beach-head in Hispaniola and return safely to Hispaniola.

Book 3 "Onward to the Port"
Defeat all the Orcs of Hispaniola through force of arms or by becoming trading partners with them, so they won't attack adventurers who travel through their lands.  A minecart track must allow an adventurer to travel unmolested from the Beach-head all the way to the ship docked in "Port Xukongzolak".

Book 4 "Currently untitled"
The ship at the Elven controlled Port Togduba that will be the end of the ocean voyage from Port Xukongzolak. This will be the beginning of the mainland aspect of the game.

[Timeless Bob]

I finally have everything set up for Books 1-3 and will be starting up the game tonight/this morning.  Everybody who wants a turn should say so - I'll place turns up for those who asked for them before.

[Timeless Bob]

Moved up to challenge page

[Beneviento]

PTW.