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[Granite26]

Indiana Jones themed suggestion #2:

Currently the pressure plate sensor is triggered based on type.  Allow us to set it explicitly based on weight, and include objects carried or just set there.  AKA have an alarm (water digi or something) that goes off when the stockpile is empty.  Or, when the kobold enters, he's ok, it's when he tries to leave with the loot that the traps fire.  Or, the classic IJ pick up the idol and the whole place collapses.

[Brian7772]

Here is a few ides that I cam up with as far as more mechanical idea for DF.
I saw that a few where already mentioned, but here are my takes on them.

1. Steam pipes + nice room = Sauna: Have it work like mist does now. If the steam is a constant dwarves would go there on break and get happy thoughts like "john sat in a warm sauna lately" or if it was currently not being used/there was no availabe steam a bad thought like: "john sat in a cold sauna lately"

2. Pipes + stone floor = Sprinklers: Change the game mechanics so that fields have a need to be watered. Right now farming is simple as long as you have soil but if that soil naturally got worse to the point that planting in it would be useless watering could come into play. This could also lead to more types of crops like rice that needs to remain somewhat flooded (ie water level 2 or the crops die)

3. Mechanism + 2 Rock Block = Moving wall: It would be a building that is like a floor gate but takes 2 spaces one would be considered open but when trapped with lever/pressureplate would seal itself shut needing a mechanic to reopen it.

4. Logs + Rope + sac = Trebouchet: A siege weapon that has to be built on the surface, it would fire rocks in an arch and instead of going in a straight line would fall down onto incoming armys. This could also be used to set as a fire here option good when the army arc comes and goblins start setting up their own siege weapons.

5. Bridge + Gears = Drawbridge: Finally a way to make raising/lowering them non instant. It w\could use the foruma of 1 power per space so those nice 5x5 bridges would take a normal dwarf X ammount of seconds to completly raise. In the meantime it would just look like the bridge was being unpacked and if at anytime they where interupted te bridge would slam back down. "John interupts raise drawbridge: is getting shot at"

6. New building: Stone Grinder: This would destroy stones and leave X dust behind it would work like smelting where X dust would = 1 useable resource. Also a small % chance to find gems.

7. New Building: Clinker Vat: Water + Dust from the grinder + labor = concrete. This could be used to make smooth roads, fill in holes (IE a solid state like water where 4/7 would block entry and 7/7 would seal an area) Could also be used to "reinforce" walls that would take place of engravings but make them harder to tear down (once the army arc is started)

8. Carpentry shop: This would be used like a stone grinder but would bring in logs and export boards (1 log = x/x boards) boards would be used to create "fine furniture" that would be worth more than common stone furniture. This building would use carpentry with a legendary would get like 10/10 but a novice would get like 1/10.

9: New item: Iron pot + X + mechanism:Boiling X (water, oil, w.e) think of a boulder trap that inflicts burning damage. It doesnt cause then to light on fire, but can cause yellow/red injuries. The "ammo" would be kept in a building close maybe a kitchen or some other area that would generally be considered hot and loaded when needed and swapped out as the ammo cools. Thus a constant job for a siege opperator that does not endlessly expend resources.

10: Distaff: This could be used to turn several rope reed into rope reed cloth at the same time. I'm basically going for some basic automation that would allow more than just mass prodiucing crafts to be a valuable economic premise.

11: Trap: Grears + corkscrews = Grinder: Placed in a V level that things fall into this device would destroy anything that fell into it. It could also just be used as a dumping ground and leave "debris"  instead of a ton of named items. It could be jammed though depending on the quality of what it is made out of and what falls into it. IE a fully steel plate goblin may jam it only taking minor injuries. These would be placed like grates, but activated by things falling on top of them.

12: New Building: Incenerator: Used to burn debris creates ash/smoke.

BTW, I love the idea of the weight based traps. It reminds me of this show that I watched when I was a kid that let these elves walk through but when this larger animal tried to follow them a lever was tripped and it fell into a hole that led back outside. That would work great for battling goblins but keeping trolls and such out. Expecally if you gave trolls the ability to smash out of cage traps and release other imprisioned things.       

[Granite26]

A few other mechanical wonders:

Spiggot : Basically a wall with a hole in it
  A: Normal Spiggot : Used the same as a well, only it has to be adjacent to water.  Any dwarf wanting water would use the spigot and get a unit of water.  This would be useful for accessing high pressure water.
  B: Lever Spiggot : By attaching a level to the spiggot, a single pull (either direction maybe) would spit out a single 1/7 unit of the liquid on the other side.  Useful for magma forges (fill the pit from the spiggot, when it dries up you dig it out and start again) and who knows what else.

Equalizer pipe.  This could either be a pipe section if pipes exist, or more simply, a square that takes in pressurized water and releases zero pressure water.  Think of it as a no z-level change, powerless screw pump.

Scissor lift.  Ok, I'm not sure what this one would be used for, but when triggered, it raises up anything on it 1 z level, and also creates a floor one z level above.  Stackable(?)

[bluea]

I keep watching my Dwarves on their exercise machines screw pumps and thinking I should be able to hook these up as power sources. I can do this by pumping the water up a level, then using a waterwheel to turn my cranks. But.

There's a lot of ways to convert Dwarf/animal work directly into mechanical work.

A Capstan (for instance) is a vertical pole with horizontal spokes sticking out that the laborer pushes on to force the pole to spin. Or a Windlass.

Hmm. Of course, if this was ever built, attaching a couple waterwheels to the other end of the mechanism would make this wonderful device called 'a blender.' Seems to fit the theme just right.

[Idiom]

Quick 0.02$ on this topic:

Water wheels are so easy to set up, so cheap to build, and so much more readily available that steam turbines would need to at least give 5x more power for them to be even worth bothering with.

That, or as I believe was suggested before, waterwheels give inconsistent power, while steam turbines are much more regular.

[Draco18s]

One pump can power 4 waterwheels.

[Idiom]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[Dae]

To move water over numerous z-level, the best would definitely be something involving lots of chains/rope and lots of buckets, and a couple gears as well. Say, two buckets per level, one going up and one going down, 2x1 building and as tall as you need it to be. Both bottom tiles need to be underwater so as to fill up the buckets. Buckets would empty themselves on one of the two highest tiles, and water would be poured in front of this tile (one or two tiles away so as to prevent water to falling down again).

Or we could make it 3x1 and water would fall on the middle tile. This way we could set up a pipe with a funnel underneath to collect water.

While we're talking about it, we could add funnels, to collect (more?) rain or steam or whatever use we can find. Possibly crushing goblins into minced meat.

[Glacies]

Clocks could be structures that use a wooden or stone case made in the masons/carpenters shop. They'd also use two mechanisms (preferably made from metal) and would have to be wound. That's my idea for 1x1 clocks.

[G-Flex]

[a bunch of stuff about pitchblende]

I'm not sure dwarves would ever at all have the technology to extract the uranium dioxide from pitchblende, and they sure as hell wouldn't even come close to being able to smelt that in uranium, never mind anything usable as fuel.

You're talking about nuclear power plants here, more or less. It might surprise you to learn that nuclear power was not possible using medieval technology. :/

[Zemat]

1 - pipe sections.  These exist now, but need to be made possible to build as their own building.  Pipe sections link with one another and with pumps.  Fluids connected to an open pipe section will flow into them, but can only be sent up with the aid of a pump.  Magma pipes do not power magma buildings.
-> one thought I've seen are pipes as buildings you can enter, and only leave via a pipe entrance not connected to anything.

Pipe sections should be constructed like floor tiles. That is, they should work as floor and not as walls and let dwarves pass and buildings be built over them. Also, why magma pipes shouldn't be able to power forges or even steam mechanisms? As I see it, magma pipes would be too costly to make, they at least should be as useful as a magma channels. Maybe a special pipe component, a pipe vent, which must be build below the forge, could be used to link magma pipes to forges.

[katana0182]

Dwarves don't have the technology to build nuclear reactors? What is the world coming to?

Actually, they don't have to have any technology at all to use fission:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor

It's actually pretty easy to use atomic power given a suitable moderator like carbon rods (a.k.a. graphite/anthracite) and a suitable coolant, like water. You don't need any kind of electricity or even knowledge of hydraulics. Give a large enough heat sink, such as a room full of water, and a few choice pieces of pitchblende, embedded in a carbon block, and fed with a few screw-pumps, you can get Mr. Fission working faster than you can say "positive void coefficient". It could even be done with ancient technology (of course, nobody would know what the heck was happening, but it could be done...and any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...) Plus, unlike the environmentally unfriendly option of burning trees (anathema to the Elves), or coal (can we say global warming, anyone?), nuclear power is carbon neutral, doesn't produce smoke (always a hazard in closed environments like caves) and perfectly suited to the purposes of fortress-living. You can even bury the pitchblende down an abandoned shaft when you're done. (Plus it seems like a kind of dwarvy invention, steam, mysterious forces...besides, what other use would you have for your nobles aside from being living Geiger counters?)

Of course, if the "magical stones" decide to melt, then it would be a good idea to run for your life.

[i2amroy]

But the point is that the only way that nuclear reactors were created back then was through natural means, as no one had the knowledge base required to create one. Then, the natural nuclear reactors were unharnessable for an energy source. So I am going to say that at least from Toady's viewpoint, nuclear fission reactors are going to be out. Now when sicknesses get implemented, having a tag that would make stones radioactive, causing sickness to nearby things would be really cool. Imagine this, uranium floodgates that you extend as soon as invaders walk into your fortress, trapping them in a barrage of radiation that would cause them to become very sick and then die.