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[Putnam]

It's in, as of the last dev log. Also, these hauling routes are shaping up to be awesome.  This update is going to impact Fortress Mode Gameplay waaay more than 34.01 did. I'm excited!

I would not say that.  Vampires, werecritters, and all the rains and mists and whatnot have made embarking in the wrong place FAR more challenging these days.

I'd say that more fortresses will be impacted by this as time moves forward, but that's because people will embark in fewer evil biomes than before, so the effects of the 0.34 change are less actively noticeable to the average player who doesn't want to fool with the really difficult embarks and simply avoids them.  That doesn't mean the effect isn't as significant

Lets not fight over it though, 0.34 and the cart release patch are both world-shakers.

It shouldn't be forgotten that 0.34 was intended as an improvement for Adventure mode more than Fort mode. So it's natural that something like this would effect Fort mode more. So really, there is no need to debate about it really.

I'm already planning on using microcline to construct my garbage line. If I make the carts out of microcline, I might just launch the carts and make it a one way trip. Don't ride the Blue Line!

Are the carts constructed onto the tracks or are the added to the track like how a lever is linked?

Minecarts are a new tool in the raws. The minecart behavior is determined by the "TRACK_CART" tool use, so you can add your own carts called whatever made of whatever. I'm sticking with wood and metal minecarts called minecarts. Their state as a tool currently has the wooden minecart creation job in the craftsdwarf shop and all carts in the finished goods piles, but I'll likely diversify the tool raws there as well. If it's not too time-consuming to convert the whole eventual system, I'll give the 34.02-7 saves a default minecart tool as well -- as it stands they wouldn't have them.

Considering also that Toady has said that a minecart jumping off of one track and onto another will continue going, I'm guessing that it's more of a "dwarves haul minecart to track" thing.

[Footkerchief]

^^^ kinda beaten

Are the carts constructed onto the tracks or are the added to the track like how a lever is linked?

The fact that carts can spontaneously (without a dwarf's intervention) leave tracks and reattach to them indicates that they are just items that move in special ways, not buildings or constructions per se.

[EmeraldWind]

There needs to be some kind of way of getting the carts where you want them. Otherwise the dwarves might over saturate the tracks with too many carts or transport the cart to the wrong line.

I figured there were two ways of having the dwarves get a cart where you want it, when you want it.

1. Use the build menu to place it on the track. (I used construction inaccurately.)
2. The stops have an add cart job that will cause the dwarves to deliver a cart to that spot.

So I asked the question to see which (if either) is the method.

[Farmerbob]

And does anybody know who makes the tracks- is it miners or engravers?

The word Toady used was "carve," which definitely sounds like engravers to me.

I figured it was like Fortifications, where the Engraver can carve them in natural stone or your Masons can construct them if the track goes across soil or for color coordination purposes.



And this one goes back a ways, to trying to imagine the speed boosting rollers in a way that makes sense- I've been picturing them like a Hot Wheels track. Just thought I'd share.

I can easily imagine a two real world roller systems to accelerate carts.

1) The cart passes between wheels that press against the sides of the cart, grabbing it, and pushing it forward.

2) The cart passes over a roller in the missle of the track which has gears or hooks or something that grab and push the cart forward.


Looked at in the real world, 1 is a more sound solution, as #2 would have a significant possibility of pushing the cart up into the air and dismounting it off the tracks if something goes wrong with the mechanisms.  #1, the wheels can be angled slightly towards the tracks, putting downward force on the cart to hold it on the tracks while it's being accelerated.

Oh, for the curious that want to look it up, I finally managed to figure out what #1 is called in real life - it's a "pinch wheel drive" and they are used in some roller coasters and other amusement rides.

[DrNightKOT]

I am not sure if it was asked, but will the carts, loaded with COMBUSTIBLE LEMONS explosive or combustible stuff, like booze or modded material actually combust on collision with something that doesn't burn, but just of force? It would be awesome to have your dorfs to push the cart into a pit with lots of cave monsters inside, or even more booze and see !!GIANT CAVE SPIDERs!!. And railgun minecarts would be even more combat applicabable.

Which leads to other, very unimportant question about future of exploding materials, but I won't ask it, since it's obviously asked before.

[Gamerlord]

Is not being able to butcher certain animals (eg: Tercerine Falcon) a feature or a bug?

[MrWiggles]

Is not being able to butcher certain animals (eg: Tercerine Falcon) a feature or a bug?

Well yea some animals wont be butchered if it goes against the Ethics of the Dorf. As for the that particular case. No clue.

[Putnam]

If by "not being able to butcher" you mean "butchering only gives skulls", then yes, that is intentional.

[Greiger]

Some animals are too small to yeild any meat.  Butchers seem to ignore them, probably to make sure they get the actually productive corpses before they rot.  I'm not certain the size of those things off the top of my head, but that may be the reason.

[NW_Kohaku]

The carts do not switch freely at junctions.  You can prepare a multitile junction as described above, and there might be switches later as mentioned above.  At stop tiles, where a dwarf sets it on its way, you get a full fourway ability to send it on its way.  Runaway carts hitting a T-junction will not pick a side -- they will continue on in violence.

In the multitile junctions, it doesn't care so much about the direction, so a cart coming up the wrong way will just continue along down the track.

I haven't done links to stops, though that's a reasonable enough thing to do.  The track can't be powered under the stops since we are still stuck with the one building per tile limit, and the powered rollers are a building (like axles and gears).

Well, that crushes a lot of my hopes and dreams, at least unless/until we get powered stops that can automatically launch carts. 

This basically means we need individual dwarves for every intersection to manage traffic, or else we can only build individual loops, with no complex traffic networks, and it ruins most cart logic operations.

What we really need is an ability to have track switches, or else rollers under stops that launch a cart in a direction that can be changed mechanically, based upon a lever, pressure plate, or rotation of a gear.  Then, we can have some truly wondrous cart mechanics, where destinations are altered based upon cart/water/mechanism logic.

I'm using inverted double lines for rails.  Those'll either be distinguished from the hidden engravings walls through a color convention, or hidden engraving walls will be altered entirely.  I don't like single line rails.

And minus an init option, that's basically going to ruin walls for graphics pack users.

[Footkerchief]

If by "not being able to butcher" you mean "butchering only gives skulls", then yes, that is intentional.

That's not clear.  See the report.

[riznar]

Kohaku, you should still be able to switch tracks by having retracting bridges built over down ramps. Each branch would require another Z level though.

[monk12]

Kohaku, you should still be able to switch tracks by having retracting bridges built over down ramps. Each branch would require another Z level though.

I tested it out by making a retracting bridge system that sorted carts by whether or not they were loaded.

So yeah, it won't be super efficient maybe, but it certainly sounds like it should work fine. And let's face it, there isn't very much efficient about dorfputing in general

[nanomage]

Some animals are too small to yeild any meat.  Butchers seem to ignore them, probably to make sure they get the actually productive corpses before they rot.  I'm not certain the size of those things off the top of my head, but that may be the reason.

Size may vary for creatures of different body plans, but it's they same limit for butchers ignoring corpses as it is for slaughter jobs only leaving skulls. While a tame creature only leaves skull, the corpse of the same wild creature will be ignored and will never rot.

[TSTwizby]

Are rollers assigned a direction, or do they just accelerate the carts in whichever direction they are already moving?

For example, if I had something like:

      ||
==roller==
      ||
     cart moving up
      ||

could I orient the roller to launch the cart to the right/left, or would it always shoot straight ahead?