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[Areyar]

Personally I would expect rollers to be usable to change the direction of carts.
But momentum is indeed a possible concern. so logic dictates a not-linearly accellerating roller will null a moving cart and set it moving at the speed and direction of the roller.

You guys seem to assume rollers will be 1x1 tiles. The logical mechanic for roller direction is the same as the rail designation mechanism for setting direction. Strips of 1X(1+n) tiles, (Click on a tile with the rail/roller designation and select the direction+length)

Also, dropping carts onto tracks from a level above would possibly allow junctions of tracks.

[ungreened]
Devlog suggests slopes will add/detract speed. So, do rollers add momentum or set a fixed speed?
Is there an artificial maximum speed (at which point a cart could derail and run amok! LoL) or will cart speed be limited by only computingspeed?
[/ungreened]

My thoughts have totally derailed, heh!

[i2amroy]

Also, dropping carts onto tracks from a level above would possibly allow junctions of tracks.

Assuming your cart have a small amount of momentum then you can join two tracks with a "fake" t-intersection
I=tracks _=ground

Code: [Select]

like this:          or maybe this
________I_          ________I_
________I_          ________I_
IIIIIII_I_          __________
________I_          IIIIIIIII_
________I_          ________I_The "joining" cart should skip across the single tile without tracks under its own momentum, and then join up with the next line of tracks. I think probably the second design is more likely to work then the first one, though it does once again bring up the question of having a cart change directions at a corner. Maybe if a cart hits a sideways roller that makes it so that it has more sideways momentum then forward it should change direction. (4 momentum east and it hits a roller that gives it 10 momentum south, the cart would then begin to travel south.)

[riznar]

nm

[Footkerchief]

Devlog suggests slopes will add/detract speed. So do rollers add momentum or set a fixed speed?
Is there an artificial maximum speed (at which point a cart could derail and run amok! LoL) or will cart speed be limited by only computingspeed?

Both of these questions were answered by the initial devlog entry on rollers (emphasis mine): they "increase the speed of minecarts in a given direction, up to a point (more than enough to get them up a ramp, anyway)."

[Areyar]

Oh yeah, sorry Foot. So many great developments. 

@roy: yeah. that would give a single level track.
the first would need some rollers at the intersection though, or carts would just stop (or keep going straight on as there were no wall.)

The second plan should work. . . I'd designate that skip-tile as forbidden to pathing though, to cut down on dwarf casualties.
Hmm. . .
That does give rise to concern for miner safety: have you given this any thought?
(question-suggestions:)
- Could track-tiles be made unfavourable for pathing dwarves by default?
- Will dwarves avoid moving carts? (avoidance in advance that is, dodging an iminent collision seems  obvious.)

[Elone]

I saw, in earlier answers by Toady just 2 pages ago, that dorfs will have a large chance to dodge a cart, though they might not be immune. Best to designate traffic zones if you know that dorfs will constantly try to test their luck.

[i2amroy]

The new way to train your military in the difficult skill to teach of dodging. Set up a ton of mine cart pendulums that rush down one side and up the other, then reverse direction for the return trip. Then simply order your military to patrol from one side of the pendulums to the other and back. Along the way they should encounter several mine carts to dodge, having only a small chance of being hurt and a large chance of gaining some dodging xp, which personally I find to be one of the most helpful combat skills in existence.

[FallingWhale]

Will carts work in liquids; if so will they fill?

[NW_Kohaku]

Will carts work in liquids; if so will they fill?

Toady answered this in the last response:

Can fluids be put in minecarts?

Will minecarts passing under a waterfall automatically fill up with water?

If the first two are true, WILL IT WORK WITH MAGMA?

Not as it stands.  I haven't thought of how that might work -- fluids are either going to slow the cart down too much or it is just going to blaze through the falls.  If the cart were stopped under a fall and then powered forward, it might work.  We'll see what happens.

[Arkenstone]

Also, dropping carts onto tracks from a level above would possibly allow junctions of tracks.

Assuming your cart have a small amount of momentum then you can join two tracks with a "fake" t-intersection
I=tracks _=ground

Code: [Select]

like this:          or maybe this
________I_          ________I_
________I_          ________I_
IIIIIII_I_          __________
________I_          IIIIIIIII_
________I_          ________I_The "joining" cart should skip across the single tile without tracks under its own momentum, and then join up with the next line of tracks. I think probably the second design is more likely to work then the first one, though it does once again bring up the question of having a cart change directions at a corner. Maybe if a cart hits a sideways roller that makes it so that it has more sideways momentum then forward it should change direction. (4 momentum east and it hits a roller that gives it 10 momentum south, the cart would then begin to travel south

I think you misunderstand how the tracks are designated; my take on it was that they weren't designated by tile, but rather by pair (or stretch) or tiles.

The way I envisioned the fake T design Toady mentioned was this:

Code: [Select]

......C
═══╗╒══
A..║...
...║B..
Everything's to scale, there is no empty tile between the corner and track C; the two track tiles simply aren't connected.

• A cart coming from A will divert to B, unless it is going too fast, in which case it'll either go down C or crash (depends how it's coded, but odds are it'll always be one or the other).
• A cart coming from B will divert to A, unless it is going too fast, in which case it will crash.
• A cart coming from C will continue to A, possibly even if it is going *really* fast.

Also, Toady answered that last question of yours already: the cart would derail.


PS: Two more questions for Toady:

What symbols are you thinking of using for rollers and stops?

Will carts 'bounce' off dead-ends at walls, or will they just stop?

[Farmerbob]

I saw, in earlier answers by Toady just 2 pages ago, that dorfs will have a large chance to dodge a cart, though they might not be immune. Best to designate traffic zones if you know that dorfs will constantly try to test their luck.

Or you can designate traffic zones to ENSURE that dwarves will constantly try to test their luck.

 

[kaypy]

Will we be able to have 1-way stops? So could you have a stop that allowed carts coming from 1 direction to shoot through without being stopped or slowed, but carts from another to be stopped and need to be started again? (Potentially in a different direction?)

Assuming that I have the cart logic interpreted right, I think we can rig this up ourselves even if it isnt explicitly coded:

Code: [Select]

<<═══╗═≠≠≠═╗
     ╚═════╚═══>>
Cart from the west takes the south path, missing the stop, then joins back to the rail heading east
Cart from the east takes the north path, stopped at the ≠, sent on as appropriate

If it counts as an engraving, that may well work.  If it counts as a construction, it probably won't.

Seems like it should work:

You can place any building on top of a track (at least any building that would work on a stone/constructed floor).

[bombzero]

... we can place workshops on top of tracks.....

I think i may build a soapmakers workshop in the next version...

[Keldane]

If buildings can be placed on tracks, does that mean you can designate stockpiles on tracks? If so, what happens to the items on the track when a minecart barrels through?

[MrWiggles]

Will it ever be important to see carts or anything else fly in parabolae? 3d visualizers are cool utilities, but part of what makes DF different from Minecraft or Real-Time Strategy is the ASCII graphics (or primitive substitute of the same layout).

Well, DF has a lot of simulation that isn't directly seen by the player. Good or Bad, it's something that DF has stated to be okay with. So it wont ever be 'important' to the game itself, unless the player wants to see the cart go flying.

Can minecarts crash into the ceiling if sent rapidly off a ramp in a cave only one storey high (at any given point; obviously above and below the ramp the ceiling is a level higher/lower just as the floor is)?

I think this can be assumed pretty safely to happen. If it didnt happen the minecarts would fly through Z level rock layers, and that's just silly. Given we know that Minecarts can collide with each other, with walls, floors, dorfs (creatures in general), that it can't pass through a floor tile even if coming from under it.

Will whatever replaces happy/unhappy thoughts be equally hilarious? (E.g., will it still be possible to drink off the gloom of a relative's death? I always thought the weirdness of the system was more realistic than people gave it credit for, much like loyalty cascades, which once fixed so they're not inevitable should be brought back as possible since the concept is a feature, not a bug, in a game that models realistic relationships/loyalties along with realistic everything else.)[/color]

I think I had another question, but now I can't recall what it was.

Well, Toady said he have a lot already planned out for the personality rewrites. He knows his basic goals and what he wants it to do, but it's not 100 percent worked out yet.