Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NW_Kohaku]

Looks like some of you guys, especially Arkenstone, were right on the money.

I set a hauler to ride a minecart to its next stop. That happened to take the dwarf down eight ramps and then up a launch ramp into an open cavern. High up in the cavern there was a wide ledge and on the ledge there was a goblin, chilling out right where I had created it. I activated the dwarf's squad, and he had just enough hang-time at the top of the flight arc to get a punch in. The goblin struck back but the dwarf jumped on to the ledge, where they continued to fight as the cart fell down into the darkness. It'll be interesting to see the new contenders for "worst dodge decision" that come out of this, before I tackle that problem, but overall the item riding system seems to be functioning. As we continue to iron out issues there, it might also let caged creatures interact more with their environment later on.

*Dwarf rides a cart that flies off a cliff through mid-air*

"AH! THAT'S where I left my pig tail sock!"

*Jumps out of the cart as soon as he has LOS to the sock, diving 40 z-levels onto the nice, inviting stone floor.*

So, uh, build your dwarven rollercoasters with care, guys.

[Jacob/Lee]

You guys are gonna be so insanely depressed/furious if this just turns out to be one of the most heartless and over-extended April Fools jokes ever.  I mean, seriously:  The degree to which Tarn's dev blog updates follow right behind people's numerous wishful requests is getting kinda creepy.

Welcome to the land of "good developers." May I take your order?

[Cruxador]

The new dev log does sound awesome, but remember that in practice badass stunts like that will be extremely rare. That one required a specifically built track, "random" chance of an enemy in the right place, and possibly also the random chance of the dodge.
The most military utility we'll probably get out of this will be the ability to use tracks to quickly get soldiers from barracks near the entrance to cavern areas where attacks were a foreseen possibility.

[NW_Kohaku]

The new dev log does sound awesome, but remember that in practice badass stunts like that will be extremely rare. That one required a specifically built track, "random" chance of an enemy in the right place, and possibly also the random chance of the dodge.
The most military utility we'll probably get out of this will be the ability to use tracks to quickly get soldiers from barracks near the entrance to cavern areas where attacks were a foreseen possibility.

Enemy approach vectors are not random if you know what you are doing. 

I embark on slopes and hills (especially those neat river valleys where they cut cliffs into the landscape) very frequently for a reason - removing ramps on a natural slope selectively lets you basically carve out the only path to your fortress being a giant set of hairpin curves while in full view of my marksdwarf towers. 

The same would go for minecarts - just make the only entrance to your fort be a position that your carts are set up to pass by.  In fact, since we have mechanical accelerators, you could even set up a pressure plate as the switch that launches your dwarven chariot teams, so that you can time your flying cart entrance with precision.

As long as we can control the terrain, we can control the battle.

[Hiiri]

The new dev log does sound awesome, but remember that in practice badass stunts like that will be extremely rare. That one required a specifically built track, "random" chance of an enemy in the right place, and possibly also the random chance of the dodge.

That specific scenario is extremely rare. But Dwarf fortress is 75% built of random, hilarious, absurd, rare events.

[monk12]

The new dev log does sound awesome, but remember that in practice badass stunts like that will be extremely rare. That one required a specifically built track, "random" chance of an enemy in the right place, and possibly also the random chance of the dodge.

That specific scenario is extremely rare. But Dwarf fortress is 75% built of random, hilarious, absurd, rare events.

I foresee many a cavern-coaster having the military derail to fight giant cave swallows and what all else. As Hiiri said, it's less about having it happen with any frequency, and more knowing it could happen.


I'm much more intrigued by the comment on letting caged creatures do more, since I've got no idea what that might entail. Bears swiping through the bars? Monkeys stealing booze from passersby? Dare I say, prisoner escapes?

[BinaryBeast1010011010]

I knew it! He is done with hauling and now he is getting sidetracked. Now we are going to have two or three months while he works on how prisoners can interact with different cage materials

[MrWiggles]

No, he hasn't gotten side tracked just yet. Minecarts is still part of better hauling.  I suspect that dorfs hoping out of carts was emergent behavior instead of something new to let them purposefully hop out minecarts.

I suspect that he's just about done with Minecarts. Now it's a question if he'll add in switch tracks or lazy susans, and if he'll make minecarts applicable for Adventures to gallivant in.

So yea, he hasnt wonder away from Better Hauling.

[Gilihad]

Will dwarves be able to shoot from minecarts? Your last post brought to mind that if squads can be activated mid-minecart ride, crossbow dwarves with ammo on them could be use for dwarven drive-by shootings. Would a squad unit jump out of the cart as soon as it was activated though? How does minecart interaction differ between haulers and military units (if at all)?


Just... tell me that I will be able to make a giant ramp off which I launch crossbow dwarves who rain death from above, before splatting into the ground.

Maybe another ramp could be made to catch them, but I don't know how impacting another ramp in a minecart would affect dwarves? 

[hermes]

Thanks for the answers from before, Toady.

What does a dwarf need to hitch a ride on a cart?  One grasp?  Two?  Legs?

The goblin struck back but the dwarf jumped on to the ledge, where they continued to fight as the cart fell down into the darkness. It'll be interesting to see the new contenders for "worst dodge decision" that come out of this,

So, er, if I'm reading this right, the dwarf was lucky in dodging onto the cliff?  Or did it cancel its own ride?  I wonder if a dwarf could dodge in front of the cart...

[orius]

I knew it! He is done with hauling and now he is getting sidetracked.

Sidetracked?  Is that supposed to be a pun?   

[BinaryBeast1010011010]

I'm bad enough at them in french (or good enough to get threats of being burned each and every time I use them) to not dare make any in english.
But I still accept flowers and presents though ^^

I think we can look for two or three months of dev logs before the release, if toady is fixing the cages overpowering its going to take months. And no carts for anyone before critters get rolls to break their restraints... I hope I'm mistaken, I'm a musician not a programmer...

[Lordinquisitor]

I call dibs on the idea of using minecarts as dwarven drop pods. Someone else probably already did, but i don`t care.

[thvaz]

I'm bad enough at them in french (or good enough to get threats of being burned each and every time I use them) to not dare make any in english.
But I still accept flowers and presents though ^^

I think we can look for two or three months of dev logs before the release, if toady is fixing the cages overpowering its going to take months. And no carts for anyone before critters get rolls to break their restraints... I hope I'm mistaken, I'm a musician not a programmer...

Wow, good work in taking one line of today's devlog and extrapolating all the work that will be done in the next 3 months.

[BinaryBeast1010011010]

Thanks, I'm pulling all of this out of dream I had last night, I was in a strange place where space and time were warped beyond recognition and toady was helped by yog sothoth. He was programing this to free himself from the ancient because he was abducted and had to live like a dwarf