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[slink]

All humor aside, I'm genuinely puzzled by how the mining carts will work.  I'm sure he has a plan, and we'll all see how it works in good time.  I'm just wondering what the carts will be built of, and whether dorfs can still walk where there are tracks, and how it's all going to fit in with the 150 levels of 3x3 up-down staircases that join my forges to the rest of my fortress.  Surely tracks can't run vertically?  Maybe they will require ramps?  Will they be 3x3 like wagons, or 1x1 like a draft animal?  What powers them?  *wanders off babbling*   

Well, the post did state that you can build tracks on ramps.

Then if they are 1x1 carts, my 3x3 staircase may become a 1x1 staircase encircled by a spiral ramp.  Now I have a mental image of dorfs starting a cart off down a ramp that descends 150 levels.  A tiny push followed by: "Look out below!"     Oh, this will be fun.   

[Vanaheimer]

It will not take very long before the community weaponizes the minecarts.

I can see it. If a mine cart is affected by gravity, then when set on ramps and let go they will accelerate... right in to the faces of the orcs.

[SRD]

I was thinking more like a flaming minecart full of booze flying into the hoards of goblins/elves.

[Kylarus]

All humor aside, I'm genuinely puzzled by how the mining carts will work.  I'm sure he has a plan, and we'll all see how it works in good time.  I'm just wondering what the carts will be built of, and whether dorfs can still walk where there are tracks, and how it's all going to fit in with the 150 levels of 3x3 up-down staircases that join my forges to the rest of my fortress.  Surely tracks can't run vertically?  Maybe they will require ramps?  Will they be 3x3 like wagons, or 1x1 like a draft animal?  What powers them?  *wanders off babbling*   

I'm seeing minecarts with explosives and drunken midgets in armor riding minecarts into combat. Or pit traps into minecart roller coasters that fly through magma falls and ending back where they belong. That is, if they aren't requiring power.

[NW_Kohaku]

It will not take very long before the community weaponizes the minecarts.

I can see it. If a mine cart is affected by gravity, then when set on ramps and let go they will accelerate... right in to the faces of the orcs.

Yes, this is pretty much what Toady intends.

As one person put it somewhere around a year or two ago, when we were talking about this with boulders and the improved mechanics stuff, the ramps could be used to create the dwarven equivalent of "Marble Madness".

It can work off the same basic physics systems that Rollercoaster Tycoon used, which aren't too complex, and if you did something like fill the cart with a !!Lignite bin!!, you could potentially do the Rollercoaster Tycoon thing, and just set up the cart to go flying out of your fortress into the oh-so-flammable grassy field outside your fort when the gobbos come.

[Vanaheimer]

All humor aside, I'm genuinely puzzled by how the mining carts will work.  I'm sure he has a plan, and we'll all see how it works in good time.  I'm just wondering what the carts will be built of, and whether dorfs can still walk where there are tracks, and how it's all going to fit in with the 150 levels of 3x3 up-down staircases that join my forges to the rest of my fortress.  Surely tracks can't run vertically?  Maybe they will require ramps?  Will they be 3x3 like wagons, or 1x1 like a draft animal?  What powers them?  *wanders off babbling*   

Well, the post did state that you can build tracks on ramps.

Then if they are 1x1 carts, my 3x3 staircase may become a 1x1 staircase encircled by a spiral ramp.  Now I have a mental image of dorfs starting a cart off down a ramp that descends 150 levels.  A tiny push followed by: "Look out below!"     Oh, this will be fun.   

Urist McHauler Cancels Store Item:Tripped

Urist McMiner Cancel Dig:Hit in face with cart

[SRD]

The better the material the more aerodynamic the carts will be leading to the faster they will transport.

Adamantine Carts = Lamborghinis
Nickle/Tin Carts = Puntos

[NW_Kohaku]

I would expect the rails to have more bearing.

The reason why trains are used for freight is because the energy efficiency of rails are something like 98% (that is, only 2% of the energy for a given distance is lost to friction, and has to be re-applied by the energy generated by the engine), whereas a car's rubber on asphalt is only 96% - leading to functionally half the energy cost to travel the same distance.

Metal rails would lead to faster carts, but would be absurdly expensive, especially if you have to pay one bar per tile traveled.  Just carving stone rails would lead to slower carts, but cost basically no materials if you just carve them out of the stone floor.

[SRD]

Obsidian/Glass rails for little to no friction.

[MrWiggles]

Obsidian/Glass rails for little to no friction.

Yea, but for similar reason why you dont see them in RL, is that they just can't take the rigors that would be demanded of them.

[Chronomancer]

Minecart Cannon.

[SRD]

Well now that glass is going to be 50% more efficient in making, + it was already easy to make, it should be good to use in DF.

+They don't use it in rl because it would be too weak to hold the train.

[NW_Kohaku]

Yeah, but in DF, you can make magma pumps, floors, floodgates, giant axe blades in weapon traps, etc. out of glass already... why would reality set in now?

[SRD]

Exactly.

[Kilroy the Grand]

All humor aside, I'm genuinely puzzled by how the mining carts will work.  I'm sure he has a plan, and we'll all see how it works in good time.  I'm just wondering what the carts will be built of, and whether dorfs can still walk where there are tracks, and how it's all going to fit in with the 150 levels of 3x3 up-down staircases that join my forges to the rest of my fortress.  Surely tracks can't run vertically?  Maybe they will require ramps?  Will they be 3x3 like wagons, or 1x1 like a draft animal?  What powers them?  *wanders off babbling*   

I assume that the carts will be dwarf powered. Or Toady may make the carts work like a rollercoaster, finally giving a use to all that extra power people like making.