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[Mrhappyface]

Imagine a railroad stretching in a straight line across the whole world, equipped with as many rollers possible. Now imagine an adventurer riding it. The minecart has no brakes, only acceleration.

[Old Greg]

Had a bit of a thought. Apologies if something along these lines has already been said.

What happens to the contents of a cart when a cart crashes? Would they be flung all over the place or would they stay inside the cart? Would this be different if the contents were 15 shoes or a dwarf? Also, do carts take damage after wrecks and collisions? Will it be possible to repair damaged carts?

Nothing happens at this point.

...

I know the contents of cages become invulnerable, will this be true of mine carts? More specifically, if I drowned a magma safe cart in a pool of magma, will it set the contents on fire/melt them down?

It's the same as everything else right now.

Assuming (and this is a fairly large assumption) that Toady doesn't add in effects for this, and that his annoyingly vague last comment can be construed as "the same as cages," the fact that dwarves in carts are immune to anything and do not suffer ill effects on impact can definitely be used.

Think paratroopers.

Deploy soldiers immediately, and safely, into the midst of a siege (with the added bonus of a possible squished goblin) by firing carts from the top of towers or mountains. Also could be used as a solution to otherwise hazardous entries in tall, hollow candy spires.

In terms of transportation, you could have entire sections of the fort that are entirely inaccessible except by launched minecart. Since contents are invulnerable in the cart, you could have supply/passenger lines running through oceans, or the magma sea, if you used all magma safe materials. Dwarven submersibles have arrived.

Then again, even if he does change things and impact can brutally maim passengers, I'm not sure if my plans would change much.

[Ubiq]

Imagine a railroad stretching in a straight line across the whole world, equipped with as many rollers possible. Now imagine an adventurer riding it. The minecart has no brakes, only acceleration.

Another option would be to generate a world with a sky that has 100 z-levels of sky and 100 z-levels seperating each cavern level. With a 2x16 embark, you could have a 434-z level ramp and still have more than enough room to return to the surface. Of course, if you start with a mountain, abandon and start a new fortress to continue the project, you could get even better results.

[Mrhappyface]

You can use just embark to overlap old forts. Supersonic carts connecting the world...

[Sadrice]

Just embark isn't even necessary if you line up the jumps just right.

[Urist Da Vinci]

...

...

I know the contents of cages become invulnerable, will this be true of mine carts? More specifically, if I drowned a magma safe cart in a pool of magma, will it set the contents on fire/melt them down?

It's the same as everything else right now.

Assuming (and this is a fairly large assumption) that Toady doesn't add in effects for this, and that his annoyingly vague last comment can be construed as "the same as cages," the fact that dwarves in carts are immune to anything and do not suffer ill effects on impact can definitely be used.
...
In terms of transportation, you could have entire sections of the fort that are entirely inaccessible except by launched minecart. Since contents are invulnerable in the cart, you could have supply/passenger lines running through oceans, or the magma sea, if you used all magma safe materials. Dwarven submersibles have arrived.
...

Objection! Creatures in cages DO die because of magma-related heat. "Same as everything else" merely suggests that cart contents behave like cages (or iron bins), in that you can set up "lignite bin" tricks where the contents are set on fire, but the container remains.

[Old Greg]

Ah, good to know. Underwater should still function though, if you can manage to build it.

[mdqp]

So, It's official that we can now use minecarts for moving magma, right? I mean, maybe I missed when Toady announced the possibility to fill the carts with liquids, but he announced that they can dump liquids (automatically at that, which is even more awesome), so it's a given that liquids can "hop in" now... No more huge FPS-eating pump stacks, unless I want to burn everything above ground! I am so happy I might cry! No more having to circumvent caves in roundabout ways to place the pumps, no more having to produce magma-safe components in huge amounts, just one line to go up and one line to go down (and at lightning speed while going down, at least for the haulers!).

[Dohon]

Toady did post this:

Things are continuing along. A track stop can now be set to dump contents in a direction when a cart arrives. This action does not need to be powered. This includes liquid dumping. Track stops have optional low friction, so you can set contents to dump without having to restart the cart manually. There's a hang bug somewhere in the system I'd like to stamp out, and a few other random issues, but it's almost ready to go.

Note: if you expected a reward from March or earlier and haven't received it, please send me an email. I've had a few of my emails bounce back and I'd like to get these sent out!

[flieroflight]

now with added drowning traps
each minecart brings up a bit of liquid to get dropped into the chamber.

[Nameless Archon]

now with added drowning traps
each minecart brings up a bit of liquid to get dropped into the chamber.

Run a "trap delivery" cart system, which fills itself with magma, rolls over your entrance, drops its contents through the grate on one side (onto invaders below), and rockets back to pick up more magma. Like vats of boiling oil, only automated and with magma. If carts can be 100% magma safe, you could have a set of carts whose sole function is to drop magma at predetermined points when a lever is flipped, then reload.

Is it more efficient than magma-based "drowning" traps with hatches? No.

Is it dwarfy? Oh, very yes.

[HorridOwn4ge]

What about 2 tracks with a small intersect where they cross and dump their contents (Magma and water) and drop it down a hole, AKA dwarven machinegun.

[Aviator CJ]

now with added drowning traps
each minecart brings up a bit of liquid to get dropped into the chamber.

Run a "trap delivery" cart system, which fills itself with magma, rolls over your entrance, drops its contents through the grate on one side (onto invaders below), and rockets back to pick up more magma. Like vats of boiling oil, only automated and with magma. If carts can be 100% magma safe, you could have a set of carts whose sole function is to drop magma at predetermined points when a lever is flipped, then reload.

Is it more efficient than magma-based "drowning" traps with hatches? No.

Is it dwarfy? Oh, very yes.

I'm imagining being a goblin in such a trap.

Looking around, seeing no exit. Suddenly, magma falls from a grate in the ceiling, making a red-hot puddle on the floor. No trouble, just walk around it. Then, more magma falls. Hmm. The puddle is bigger. Then more magma, and more.

It's a slow, inefficient and sadistic way of killing enemies. Yep, it's dwarfy alright!

[Nameless Archon]

I'm imagining being a goblin in such a trap. Looking around, seeing no exit. Suddenly, magma falls from a grate in the ceiling, making a red-hot puddle on the floor. No trouble, just walk around it. Then, more magma falls. Hmm. The puddle is bigger. Then more magma, and more. It's a slow, inefficient and sadistic way of killing enemies. Yep, it's dwarfy alright!

I'm picturing a lot of carts, with fairly-close-spaced grates, but yes. Effectively, you're burning them with low-depths of magma over a large area. It'd be much easier/faster to set up a passive flow system with a reloadable cistern, and hatches that dump large volumes of magma into the space and flood it, but that wouldn't involve minecarts or the application of "just enough" magma.

YMMV, as always.

Arranging for magma and water to mix and form a cave-in machinegun is an idea I hadn't (yet) considered, but is worth some thought. Forming lava pools solely to create magma mist through falling, mixing fluids triggered at a lever pull to ignite your foes sounds like fun.

[Itnetlolor]

Sweet. The additional features for the minecarts will definitely make obsidian casting for my airship that much simpler to get done (I intend to have farm and a nearby magma pump for lignite bombing runs) constructed inside the ship. Actually, looking ahead, my Bloodaxe megaproject will be even cooler to illustrate and tell the story of as I construct it with the new stuff and adjustments (like mining) being made so far.

I can't wait for the next release.