Print

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

[Wimopy]

Only one problem that might cause problems with firing a minegun/cartgun (come on guys, minecart railgun or simply railgun isn't dwarfy).
The possibility of causing low FPS because of the parabolic travel calculations and the sheer amount of collisions and moving objects.

[Girlinhat]

I don't suspect major lag caused by railguns.  Magma chambers cause more FPS drop than anything, I think railguns will run relatively smoothly.  Enough so that if you're watching the collision event, you'll be paying more attention to the carnage than the lag.

Now, if this were Minecraft we'd be modding in particle physics and new smelting methods.  If we had total free-range modding, I could easily imagine having minecart smelters using a friction furnace, where the cart zooms along a track so fast that it warms up enough to melt copper and tin in the same cart and when it finally slows down it drops a lump of bronze.  Or smashing physics, where you could send copper and zinc hurling down two separate tracks at terminal velocity, and when they collide they fuze into brass.

But, we can't do that.  So I'll settle for railguns.

[xmakina]

Only one problem that might cause problems with firing a minegun/cartgun (come on guys, minecart railgun or simply railgun isn't dwarfy).
The possibility of causing low FPS because of the parabolic travel calculations and the sheer amount of collisions and moving objects.

You might get a lag spike if the cart collides with a particularly dense cluster of units (in the hundreds at least), but it certainly won't affect FPS long term.

[SRD]

Dwarven Collider (Rethought)



Instead of horizontal, Vertical, and seeing as carts PROBABLY won't have 'wheels' at all but instead will float (Physically)
It might work :3

[Trif]

Soo... minecarts driving in circles?

Only problem: There are no circles in Dwarf Fortress.

[SRD]

Well put right-angles there, it still works, but the idea is to put a goblin in their and make him sick.

[Itnetlolor]

Is there any way we can make a minecart accelerator of sorts that makes better use of drop pits, rollers, and good layout planning? And to make it a tad safer, allow for it to be a bottom-loading design? I mean, we'll need to set it up in a way that it can recursively build up a ton of power, and use the same upward ramp that makes it line up for more powering up as a launch ramp as well upon reaching an escape velocity, loading it into a secondary accelerator or railgun so we have a pre-powered minecart loaded into an already high-velocity allowing device, such as a railgun, or mechanism sequencer (minecart pressure plate rig for simultaneous or rapid sequencing).

At the end of whatever cycle (if not railgun), there should be a drop pit for it to reload the accelerator; possibly also utilizing parabolic arcs, maybe launching the used minecarts back into the fort through a giant stone dwarf head.

EDIT:

Spoiler: Possible Design (click to show/hide)

Z=1 (safety rail is there in case it derails, rather than takes off)
(UPDATE: Added a secondary launch ramp in case parabolic arc skips the drop pit (aimed at safety rail))
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓/----   -\▓
▓|▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓|▓
-\-▼   ▲--/▓
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

Z=0 (Loading zone; Copyright markers (©) are the minecarts, - = standard rail, = = roller rail)
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓+▓▓▓
▓▓/-©-©-©-▓▓
▓▓\©-©=---\▓
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓|▓
▓▓▓▲=-=-=-/▓
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

[Sadrice]

srd: i doubt that would work.  it might work going down, but on the way back up it would probably just crash into the wall rather than changing direction to go over the top.  even in real life, the only thing that would cause that direction would be tracks on the ceiling.  now that i think about it, it probably wouldn't work on the way down either.  it would land on the lower ramp and start rolling uphill until it crashed into the wall or ran out of momentum.

[Kel]

I've had a thought for a new minecart-launcher design. Basically a circuit, with a little extra added:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Z=1
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓/========\=======▲
▓|▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓|▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓\========/======= <- Carts in
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

Basically, it relies on the fact that sufficiently speedy minecarts will come off corners - and in this case, straight onto rollers and launcher. Meaning it acts as a high-speed-cart detector - as soon as a cart is sufficiently speedy, it will zoom off and hopefully splatter some goblins. Work would need to be done to see which corner it always comes off, so the rollers + launcher can be in the right place.

Also, one thing I'm not sure on with regards to Itnetlolor's design: The first cart would keep speeding up and permanently be quicker than the carts behind it, meaning eventually it'll catch up with the ones behind it. So I don't think you can have multiple carts, as terminal velocity (which all the carts in the system would need to hit before the first cart hits the last) is greater than cart-derailing velocity, meaning they'll never hit it, as they'll derail first.

[Dawnofdarkness]

here is my plan for minecarts.

Siege offensive deployment.

Keep the doors locked instead of opening them and risking the whole fort. My thought is that if we can set the cart and tracks up right that we can launch the cart off the tracks. Now think of having a fully steel clad dwarf in that cart along with several others launching off the tracks over the walls and landing in the middle of an enemy invasion.

I MUST MAKE THIS WORK!!!

[blue sam3]

As far as speed detectors go, you don't need to rely on derailing. If you have a pressure plate hooked up to a clock arrangement of some kind, with a split based on that clock somewhere down the road a piece. That way, when the slow carts go over, they'll go past the junction (and thereby back around the loop) until they're fast enough to reach the split before the end of the clock cycle, when they'll shoot straight on and blast of to squish some goblins.

[Kel]

Except that's a lot more complicated.

[Itnetlolor]

Also, one thing I'm not sure on with regards to Itnetlolor's design: The first cart would keep speeding up and permanently be quicker than the carts behind it, meaning eventually it'll catch up with the ones behind it. So I don't think you can have multiple carts, as terminal velocity (which all the carts in the system would need to hit before the first cart hits the last) is greater than cart-derailing velocity, meaning they'll never hit it, as they'll derail first.

My design must have been mis-interpreted. Those extra carts were placed in a way so you can send them through one at a time. Sorta like a gun magazine/clip holds ammo. I'm not dumb enough to all at once. Plus, if you have a good sequence down (like 3 laps, and you know it'll go flying), then you can send one through, wait until the guaranteed escape velocity is reached (final lap), and then push the next one, and make sure to keep a decent stock made at the beginning. The setup is in case you can't walk over the carts (especially if filled), but can still push them out.

I guess my design follows OSHA compliance a bit primarily for dorf safety.

[Girlinhat]

Complexity won't be the issue, speed will be.  All the different structures have delayed.  Doors, floodgates, bridges, etc, they all have a 100 tick delay.  When you get the "on" switch, they either trigger instantly or trigger on the next tick.  When you get the "off" switch, they take a full 100 ticks to de-trigger.  If minecarts are moving at violent speeds, that 100 ticks will be far too short.

[andyman564]

Except that's a lot more complicated.

when has complicated ever been a bad thing?