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[Garath]

can minecarts be used off-track?

are minecarts mood resultable?

[Sphalerite]

Are minecarts moved by moving liquids?  Is it possible to use pumps to spray water on passing minecarts to speed them up?  Can we use this to make a linear minecart accelerator?

[Nil Eyeglazed]

I gotta agree-- the potential for science is exhilarating.

[Ubiq]

The only thing that I really want to know:

Can a dwarf get into one of them?

Because I really want to launch Urist McKnieval and his towercap minecart decorated with bands of sapphire and ruby across a major river canyon. Well, after embarking with 10,000 points worth of platinum ore just so so that I can have him jump an entire row of wagons first.

On a minor issue, I wonder what happens when a cart in midflight hits the edge of the map? Does it immediately plummet straight down, just hang there in midair, or does it gracefully sail off the map?

[adasdad]

megaproject proposal:

if carts can be ridden, create a massive minecart system all throughout the world (with multiple embarks), and zip around in it as an adventurer.

edit: dwarvenly forceconvince elves to join in the fun, and pull a central lever that redirects all the carts to HFS.

[Talvieno]

I added track "stop" constructions, which greatly increase the friction in a square and cause (most) carts to stop (say, blocks, narrowing grooves, whatever might work). These stopping points will generally be where the hauling jobs take place. There are constructed tracks, and bridges now also act as tracks. Pressure plates can be given a weight range for being triggered by carts. I tested it out by making a retracting bridge system that sorted carts by whether or not they were loaded. I knew it was working when I started making little kerchunk sounds at the screen. There are powered "rollers" placed in strips that increase the speed of minecarts in a given direction, up to a point (more than enough to get them up a ramp, anyway). I don't have an engineering sense at all, so you can imagine the rollers to be... whatever you like. Perhaps they even make sense. Carts can also collide with each other, whether they are on the ground or in the air, and are generally one-cart-per-tile, though that can be violated where the code treats them more like general items (I doubt I'll be able to catch all of the cases, but I'll try to get the ones that matter). It will require a bit of tweaking to look good, but I did stack some carts vertically and shot a cart through the air into the middle of the stack, disrupting it, so that was fun.

This answers so, so many things. The rollers (preferred method of initial propulsion) the stopping points (what it says on the tin), the fact that minecarts can roll over bridges and pressure plates (awesome, and allows for advanced logic gates), and the fact that cars can collide with each other. Also, the amount of material in a minecart matters as to how heavy they are - so lead-filled minecarts causing mayhem is a complete possibility!

Also,

I did stack some carts vertically

How did we never think of this?!?!

Finally,

I knew it was working when I started making little kerchunk sounds at the screen.

Imagining Toady doing this is very, very lolworthy.

[Chronomancer]

You...can....stack....carts....vertically.....

SIEGE TOWERS READY!

[tahujdt]

Whether or not Toady intends for dwarves to get cart rides, bay12ers will find a way. Maybe cage dwarves, then transport them.

[nzybwnb]

Whether or not Toady intends for dwarves to get cart rides, bay12ers will find a way. Maybe cage dwarves, then transport them.

Yes, that could be a way. It would be awkward to do this generally, but once in a while to jump new migrants over the Great Chasm into the fortress could be fun.

Welcome to Howlingfalls. We hope you enjoy your ride.

[Kerosene]

Carts can also collide with each other, whether they are on the ground or in the air

Bonus dwarfbucks to whoever can cause a midair collision. Or, even better, weaponize. Maybe fill them with magma, launch, have them collide with other carts/walls and detonate. Or shoot flying mounts.

Urist McAntiAirGunner: "Those giant cave swallow mounts weren't such a good idea, were they?!"

[Talvieno]

Carts can also collide with each other, whether they are on the ground or in the air

Bonus dwarfbucks to whoever can cause a midair collision. Or, even better, weaponize. Maybe fill them with magma, launch, have them collide with other carts/walls and detonate. Or shoot flying mounts.

Urist McAntiAirGunner: "Those giant cave swallow mounts weren't such a good idea, were they?!"

Okay, how about this: One cart filled with magma... one cart with water... both launched up ramps at the same time at each other, over a goblin siege. Instant obsidian is formed in midair, crumbling downwards and causing a cave-in effect - wiping them out. THAT is dwarfy.

[FearfulJesuit]

So ramps can be powered...and carts can be stacked...

We will out-Goldberg Rube Goldberg. We will forge in the smithy of our souls the uncreated conscience of the dwarven race.

[MrWiggles]

It'll be pretty awkward for us to stack minecarts. Toady gets to cheat and debug them into play.

We'll have to make cargo cart chutes, and drop them, with maybe some scaffolding on the side to help maintain their shape.

[Urist Da Vinci]

... There are powered "rollers" placed in strips that increase the speed of minecarts in a given direction, up to a point (more than enough to get them up a ramp, anyway). I don't have an engineering sense at all, so you can imagine the rollers to be... whatever you like. Perhaps they even make sense. ...

The only real-life use of drive wheels/rollers that I can find is in roller coaster systems. Note that old roller coasters pulled the cart to the highest point using a chain, and then let gravity take over. Drive wheels are a newer technology, and more modern roller coasters use electric linear motors and such. Historically, minecarts were pushed or pulled around by people (yay for child labor!) and ponies (bigger horses wouldn't fit in the mines).

While I'd prefer to see draft animals pulling carts (another type of animal training besides war and hunting?), the addition of powered cart accelerators makes the construction of dwarven railguns easier.

[Talvieno]

It'll be pretty awkward for us to stack minecarts. Toady gets to cheat and debug them into play.

We'll have to make cargo cart chutes, and drop them, with maybe some scaffolding on the side to help maintain their shape.

Not really.

(where "u" is a minecart. Side view.)

If you do this:

Code: [Select]

    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
    ___________ <---u
_______________ <---uYou can get them (hopefully) to all stack, and they'd have a forwards momentum as well.