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[SuicideJunkie]

It would be nice if the acceleration was at least somewhat related to the power input.
Then those 20 KiloUrist megaproject powerplants would have a use; powering lead minecarts up to lightspeed in order to spread demon salsa across the entire embark.

[dreiche2]

Im sceptical about this whole minecart thing. I mean, if we had some simple explosives to put into the carts they'd propably make great weapons. But I can't see them becoming efficient for the transport of items unless they transport a dwarf and the dwarf considers the minecart in his pathfinding.

But I think the point is that minecarts can be automated -- they go downhill by themselves, or uphill with mechanical power. That means no dwarf needs to be involved in the hauling at all (only at the ends), nor would there have to be any pathfinding btw. because the cart simply follows the track...

[Garath]

They'd need to be hand started after getting filled, possibly

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Heh. Devlog post today made me think of minecart logic engines. Now what would we use those for?

I know, me too.

I don't think minecarts would probably be that useful for logic-- I mean, to make it work, it sounds like you'd need power, and if you have power, mechanical logic would probably be faster and take up less space.  You could do it-- probably more with creature logic principles than anything else-- but you'd be doing it for the novelty, not because minecarts are the best solution.

But if minecarts set off pressure plates, they're probably going to be very useful as finely tuneable repeaters.  Especially if, say, one loaded with something heavy accelerates more slowly than one that's empty.

[SRD]

"The carts are full! Let's just push them to the next stop now.."

-The dwarf has collided with an obstacle-
-The lower body has been severed in half-
-The dwarf explodes in gore!-
-The kitten has collided with an obstacle x59-
-The child is infected after playing in the gore-

"Saw that one coming."

[Gigaz]

But I think the point is that minecarts can be automated -- they go downhill by themselves, or uphill with mechanical power. That means no dwarf needs to be involved in the hauling at all (only at the ends), nor would there have to be any pathfinding btw. because the cart simply follows the track...

One can already transport items downhill quickly by just letting them fall down.

Lets just say you want to transport iron from the surface 100 z-levels to the magma and weapons and armor back up to the surface. You need dwarfs to load and unload the minecarts. They must work at exactly the same speed to avoid minecart traffic jams. A high hauler must not consider the deep hauling jobs or they'll walk up and down as they always did. And the whole thing must run so quick that it beats a dwarf with a bin full of armor walking up 100 z-levels.

[Loud Whispers]

-The child is infected after playing in the gore-

I wonder how injured the kid was before he started rolling in the corpses...

[SRD]

Probably missing a mouth from the cart hitting him in the back.

[dreiche2]

One can already transport items downhill quickly by just letting them fall down.

Can this be automated? Moreover the carts also can do horizontal travel with occasional downward ramps.

Lets just say you want to transport iron from the surface 100 z-levels to the magma and weapons and armor back up to the surface. You need dwarfs to load and unload the minecarts.

Yes. So?

They must work at exactly the same speed to avoid minecart traffic jams. A high hauler must not consider the deep hauling jobs or they'll walk up and down as they always did.

Well, we don't know how it's implemented yet. But at this point it seems not unreasonable to hope that Toady implements the system in a way that it, well, works.

And the whole thing must run so quick that it beats a dwarf with a bin full of armor walking up 100 z-levels.

Why? Even if it's slower, it's still frees up one dwarf (or more) from long distance hauling.

[SRD]

Minecarts should also theoretically hold ALOT more 'armour' than the average dwarf.
Minecarts could be linked into a chain, therefore 5 minecarts holding around 50 boots (5 bins) = 250 boots (or socks) which frees up 250 dwarves taking a sock each.. or 25 dwarves taking a bin each.

[Talvieno]

One can already transport items downhill quickly by just letting them fall down.

Can this be automated?

Yep. Designate a 1-tile zone directly adjacent to a deep vertical shaft, mark the zone as a garbage dump. Dwarves dumping items will throw everything into the shaft, rather than dropping it on the floor tile. Works with cliffs, too. Or really any size pit.

Minecarts should also theoretically hold ALOT more 'armour' than the average dwarf.
Minecarts could be linked into a chain, therefore 5 minecarts holding around 50 boots (5 bins) = 250 boots (or socks) which frees up 250 dwarves taking a sock each.. or 25 dwarves taking a bin each.

This first part is true. I imagine minecarts will probably carry more than the amount a bin would. Plus, Toady never specified just how fast one bin-bearing dwarf could travel.
However, the second part - linking minecarts in a chain - sounds a lot like a train... which, again, Toady has said no to.

Gigaz has a point - which, incidentally, is the same one I made several pages back.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

But I think the point is that minecarts can be automated -- they go downhill by themselves, or uphill with mechanical power. That means no dwarf needs to be involved in the hauling at all (only at the ends), nor would there have to be any pathfinding btw. because the cart simply follows the track...

One can already transport items downhill quickly by just letting them fall down.

That's harder to make work than you make it sound.  You can do that by using a garbage zone, but then you can't use a garbage zone for what they're for, which is, you know, dropping garbage.  And you can't do any kind of sorting with a garbage zone-- fisher berry seeds and large iron mail shirts will end up at the same destination.  Setting up complicated mechanics, just to allow dropping with sorting, is already done, even though it doesn't work super well.

Lets just say you want to transport iron from the surface 100 z-levels to the magma and weapons and armor back up to the surface. You need dwarfs to load and unload the minecarts. They must work at exactly the same speed to avoid minecart traffic jams. A high hauler must not consider the deep hauling jobs or they'll walk up and down as they always did. And the whole thing must run so quick that it beats a dwarf with a bin full of armor walking up 100 z-levels.

One of the things that minecarts enable is physically separated burrows.  If minecarts can jump, they can cross space that dwarves cannot.  (And I betcha they can cross channels full of water too.)  If they're reasonably automated, that means easy movement of goods between physically isolated dwarves.  In other words-- that hauler, 100 z-levels down, probably doesn't even have path to the trade depot.

A traffic jam shouldn't lead to waste of labor-- it should lead to a delay in the chain.  Hopefully, more minecarts at the depot equals more "fill minecart" jobs grabbing more dwarves, same as a stockpile.  In order to be a time-saving device, the whole thing needs to be faster than a dwarf (I for one hope it is not!), but it's much easier if your criterion is that it saves labor.  If it requires two dwarves taking ten steps to move a single unit of goods, then it doesn't matter if it takes a year to travel 100 z-levels-- it has saved dwarven labor.

[Garath]

and dropping it works yes, but again, you need a dwarf to haul every item and pit it and a dwarf to pick it up at delivery. Just as efficient, then. But if minecarts can carry more than a dwarf, which seems likely, going up is definately more efficient.

No mention was made of more than one cart on a track. If there are two, they would not make a train but collide, but you can send them off at suitable distances of eachother so a lighter one wouldn't bump into a slower one. You'll just need to make 2 ramps, one for the up track one for the way down.

on the seperate burrows:
minecarts trigger pressure plates, so one aproaching could trigger a bridge to open, then after passing the bridge trigger it to be raised again.

[SRD]

+ I've seen dwarven necromancers..

I even had a 'dwarven royal consort necromancer' or something in my refuse pile!

[vomov]

on the seperate burrows:
minecarts trigger pressure plates, so one aproaching could trigger a bridge to open, then after passing the bridge trigger it to be raised again.

Where Urist McHungry finds himself catapulted after going for the cheese on the other end.