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[FearfulJesuit]

Well, I ask because I know you can dig tracks into natural floors. I'm starting a new fortress and I'm thinking about digging out the space for the tracks now so I can dig tracks into the floor- but I need to know if I should just channel where the ramps are now.

[kaenneth]

Tonight, I had a very short dream about Dwarf Fortress. I saw a small part of a fortress, and it had some minecarts. Their symbol was 0, but they had a very stupid color like orange or purple. I didn't see any tracks.
It also was a tileset I don't recall seeing before.

I had a dream last night that there was a new devlog entry, and he wrote something about a hitherto unknown girlfriend named Katarina.

"She's not into video games, but that won't stop me from working on them"

[Sadrice]

I can't help but wonder how much we're importing real-world physics and shouldn't be. Sure, you have to store a real-world cart in a slowed speed, but you also can't create real-world kinetic energy out of nowhere, and that rule's as broke as a two-dollar watch.

I believe she was referring to how minecarts won't be able to corner at top speed, so any holding loop will have a maximum speed limited by the cornering speed of the cart in question, and it would probably be easier to just use chained rollers to get them up to that speed. 

You could instead build a holding tower, with minecarts at the top being accelerated via rollers to the maximum speed rollers can provide, and then go down ramps for more speed, assuming falling has a higher maximum speed than rollers (did toady actually ever say that, or am I just assuming?).

[Trif]

I just had an idea for the awesomest Kobold trap:
An exceptional gold idol is put into a minecart, which is placed on a pressure plate. The pressure plate is in the middle of a great empty hall with a 1-tile wide, trapped hallway to the outside.
When the Kobold removes the gold idol, the pressure plate untriggers. The Kobold thief tries to flee with the loot through the trapped hallway. Meanwhile, a very heavy minecart will be released and accelerated, entering the escape hallway. With no space to dodge, it should hit the Kobold right in the back. If the collision doesn't kill the thief outright, it should at least break some bones, resulting in the Kobold passing out on the traps.
If that's not dramatic enough, the ceilings could slowly collapse.

[Eric Blank]

Unfortunately ceilings have a specific speed of collapse. Namely the speed of light.

[Captain Swing]

That camera tracking sounds amazing, I'm going to use that all the time.
I wonder what happens if you follow a stack of bolts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn1zogeyO4

[Karakzon]

I just had an idea for the awesomest Kobold trap:
An exceptional gold idol is put into a minecart, which is placed on a pressure plate. The pressure plate is in the middle of a great empty hall with a 1-tile wide, trapped hallway to the outside.
When the Kobold removes the gold idol, the pressure plate untriggers. The Kobold thief tries to flee with the loot through the trapped hallway. Meanwhile, a very heavy minecart will be released and accelerated, entering the escape hallway. With no space to dodge, it should hit the Kobold right in the back. If the collision doesn't kill the thief outright, it should at least break some bones, resulting in the Kobold passing out on the traps.
If that's not dramatic enough, the ceilings could slowly collapse.

So long as you engrave: Indianna jones on the memorial slab.

[Monk321654]

What if they chuck a sandbag in, huh?
No, wait, that didn't work...

[Garath]

I'm just happy thief froggers is a go

[blue sam3]

The issue is, at basics, if you cannot keep a cart spinning at top speed, that means they must be stored in a slowed, or an inert state.  You cannot easily keep a cart at maximum stored energy.  Of all the "circular holding cells" that might be designed, it would still be easier to simply put a series of rollers in a line and shunt a cart off at top speed.

Some abuse of ramps and doors may be important.  If done right, you could have a cart parked on a ramp, locked by a door.  When it opens, it'll run down the ramp and into the rollers, allowing for rather quick deployment.

It seems to me that it would be quite easy to keep a cart at a specific point at top speed essentially constantly. Just have a big ramp down to it (big enough to hit the max speed), and some kind of mechanical system to pull everything back up again. Then you just need to put enough minecarts on it that there's almost always one in the entrance spot and you're done. Just open the exit bridge at whatever point you like and watch the whole lot fly out.

[jimi12]

Fortress Defense Strategy:

Build a 4 or 5 rows or parallel tracks along the outside perimeter or your fortress. Fill each track with as many rollers as possible. Place twenty minecarts on each track. You can build a retractable bridge on ramps for caravan access. You now have an orbital minecart defense system.

[Garath]

don't forget to slow em down slightly for turning corners.

[kaenneth]

Trap I want to build:

Top level is a standard 'dodge this' trap, causing goblins to drop below.
Below is a row of empty mine carts on parallel track/down ramps leading away from the drop.
Triggered by the added weight of the now-stunned goblin, the cart in release/propelled along a short track of rollers/down slopes.
This also releases a mine cart on another track, which is similarly accelerated.
Goblin and Cart go flying off a ramp at the end in a graceful arc.
Simultaneously, the other cart goes flying into a graceful arc from the opposite direction.
Carts collide in mid-air, dropping goblin onto spikes/lava/another mine cart...

Depends on being able to give involuntary mine cart rides to otherwise unrestrained creatures; and if once the cart is at high speed, the goblin should be unable to exit the vehicle without injury.

[riznar]

For efficiency, send stunned goblins and steel carts through a magmafall with the exit next to your stockpiles.

[Garath]

minecarts won't be able to carry passengers for a while and they'll probably be able to in adventure mode before fort mode.

I still want a mood minecart

This is a platinum minecart. All craftdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encircled with bands of diamond. It menaces with spikes of steel. On it is an image in obsidian. The image shows a kobold, the kobold makes a plaintif gesture. The image relates to the striking down of the kobold by a minecart during the fifth ambush. It is adorned by hanging rings of kobold bone.

related: Urist McCareless has been very happy lately. He has sustained serious injuries lately. He has admired a truly sublime minecart lately. He had to drink water lately.