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[Xebeth]

Or catapults that fire-anything.

Fetchez la vache!

[HorridOwn4ge]

What will happen to people who 'accidently' step on the rollers? I seriously hope you guys do know this.

[Kebdull]

I went back and handled some random things -- tracks in ice, route/stop nicknames, etc. to avoid storing them up. Next we'll have haulers hitching rides on carts. Hopefully that code linking vehicles/projectiles and units will also set up some horrifying possibilities for collisions of carts and units, which is also coming up.

Nothing as impressive this time, sounds like a bit of drudge coding.  Except the headlines may be foreshadowed.

"300 found dead in massive 750 cart pileup inexplicably located in Olivine Quarry #32"

I remember my morbid interest in simulating this in the early transport tycoon and rollercoaster tycoon games.

This will game will be no exception.

[Korva]

My first thought on "hitch a ride on the cart"? Rollercoasters!

Urist McHauler has been ecstatic lately. She enjoyed a thrilling ride on a mine cart.

[blue sam3]

What if Toady upgrades the town system so villagers can use carts to travel from and to towns efficiently.

I highly doubt that, but I was about to ponder whether a minecart could be useable in adventure mode by the player... I can imagine building a rail line across the distance between major forts through the use of 16x2 (or 1) embarks with railways crossing them. You'd just need little jumps to cross the gaps between embarks (due to the fact that you couldn't build up to the map's edge, but it may be possible for embarks to overlap if you use an embark-anywhere-esque utility.)

Since you can engrave fortifications on map edges, I see no reason why you wont be able to engrave tracks there too.

[dreadmullet]

Important unknown: do rollers have a fixed direction? It would be strange if they just accelerated a cart along any direction. If they do have a fixed direction, it would be trivial to set up a goblin grinder this way:

Code: [Select]

          ++++
##########++++##########
##########++++##########
#=>>>==============<<<=#
##########++++##########
##########++++##########
          ++++

#      wall
+      floor
=      minecart track
>>>    rollers

[Xebeth]

Important unknown: do rollers have a fixed direction?

Toady, will there be mechanism powered carts? Will we be able to link the carts to a waterwheel or whatever?

The carts can't be linked, but there are powered sections of the track that go in one of the four possible directions.

[kaypy]

Based on a few assumptions/extrapolations from Toady's words on the matter:
Carts will happily drive off a dead end onto further track "if a track deadends into a corner without actually forming a T, it'll allow the cart to pass into the corner without disruption"
Carts will drive onto and off of bridges in the same fashion (assumption)
Carts on bridges will ignore underlying terrain and go straight ahead (assumption)
Tracks must be laid/carved in lengths of at least 2 to give them their direction (guess based on "you have to do them in 1-wide/high rectangular sections to get the connections established between tiles")

I present the pinwheel junction:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Coloured blocks are retractable bridges

Carts will (if my assumptions hold) be sent from any incoming track down the paths corresponding to any extended bridges. If multiple bridges are extended, they turn right till they find the first extended bridge.

[darklord92]

I'm curious if the downhill rule may apply for minecarts in df as they do in minecraft.


that if you drop a minecart onto a slope it rolls down it


EG:
__________
#######
_________
#######\________
#############

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Loud Whispers]

Toady pretty much confirmed that in the dev logs.

[LordDemon]

Will the carts have max speed?

Will it be possible to break the speed of light by making a small round loop with many accelerators, so that the cart get's more speed on each turn then it loses?

How about making a zero gain track set, one that will have carts gaining as much energy as they lose each turn. This could make a great steady repeater for trigger.

[Garath]

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned there is a max speed, though it was pretty high

[ThatAussieGuy]

You can't do a closed-loop accelerator as Toady's said the carts will derail on tight turns past a certain speed threshold

[rtg593]

You can't do a closed-loop accelerator as Toady's said the carts will derail on tight turns past a certain speed threshold

Heh. Just pictured engraving tracks on the wall of a high speed turn...

If only ramps worked slightly differently, we could conceivably carve sideways tracks into one at a 45 degree angle, allow much faster speeds on turns...

This is going to be fun:D

[KodKod]

The real question is, who's going to be the first to make a scale model of this in Dwarf Fortress?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And of course it wouldn't be complete without a number of ghosts to haunt it.