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[Girlinhat]

When in doubt, add flight.  Crash a minecart into an undesirable creature while flying.

[Naryar]

Please, don't hurry :p  I'm still trying to come up with something creative and original to do with minecarts.

Well I just had. It's a minecart external active defense system.

Instead of simple stone walls, put several tracks around fortress entry, with frequent wind-powered roller systems. Each of these tracks has plenty of minecarts on each.

So when a goblin puts foot on the outer track, activate the system and release minecarts  ! WHAM ! Fatality !

May take more than one year and seven months, but maybe Mr. Frog wants to continue my project...

[Komra]

Ah, I see that the particle force-shield is already in place, then. Frog, any thoughts on lava delivery systems?

[Mr Frog]

Actually, assuming that magma-filled minecarts heat up their surroundings, it may be better to just line up a bunch of magma-filled iron carts in a corridor to route invaders through, because they'll just take the shortest path and ignore the fact that said path is lined with 12000šU magma-powered 'heating elements'. Dwarven Toaster?

Minecarts only seem to carry two units of magma at a time, so you'd probably need two magma carts operating side-by-side to fill areas before they can dry up, and even then you'd need a reservoir in case you need to do something faster than 2-4 units per cycle.

I'm thinking an easy-ish way to get magma up would be with a spiraling rampway wrapping around a long vertical pillar of gear assemblies and axles, with rollers being powered by the assemblies. I'm not fond of the potential mechanism or power requirements, though (and I think you'd also need to make the rollers out of magma-safe materials). Care would have to be taken to minimize the number of rollers needed (how many up-ramps can a single max-speed roller launch a cart up?)

[Komra]

(how many up-ramps can a single max-speed roller launch a cart up?)

Sounds like our next experiment.

[Aoi]

Reading that last bit about carts rolling magma around brought something to mind-- A ramp, a magmafall, a waterfall. Not sure if it's possible/feasible [and certainly not efficient, I'd think] though.

I'm not sure why I find it so amusing, but I have the image of a dwarf crafter pulling a lever to signal that he needs more obsidian, turning around and diving for cover as a cart full of freshly-made obsidian (from those two LOVELY shimmering blue/red curtains visible outside his window...) comes slamming into the wall right next to him.

[Girlinhat]

The issue with the obsidian caster, is that any way you build it, it generates a floor.  You'll create exactly one tile of obsidian which will not fall - it will be supported by the tracks.

Instead, I believe you need to "shotgun" magma and water out towards each other to collide in the middle.  The problem is, I believe they're "items" while in flight, and only become liquids when they stop moving.  So it may not be very easy.

[Trif]

Any news?

[Naryar]

Yeah, sorry about being late. IRL stuff is in the way, expect an update in... 3 - 4 hours ?

[Naryar]

Early Autumn, Year 5, Kelnimar

So it has been only one season.

The dwarves were crying for beer when I arrived. Being a mostly pragmatic overlord, I accepted their demands. Booze production has been installed and booze stocks are now sufficient. After all they will not work as well without beer. May as well slaughter a few animals to give them meat... when the horse population will be a bit bigger.



I have started the building of the minecart active denial system (aka minecart shield). It will take a bit of time, maybe I won't have enough time to finish it, at least I can make most of the infrastructure.



On z-1, , on the pits of Girlinhat's caravan FUN machine, there is a lone survivor trader elf that refuses to leave. While I develop dark, minecart-y plots to break some of his limbs, they seem not to succeed for now. Let us see what the future will hold for him.



Migration wave and a baby have brought population to 31. I just hope the pop will not explode. Am I allowed to limit popcap to 40 ?



Next update will be start of year 6, then I will probably make another update at the half of year 6 and then last update at year 7, with the stockpile. That will not take more than a day from now on, I believe.

[Girlinhat]

I didn't have Therapist, so my popcap was 0 (two waves).  You can do as you will with the population, let's try to keep it reasonable but I feel this fort will suffer many deaths, so some buffer population may be needed.

[Komra]

A more reasonable value may be 60 or so.

[Naryar]

I'm gonna put it at 40, so we reach 55-60 or so, and severely curb baby growth. After all we're here to build minecart systems, not lose the fort due to baby induced tantrum spiral.

Update coming in the following hours.

[Naryar]

Early Spring, Year 6, Kelnimar

Well, the minecart active denial system is nearly finished ! I estimate finishing it in two seasons.

Apart from building, the last half-year was quite uneventful. Just what I like for my project !

Some random goblin snatcher got off with a child. No tantrums followed, at least I didn't had any reports of it.

A bowyer went fey, and made an artifact bow. *sigh* You may kill him for being an elf sympathizer later, but he is useful for me for now as a woodcutter.



Some mechanic got crippled by a failed experiment. Oh well.

And here's how the minecart active denial system looks for now.

z-level 0



z-level +1



Slightly increased the size of the communal bedroom. Oh wait, there are dwarf skeletons and two ghosts in it ? Maybe I should make a graveyard...



A migrant wave increased the pop to 36, which is fine for me.



Next update will be the last, in one year or maybe less, when I will have finished and tested the active minecart denial system.

[Komra]

...You have ONE engineer? How does that work?