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Author Topic: Making minecart rails more visible and fun  (Read 4268 times)

NW_Kohaku

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Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« on: April 09, 2012, 11:14:25 pm »

Two parts to this:

I'm using inverted double lines for rails.  Those'll either be distinguished from the hidden engravings walls through a color convention, or hidden engraving walls will be altered entirely.  I don't like single line rails.

I'd like to see an init option or raw option to change the tiles for this for those of us with alternate graphics packs - similar to some of the stuff Mike Mayday has talked about in the past.

There is little reason to constrain players with tileset limitations on this issue, and it just further overloads an unnecessarily overloaded tileset further.

The carts do not switch freely at junctions.  You can prepare a multitile junction as described above, and there might be switches later as mentioned above.  At stop tiles, where a dwarf sets it on its way, you get a full fourway ability to send it on its way.  Runaway carts hitting a T-junction will not pick a side -- they will continue on in violence.

In the multitile junctions, it doesn't care so much about the direction, so a cart coming up the wrong way will just continue along down the track.

I haven't done links to stops, though that's a reasonable enough thing to do.  The track can't be powered under the stops since we are still stuck with the one building per tile limit, and the powered rollers are a building (like axles and gears).

For pure dwarfy bliss, what we really need is the ability to automate many of these cart pushes. 

That means not just launching them by automated mechanism push, but also by allowing for the ability to turn the direction a launcher from a stop actually launches a cart.  (Or to think of it another way, putting an intersection on a turn-table.)

If we can have pressure-plate sensors that determine where carts are coming from that can be used with cart/water/mechanism logic to automate the logistics of where a cart will need to go, we can use this to create cart logic systems of far greater and more fun or potentially Fun complexity.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2012, 09:20:02 pm by NW_Kohaku »
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Lysabild

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2012, 04:13:03 am »

Posting for visibility.
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Draco18s

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2012, 03:21:38 pm »

I'm sure I'm going to take some flak for this...
* Draco18s dons flak jacket
...but couldn't T-junctions work like how they do in Minecraft?

The model is a bit limiting, but it's a relatively simple and workable system.
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NW_Kohaku

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2012, 03:33:28 pm »

I'm sure I'm going to take some flak for this...
* Draco18s dons flak jacket
...but couldn't T-junctions work like how they do in Minecraft?

The model is a bit limiting, but it's a relatively simple and workable system.

I don't know, how do they work in Minecraft?  I've never played it.

In the FotF thread, though, we've been talking about how bridges could be used to come down over a normal corner, and since bridges count as "rails" and do not provide turns, it would functionally make a bridge that overlays a regular corner turn into a functional T-junction switch if you don't mind the "bottom" of that "T" not having a choice in which direction it turns (unless you set up dual T-junctions).
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Draco18s

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2012, 04:21:55 pm »

I don't know, how do they work in Minecraft?  I've never played it.

Lots of info on the Minewiki.

In particular, I am referring to this:

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the_game_hunt

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2012, 06:15:47 pm »

(offtopic)YAY!!! Minecraft!!!(offtopic)

Posting for keeping this alive, since i like this.

EDIT: Also connecting a lever to a "special rail" rotates the rail. Something like in the picture but in-game.

« Last Edit: April 15, 2012, 06:26:57 pm by the_game_hunt »
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Burmalay

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2012, 02:51:57 pm »

To make "stops" usable the minecarts needs to slip out of track corner at high speed. So you need to slow minecarts down at the corners to make them stable. This stability may depends on weight of minecart content. So controlling of minecart weight will be usable too for "push off" restrictions/rules.
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10ebbor10

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2012, 03:34:00 pm »

To make "stops" usable the minecarts needs to slip out of track corner at high speed. So you need to slow minecarts down at the corners to make them stable. This stability may depends on weight of minecart content. So controlling of minecart weight will be usable too for "push off" restrictions/rules.
I think that happens already. Toady said it somewhere in the FoF thread.
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Burmalay

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #8 on: May 17, 2012, 02:38:13 am »

I think it must be an option at stops to chose want you dump items or not. Like if you trying to make a shotgun or catapult, when minecart & its content hits the ground, everybody starts gather this staff to bring it it its former positions & die because of enemy.
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CorruptUser

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #9 on: May 17, 2012, 02:56:04 am »

Elevators for minecarts?  Like, a hoist in a mineshaft; quite sure those existed long before windmills did.  Could be connected to a power system so dwarves don't have to slowly raise everything.

I want to create my very own rolling ball sculpture, but with dwarves.

Also, I was sure minecarts would take more than 1 space to turn; seems kind of sharp.  Like, it should take 2 spaces.

So

   
||
\\=

instead of

||
L=

Basically, the track turns 45 degrees each square rather than 90 degrees (or pi/4 instead of pi/2 in you hate degrees).  So to make a u-turn the track will be 4 wide instead of 2.  Also, diagonal track will let us create the better junctions.  But, you know, complicated.



Also, bit of a stupid question, but where do I get the bugfixes from?  Do I just re-download 34.08?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2012, 03:17:10 am by CorruptUser »
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Burmalay

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #10 on: May 17, 2012, 04:24:35 am »

sorry
missed with post
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Sadrice

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #11 on: May 17, 2012, 04:35:52 am »

The bugfixes haven't been released yet, they'll be 34.09.
Also, toady said he doesn't like diagonal tracks, so I think we're stuck with right angle corners.
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Burmalay

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #12 on: May 17, 2012, 04:56:34 am »

Minecart fall on ramp must be fixed i think.
Or it would be cool if: when the minecart are gain some speed & when it's collide with the ground (falling from...) or wall (door, floodgate, raised bridge), it must destroy it =)
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Draco18s

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #13 on: May 17, 2012, 07:39:59 am »

   
||
\\=

instead of

||
L=

You realize those are both 90 degree turns in a single tile, yes?


#|#
#L_  <-- 90 degree turn, obviously.
###


#|#
#\_  <-- Same amount of turn, same amount of space.  Still a 90 degree turn.
###
« Last Edit: May 17, 2012, 07:42:23 am by Draco18s »
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CorruptUser

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Re: Making minecart rails more visible and fun
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2012, 12:06:38 pm »

Currently cart moves from

#[]#    #||#    #||#
#L=     #[]=     #L []
###    ###     ###

Versus

#[]#   #||#
#\\#   #\\[]
###   ###

But once the cart is in the second position, it can then go to a track on the south, southeast, or east of it.


Sorry if it was poorly drawn, basically the cart moves diagonally to the next track instead of hitting the corner.  The corner is still built, even though the cart isn't on it.  Though an adjacent track turn may also be on the corner.  It can't change directions more than 45 degrees without tipping over, so some Fun if you don't design it right.  Especially when carts can carry magma, supposedly.

But yeah, may be too complicated for what it's worth.

Wait, can they are can't they carry magma, do both the track and cart have to be magma-safe, etc?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2012, 12:11:24 pm by CorruptUser »
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