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[Girlinhat]

Also of note: Spears fly over walls.  I lost a dwarf by the name of "Useless" when a spear went to high and struck him in the heart (literally).

Thank you Useless.  You have contributed more to science than you ever did to the fortress.

EDIT: Two things to note.
1: I constructed 5 railways, 5 long each, ending in a ramp and wall.  5x roller length on all of them, so 5 identical launching platforms.  Firing iron minecarts, they all achieve the exact same flight every single time.  Additionally, an alder wood cart went the exact same distance.
2: The Nanny Goat's left eye skids along the ground, bruising it!

[webber]

My research provided absolutely crazy result. Again.

So, I have a water-filled channel with ramps and a roller. Minecart number one stands on the end ramp. Minecart number two is pushed into the channel from the beginning.
Guess what?
They do not collide. When minecart 2 touches the roller, minecart 1 suddenly gains speed and flies up the ramp.
They are 50 tiles away from each other.

[Maxmurder]

They are 50 tiles away from each other.

Mincart quantum entanglement?

[Gigaz]

Does anyone have an idea when it would actually be useful to choose "ride" instead of "push" or "guide"?

I think there are some theoretical possibilities but they rely strongly on locking and unlocking a path for dwarf and minecart.

[Girlinhat]

If you've got rollers and/or hills, then riding is quicker than pushing.

[Psieye]

Does anyone have an idea when it would actually be useful to choose "ride" instead of "push" or "guide"?

I think there are some theoretical possibilities but they rely strongly on locking and unlocking a path for dwarf and minecart.

Well planned job permissions. For example, only plant threshers are allowed to haul food and work with vehicles. They deliver and instantly start work on the other end of the track where the workspace is isolated from the outside world. Ok, maybe not threshers but you get the idea.

Actually, what happens when hauling permissions get mixed around? Will stone haulers load a minecart but not guide/push/ride it unless they also have vehicle permission?

[jwest23]

I haven't looked yet, but is there a way to assign a dwarf to a cart in a manner similar to assigning them to a lever?

Then you might have a dwarf fill a cart, ride it to the next stop, and unload it.  Practically.  There are lots of impractical ways that I can think of to use that.

Otherwise, I suppose you could use the ride option for escape pods.

"Thank you for pulling the self-destruct lever.  The fortress will self-destruct in three minutes."

[Gigaz]

Well planned job permissions. For example, only plant threshers are allowed to haul food and work with vehicles. They deliver and instantly start work on the other end of the track where the workspace is isolated from the outside world. Ok, maybe not threshers but you get the idea.

I thought about that, too, but this solution is always less efficient then strict seperation of loading and unloading the vehicle.
The only important situations for a dwarf to walk are when he must go to the food stockpile, to his workshop, to the dining room or to his bed.

I'm quite sure that he can't ride to his bed. If he can path there, he will. If he can't, he falls asleep immediately.
But if he comes from his bedroom, one could build a fake workplace. When he approaches it, he must instead be locked in with a minecart so that he is forced to ride the cart wherever it takes him.

[PsychicKid]

So. How the hell do you actually use these things? '-'

[Psieye]

So. How the hell do you actually use these things? '-'

You need stockpiles on both the start and the end (unless you do auto-dump at the track stop). Minecarts are made at a carpenter's (at first). Tracks can be engraved in stone floors. You need to set 'h'auling routes for minecarts to be used. That's the basics, the rest the user interface should guide you through.

[webber]

By the way, it looks like we can easily move minor quantities of magma anywhere now, without pistons/pumps. Just fill some minecarts with it and assign them to be emptied where you need. Three minecarts must be enough for magma forge.
Still have to test this.

[greenskye]

I'm not able to test this right now, but has anyone used the "guide" option to go up ramps? Does that seem to be effective? Seems like the best way to move magma up quickly is just to set up a track and have dwarves guide carts full of magma up to the surface.

[Gigaz]

I think I found something that is important about minecarts:

They seem to work like a draisine. When a dwarf rides a minecart, it does not need energy.
If he is instead orderer to guide a minecart, he does not need a track. But he will respect his traffic restrictions and haul the heavy cart full of items the whole way.

[penguinofhonor]

I'm not able to test this right now, but has anyone used the "guide" option to go up ramps? Does that seem to be effective? Seems like the best way to move magma up quickly is just to set up a track and have dwarves guide carts full of magma up to the surface.

I'm waiting on a cart to empty out for the guide feature right now (edit: man, it emptied out and got guided right as the human caravan got her so i was distracted. I'm not sure if it was pushed up the ramp or carried.).

Discovery: dwarves will not push a cart directly down a ramp. As in, there has to be a square of non-ramp track for it to get pushed onto before the dwarves will push it.

Also, food carts aren't going to have as much capacity as finished good carts because the stacks of [5] or so food you end up with take up a lot of space. You'll still probably fit a good 100 units of food, it'll just be like 20 different stacks of 5 instead of 100 different finished goods.

[rhesusmacabre]

I tried sending a cart with a rider down a 25z ramp and across the cavern lake (north to south):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It made it!

As you can see, the cart skipped 3 times. Notice how the distance decreases each time. I reckon another 12-15 tiles max, maybe.