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[Burmalay]

II'm trying to figure out how to get a minecart to fill up with magma without it getting stuck and without needing power. There is no way to get any power down where I need it for rollers. I Have the cart dip through a 1 tile ramp channel. It works fine when its empty, but when it is full of magma, it gets stuck. If I pour magma onto a cart from above, does that fill it up too?

IDK works it or not? but try to build rollers with magmasafe material in a trench where you fill up your carts. Connect this trench with magma sea. If you need power, try to connect rollers with gears from below. I think it can work. & you can build mini power plant down there.

[Uristocrat]

Why don't you just transport a few tiles worth of magma *up* 100z and use it to place magma workshops near the surface?

Because that's not as fun!

What do we have minecarts for at all if we aren't going to do unnecessarily complex giant logistics circuits with them?

So we can attack the circus with whales?

[Heedicalking]

how exactly do ramps work? im pushing my cart to the south but it just goes over my NS ramp?

[webber]

Just discovered a very unpleasant fact. If there is no access to the end stop of the route (for example, the cart is supposed to fall through the pit, or move through the pressure plates controlled door, and there is no other way to the destination point), the dwarves will not ride it.

[The Grackle]

Just discovered a very unpleasant fact. If there is no access to the end stop of the route (for example, the cart is supposed to fall through the pit, or move through the pressure plates controlled door, and there is no other way to the destination point), the dwarves will not ride it.

Try just having one stop, the first one, in a route. 

[GoldenShadow]

All I needed was a single tile of magma to create an obsidian plug in an aquifer leak. I dug out a room too big and flooded it. I managed to create a track form the magma sea to the surface and dumped magma on the tile to seal it from being flooded.

Turns out, you don't even to connect the two points with tracks. Just set up a small section that you push a steel minecart into a lava channel. If it gets stuck, use a pond zone to turn it into obsidian and mine it out. the steel minecart will still be there and full of magma [833] You Then have another small track section where you want to deposit the magma and reassign the same minecart to the new spot. The dwarves will haul it by foot, which will be slow since its heavy, but it will arrive eventually.

All we need to do to create magma forges on the surface is a few iron minecarts full of magma. They hauled the minecart with magma [833] to the furniture stockpile. It seems like a quick, dirty method to get magma forges on your ore layers without expensive pump stacks or mining and labor intensive pistons.

[Robotic]

Some testing suggests that we could build a dwarf-powered long distance cart launcher by having a dwarf kick a heavy cart into a light cart, because the kicking appears to set the cart's velocity, while when two carts collide it appears that (one of) the moving cart(s) will stop, and the other cart assumes all momentum and gains a speed proportional to its mass. Further research is required.

In fortress mode, I used a 5z downward ramp to a 3 space flat area then a two tile upward track, and platinum 856w vs featherwood 4w minecarts.  I had the dwarves ride them and push them. 

A platinum cart colliding with another platinum cart travels equally as far as a platinum cart colliding with a featherwood cart. 13 squares.

A featherwood cart hitting a platinum cart doesn't move it very far if at all.

Two featherwood carts hitting each other go the same distance.  13 squares.  Two platinum carts hitting each other go the same distance.  It also seems like once I'd hit a platinum cart into a ramp if it were assigned to a stop it wouldn't always get taken back to a stockpile thus causing a traffic jam at the end of the ramp if the dwarves were grabbing and re-tracking the carts too fast.

Am I missing something about "kicking" them?

how exactly do ramps work? im pushing my cart to the south but it just goes over my NS ramp?

The ramps describe the directions in which they go.  A NS ramp both ramps the north and south of the tile, thus creating a U shape \/ in that tile.  So You'd want a north ramp if going north and up from the south part of the tile, South if going north and down.

[webber]

Try just having one stop, the first one, in a route.

This will work, but I need the cart to be returned.

[Urist Da Vinci]

...If I pour magma onto a cart from above, does that fill it up too?

Yes. Dropping a blob of fluid magma on top of a cart will fill it. You could make a filling station deep below where carts have magma added, and then magma-safe rollers move the carts to a spot where dwarves can take over if necessary. This will cause minor magma spillage on the floor since the track at the filling station is flat.

[The Grackle]

Here are two ideas I'm still testing. Probably pretty obvious to you guys, but I'll post 'em anyway...

So, loops are easier to use, but they take a lot of floor space, which is a pain if your fort is cramped, or if you're moving stuff from distant points (ore mining) to a central hub.  Then, keeping a route on one line is better.  The simplest way to do this is to have a dwarf kick the cart, but then you have to wait for some lazy dwarf to actually walk over there and do it.  Thus, the auto-returner.  They take a chunk a space at the end-of-the-line, and machinery, but will--ideally--save space and time.

The EXCLAMATION POINT RETURNER:

Code: [Select]

Example A:             ☼
O╞═ ≡ ═══■══^════════╢╢╢╢O

[s]Example B: bugged
In Ex. A, the pressure plate is a little less than 100 ticks before the rollers; it turns them OFF, then flicks them back ON after the cart reaches the end. This allows the cart to get all the way to the wall, and get powered by ALL the rollers instead of just the first one.  (Although, you have to make sure the cart doesn't hit the wall and bounce out past the rollers before they even trigger.)  In Ex. B, the end roller is always on, and the other roller is connected to the pressure plate/gear assembly; it turns them ON then resets them to OFF after the cart is sent away.  B is easier to time than A, but takes more gears,parts,and power.

THE QUESTION MARK RETURNER:

Code: [Select]

Example C:
O╞═ ≡ ═══■══════╗ . ═╢╢╢╢╢╢╢╗
                ╚═══════════╝
This returner doesn't need pressure plates.  If there isn't enough power in the rollers, the cart won't shoot the gap, and it will just fall in the hole.  Probably suitable for a really long or windy track, or if you just love things going at maximum speed. 

[Burmalay]

If your minecart are stuck in magma like
___        ___
     \_Ш_/
You can hit it out by another one minecart

[Urist Da Vinci]

Just discovered a very unpleasant fact. If there is no access to the end stop of the route (for example, the cart is supposed to fall through the pit, or move through the pressure plates controlled door, and there is no other way to the destination point), the dwarves will not ride it.

Try just having one stop, the first one, in a route.

This will work, but I need the cart to be returned.

Do you want:
a) the dwarf to get off the cart at the far end, and an empty cart is returned.
b) the same dwarf to stay on the cart and be returned.
c) same as (a), except that a different dwarf can use the cart to return.

The first one might be possible by having the cart dump the dwarf (does this work?) and continue moving to return to the start.
The second one is easy, but kind of pointless.
I suspect that you want something like the third option, in which case it probably requires more than one stop.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Possible way to fill carts with magma:

1. A cart goes down a 1x1 hall and stops when it hits a closed door placed over engraved track. The cart is now resting on unpowered rollers. The cart hit a pressure plate on the way in, triggering a timed sequence.
2. A pump puts magma into the cart's tile, and another pump sucks up the magma on the ground, leaving the cart full.
3. The door is opened and the rollers powered, sending the cart on its way.
4. Device resets for the cart to return.

[Girlinhat]

Code: [Select]

~~~~~
##p##
##P##
=D>D=
##p##
##P##
To expand upon Da Vinci's idea.  Sounds good to me.  Basically put the cart on rollers in an airlock.  Flood it, dry it, open it.

[Linenoise02]

If your minecart are stuck in magma like
___        ___
     \_Ш_/
You can hit it out by another one minecart

Hm, so set up a newton's cradle to get the magma out?  First minecart gets stuck, but fills with magma.  Second minecart bumps the first one out, but get stuck itself - and filled with magma.  Rollers at the top to get the first minecart moving down the track again.  Repeat as needed?