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[FearfulJesuit]

What I'd really like to see is a system that allows me to create a 1x1 power shaft of vertical axes with gear assemblies (though it might just be a shaft of gear assemblies) that I can power at the top. In this case, I would only need it to be a helix, possibly just a single helix, that is compact and has space for rollers connected to the power, sending carts up. It doesn't have to send them down.

[WanderingKid]

Is there any way I could have a minecart loaded and on the rails, but not actually going anywhere until I give the say-so?

Yeah, just don't designate departure conditions.

[Sutremaine]

Do you need the Max Roller + 3 levels for an airborne ramp as well?

Airborne ramp? I'm not sure what you mean by that.

[DrKillPatient]

Is there any way I could have a minecart loaded and on the rails, but not actually going anywhere until I give the say-so?

If you dislike having to toggle the route orders constantly, there's a way to automate this, I think. Make a setup like so, where S is a stop, R is a roller, ^ is a pressure plate, W is a wall, + is a floor, = is a track, | is an axle, and D is a door:

Code: [Select]

+++W|W
+S^DRD==  --> cart goes this way
+++WWW

Link the axle up to a power source. Setup the pressure plate to trigger by minecarts and link it to the door closest to the stop. Have the dwarves push the cart in the direction of the rollers at a condition of your choosing (e.g. fully loaded). It will move onto the pressure plate and open the first door (don't use a floodgate-- the door opens immediately, the floodgate opens after a delay). 100 ticks later (a fairly short time), the door will close behind the cart and seal it in the "chamber". This is to prevent dwarves from picking up and replacing the cart, thinking that it has stopped. When you open the second door by the method of your choice (e.g. a lever), the rollers will push the cart onward.

[Techhead]

Alternatively:
Level X:

Code: [Select]

++|+++
++*+++
+S.+++
++++++Level X-1:

Code: [Select]

+WWW++
+W*W++
+WRD==
+WWW++Instead of closing the door behind it, you drop the cart on the rollers.

[WanderingKid]

Do you need the Max Roller + 3 levels for an airborne ramp as well?

Airborne ramp? I'm not sure what you mean by that.

My science is currently being developed to attempt to achieve a flying 'over the wall' delivery system for my melee dwarves during sieges without having to lower the bridges.    Thus, airborne.  Sorry I wasn't clear.

[DrKillPatient]

That's likely a more resource-efficient method providing you have the Z-levels to spare.

Here's another idea I had recently, a dwarven autoshotgun modified to fire creatures (also safe from intrusion by fliers):

Spoiler: Diagram (click to show/hide)

Z+0

Code: [Select]

WWW
W==  <-- ramps lead here
WWW

Z+1

Code: [Select]

FWW
W W
FWW

Z+2

Code: [Select]

FWW
F W
FWW

Z+3

Code: [Select]

+++
+++
+++


I've only diagrammed the barrel here. Be sure to use 3 downward ramps leading up to it so that the creatures are actually flung out.

To use, load a minecart with cage(s) full of creatures, possibly an entire goblin siege. Fire the minecart into this device, and it will strike the wall on Z+0. The cage will fly out of the minecart at Z+1 and hit the wall there. The creatures will fly out of the cage at Z+1 and Z+2, through the fortifications, and out of the device.

In my tests, creatures who land on other creatures when fired from the weapon will take little damage (possibly some bruising) while severely injuring whoever they landed on, so you may wish to use the device to fire bears/tigers/elephants at dense crowds of enemies. I've not had much of a chance to test this weapon, but will construct one shortly in my current fort and perform further testing for possible uses.

[askovdk]

What I'd really like to see is a system that allows me to create a 1x1 power shaft of vertical axes with gear assemblies (though it might just be a shaft of gear assemblies) that I can power at the top. In this case, I would only need it to be a helix, possibly just a single helix, that is compact and has space for rollers connected to the power, sending carts up. It doesn't have to send them down.

  That sounds very much like what I wrote about 20 posts ago.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109460.599

I had a minor problem of providing the power with axels without allowing dwarves and animals to path into the helix. The solution I made was to channel a couple of floor tiles in the axel corridor down into a underlying room.

[Sutremaine]

My science is currently being developed to attempt to achieve a flying 'over the wall' delivery system for my melee dwarves during sieges without having to lower the bridges. 

You don't need any ramps for that, you can just send the cart flying through a fortification.

Code: [Select]

S=.+.==
With S as the start of the track, you can ride the cart (I don't know if material matters to a push or ride order, but the cart I use is very light candlenut) and still have it jump the two gaps.

You'd probably be better off using an airlock for deploying dwarves. Only one dwarf at a time can use a cart and they have to be civilians to do the vehicle pushing jobs, and you can't assign dwarves to routes or carts.

[eRaz0r]

What I'd really like to see is a system that allows me to create a 1x1 power shaft of vertical axes with gear assemblies (though it might just be a shaft of gear assemblies) that I can power at the top. In this case, I would only need it to be a helix, possibly just a single helix, that is compact and has space for rollers connected to the power, sending carts up. It doesn't have to send them down.

  That sounds very much like what I wrote about 20 posts ago.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109460.599

I had a minor problem of providing the power with axels without allowing dwarves and animals to path into the helix. The solution I made was to channel a couple of floor tiles in the axel corridor down into a underlying room.

My first helix solution was 5x5 -- in the end, I think it worked more easily despite the (slightly) greater power requirements.

I have several working corkscrews in my current map.
Things to note:
Angled down-tracks (e.g. Down NE, i.e. corner ramps) are more prone to derailment, even with walls, when traveling downwards.
A 3x3 is more unstable than a 5x5 going up or down,  because of the lack of horizontal tracks on each level -- these slow the cart slightly, and allow for re-alignment after derailing. A 3x3 helix has the cart changing Z's as well as direction very quickly.  I have had to build Slowing Trackstops and longer loops at various levels in some of my 3x3 towers to make them safer.   This is less of an issue with items than with riders.

Rollers on Highest built on an up ramp will launch carts off the track (bad in a 3x3 riser tower, where the next tile is a corner)

Oh  and Track Stops don't dump riders.  (which is very disappointing ).

And finally, the easiest track switch is does not use a roller.  It uses a retracting bridge overlapping the corner. 

Code: [Select]

1
1
1
1 1 1 1 1
.
2
2
2
2
Track 1 is designated with a corner, not a T-junction into 2.
Track 2 is designated without a terminus  (i.e. continue it into 1 but un-designate the squares between 2 and 1, and make sure to redesignate the corner of 1

Code: [Select]

1
1
1
B 1 1 1 1
B
B
2
2
2

Build the retracting bridge B over the corner square of 1 and into 2. 

Retracting the bridge reveals the corner track and the cart continues along the corner of 1 towards the east. 
Extending the bridge makes the cart continue to the south into 2.

Much easier than the Wiki's proposed T junction.

[SpeedyBanana]

I can't get mine carts to go up ramps. What am I doing wrong here?




Top Floor:
     

Wall ---->  ▓▼============█  <--- Minecart Starts Here
                 
                  ^
                  |
                  |
                EW Ramp (built one level below)


-The minecart is pushed West. All tracks from the starting point are EW tracks.
-There is a EW ramp at the very end, built one level below.
-The minecart travels west and goes down the ramp perfectly.




Bottom Floor:


                                               ---- Minecart comes down here from level above and continues west.
                                              |
                                              ˅

Stops Here ---> █============▲▓  <---- Wall

                                              ^
                                              |
                                              |
                                             EW Ramp (built on this level). The block to the right of it is a wall.



-The minecart comes down the ramp just fine and continues to move west.
-All tracks on this level are EW tracks.
-Minecart comes to a stop at the end of the track on this level just fine.


HOWEVER. When the cart is then pushed back east, it doesn't go up the ramp. It hits the wall beside the ramp and rebounds back. I tried to change the ramp to East only (not East-West) but it still doesn't use the ramp. It hits the wall and bounces back.


WTF IS GOING ON!!?>!?!

[Snaake]

...(I don't know if material matters to a push or ride order, but the cart I use is very light candlenut)...

I think the material of the cart only matters for collisions (both of carts & cart and carts & creatures). And magma-safety, of course. Push/ride/roller distances/speeds are always the same regardless of material.

[Sutremaine]

I think the material of the cart only matters for collisions (both of carts & cart and carts & creatures). And magma-safety, of course.

And also for transportation. I have one route that drops the minecart and its spilled contents down a shaft, and with a stockpile at the bottom that takes the cart it simply gets taken back to the route stop once the fall is finished. So long as the cart by itself isn't heavy enough to slow the hauler down, it's exactly as fast as guiding it.*

Powering it back up would be quicker in the long run, but I don't want to do the construction work and I don't want to use the antigravity ramp bug. One long trip a handful of times a year is acceptable.

*I've just had an idea... if I use a little c-section to connect the top of the shaft to the tracks, I can just take the cart back up the stairs instead of taking it through the fortress. Might need a little touchup of the traffic designations to stop everybody using that route, which at best will cause horrible traffic jams and at worst kill occasionally kill everybody on the stairs.

[Oaktree]

That's likely a more resource-efficient method providing you have the Z-levels to spare.

Here's another idea I had recently, a dwarven autoshotgun modified to fire creatures (also safe from intrusion by fliers):

Spoiler: Diagram (click to show/hide)

Z+0

Code: [Select]

WWW
W==  <-- ramps lead here
WWW

Z+1

Code: [Select]

FWW
W W
FWW

Z+2

Code: [Select]

FWW
F W
FWW

Z+3

Code: [Select]

+++
+++
+++


I've only diagrammed the barrel here. Be sure to use 3 downward ramps leading up to it so that the creatures are actually flung out.

To use, load a minecart with cage(s) full of creatures, possibly an entire goblin siege. Fire the minecart into this device, and it will strike the wall on Z+0. The cage will fly out of the minecart at Z+1 and hit the wall there. The creatures will fly out of the cage at Z+1 and Z+2, through the fortifications, and out of the device.

In my tests, creatures who land on other creatures when fired from the weapon will take little damage (possibly some bruising) while severely injuring whoever they landed on, so you may wish to use the device to fire bears/tigers/elephants at dense crowds of enemies. I've not had much of a chance to test this weapon, but will construct one shortly in my current fort and perform further testing for possible uses.

Please keep the thread posted on testing results.  A opportunity to bombard a goblin siege with a cage of war trained cave crocodiles would be worth carrying out extra construction!  (And if I get my purchased snakes to breed a cage of venomous reptiles would be interesting to try as well.)

Has anyone gotten a preferred railgun shotgun load worked out yet?  I'm playing with 25-30% loads using a mix of copper spiked balls, copper serrated discs, and copper or bronze spears.  I haven't quite got the ratios tweaked right, but like the mix of attack styles.  I also think 25% is too big of a load since a goblin close to the launch point can stop thirty objects as easily as ten.  So I think the better solution is having more carts with a 10% or less load.  Hit the targets more often - which puts some emphasis on getting a launching system that can handle multiple shots quickly and triggers in a timely manner.  (My current system is sending someone up a few levels to push carts.  Need to start using rollers with a power switch, or a hatch on a lever that drops the car onto a ramp to get it started.

[LoSboccacc]

My first successful working setup!

Very basic stuff indeed:
At soil level, the fields: a stockpile for seeds (the only in the fortress) and one for plants. On its side, a stop where cart depart guided when full or after 7 days.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Down below, some level below the fortress rooms, the food processing workshops and the route second stop:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The built station drops all the content directly on the food pile.

There is one limitation, in that fields cannot have a target pile where to drop stuff,  so I had to limit hauling jobs on the target field using wheelbarrows. Any better idea for avoiding dwarves directly hauling food to the main stockpile?