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[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

I am trying to find some good, NON-LETHAL uses for Minecarts. I understand they are for hauling, but it seems to only allow stockpile related things (such as moving goods from one stockpile to another). How could I set them up so that my dwarves use them as quick transportation when carrying, say, stone for a construction? Would I simply need to put a stockpile near the build site and use the carts to haul the goods back and forth?

Also: Can undwarfed carts go around turns? If they are told to "push," the cart goes until it it hits a turn then derails. However, if they "ride" the cart, it has no issue making the turns.

[FearfulJesuit]

Non...lethal...usage?


SHUN THE DEEP COVER ELF

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

Non...lethal...usage?


SHUN THE DEEP COVER ELF

I have all the lethal options covered. I just want to use them for other things too.

[SmileyMan]

Well, rather than the laggy and intensive transporting of magma up to my workshops, I now build a foundry down by the magma sea.

There's a burrow there, where the 30 metalworkers live their entire lives.  They have their own luxury bedrooms and dining rooms and a massive area where a dozen smelters and a dozen forges work day and night.  Although there's a long staircase leading to the fort, it's never used.  They have only the finest prepared meals and a selection of booze delivered to them by minecart from the fortress kitchens.  Ore comes to the store along the same railway from the mining levels. Metal goods go back up to a main stockpile in the shallow fort, where they are further sorted into specialised stockpiles.

I really like this - I imagine these deep dwarves being a bit snobbish about the mud scrapers above, not even talking to the haulers who make the 100 level trek with their cartful of food and booze.  I know a lot of people are fond of bauxite pump stacks, but this, for me, is much better.

[FearfulJesuit]

I do wonder whether it will be implemented in future that invaders can ride minecarts. Fact is, it's now possible to wall off an entire population of your fortress, and it could survive mostly indefinitely.

[Girlinhat]

I've been debating how to segregate a fortress.  My main scheme involves creative drops.  A farmer loads rope reed into a cart and gives it a push, sending it down a hole to rest atop a roller.  At a certain point, the roller is activated, probably on a monthly timer, and sent down to the thresher.  The thresher loads thread into another cart, bumps it into a hole, and it sits atop a roller until the timer comes around again.  Repeat for dye and cloth and finished goods, and you get a very clockwork fortress that ultimately ends with the 3,000 pairs of masterful socks shotgunning out and shredding the caravan liaison in a hail of dwarven glory.

[FearfulJesuit]

The sheer amount of planning that requires, though...

That's the problem with minecarts. They require very careful planning of the economy. If, like me, you're bad at it, then you end up with the perennial problem of a command economy: shortages. Shortages of coal, shortages of dye...

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

Well, rather than the laggy and intensive transporting of magma up to my workshops, I now build a foundry down by the magma sea.

There's a burrow there, where the 30 metalworkers live their entire lives.  They have their own luxury bedrooms and dining rooms and a massive area where a dozen smelters and a dozen forges work day and night.  Although there's a long staircase leading to the fort, it's never used.  They have only the finest prepared meals and a selection of booze delivered to them by minecart from the fortress kitchens.  Ore comes to the store along the same railway from the mining levels. Metal goods go back up to a main stockpile in the shallow fort, where they are further sorted into specialised stockpiles.

I really like this - I imagine these deep dwarves being a bit snobbish about the mud scrapers above, not even talking to the haulers who make the 100 level trek with their cartful of food and booze.  I know a lot of people are fond of bauxite pump stacks, but this, for me, is much better.

This sounds promising. Takes forever to get pumps going and it's much more hazardous than a rogue minecart, IMO.

[The_Countess]

Also: Can undwarfed carts go around turns? If they are told to "push," the cart goes until it it hits a turn then derails. However, if they "ride" the cart, it has no issue making the turns.

building a wall on the outside of the turn keeps it on the rails I've heard.

i've embarked on a evil region with wicked clouds with a fairly large embark, but i need tree's because magma is far down (magma piston planned for later) and no coke to be found. my fort is close to one corner and i've been thinking of building a cart-station close to 2 of the corners. both so dwarfs can shelter from the cloud if its wafting over the fort (which should be hermeticaly seal by pulling the lockdown leaver) and so half my fort doesn't run out to collect wood long distances away, with the risk of most of them being outside when another cloud happens.
the 2 woodcutters and a guy with the single wheelbarrow I will allow for the stockpile at the cart-station should get all the wood i need, and the rest of the fort can stay inside.
i can then alternate between tree's close to my fort, and the once close to one of the stations. allowing the rest to regrow.

Well, rather than the laggy and intensive transporting of magma up to my workshops, I now build a foundry down by the magma sea.

i'm partial to the sheer dwarfyness of the magma piston myself... still trying to make one my friends can understand and operate though.

[slothen]

to send a cart down 100 z levels, do you have to carve a downward spiral ramp for the rails?  And in such a case, can you just have a dwarf kick the cart from the top and it'll ride down on gravity alone?

[Thief^]

I think you can also just make a vertical hole with a rail'd ramp at the bottom to catch the cart.

But yes, it would ride down on gravity alone. You have to be careful with its speed though, either creative braking or keep walls around the track to stop it derailing.

[SmileyMan]

to send a cart down 100 z levels, do you have to carve a downward spiral ramp for the rails?  And in such a case, can you just have a dwarf kick the cart from the top and it'll ride down on gravity alone?

You could do that, although I use guided carts for safety (after 100 z-levels that cart will be undergoing relativistic effects.  And now that rollers require power (boo! for bugfixes ) it'll be easier to push it back to the top, so the hauler has to get to the bottom anyway. Maybe when I get braver I'll try setting to to ride......

I make it a spiral because a) it's aesthetically pleasing and 'realistic' in my head.  And because with a bit fo planning you can arrange a double-helix design with an up-track and a down-track in the same 5x5 area.  It also allows for multiple entry and exit points that would allow for push/ride carts to coexist with only a small chance of a tragic accident.

[Girlinhat]

Apparently, if you drop a cart onto a ramp it doesn't move.  It treats the ramp as a floor.  But you can drop a cart onto a roller just fine.

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

to send a cart down 100 z levels, do you have to carve a downward spiral ramp for the rails?  And in such a case, can you just have a dwarf kick the cart from the top and it'll ride down on gravity alone?

You could do that, although I use guided carts for safety (after 100 z-levels that cart will be undergoing relativistic effects.  And now that rollers require power (boo! for bugfixes ) it'll be easier to push it back to the top, so the hauler has to get to the bottom anyway. Maybe when I get braver I'll try setting to to ride......

I make it a spiral because a) it's aesthetically pleasing and 'realistic' in my head.  And because with a bit fo planning you can arrange a double-helix design with an up-track and a down-track in the same 5x5 area.  It also allows for multiple entry and exit points that would allow for push/ride carts to coexist with only a small chance of a tragic accident.

I have power

I can send the cart back up no problem... If I can figure out rollers.

[CodexDraco]

Apparently, if you drop a cart onto a ramp it doesn't move.  It treats the ramp as a floor.  But you can drop a cart onto a roller just fine.

Does that happen with dropped stones too? If it does then my plans for an Indiana Jones trap are frustrated.