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[Girlinhat]

Cross-posting from my just-started community fort, the one in my sig.  That's Kelnimar in case my sig has changed.  It's a fort devoted to exploiting minecarts in the most hilarious of community succession fashions.

The post:
I've taken a few years.  Two years and one season, I believe.  It is now Summer of Year 5, left paused on the start of summer as I have seasonal autosave and pause.  I was originally going to take two years, but it took an extra bit of time to test the Dwarven Market Haggler.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

9 Windmills, 8 would have sufficed but I just added an extra.  Technically 10 windmills.  How it works:
1: Minecarts are loaded from a level above, and set to push west always immediately.  The dwarf will grab a cart and push it into the hole, where they then cannot path to it and will leave it alone.
2: The rollers along the eastern edge keep the carts "primed" and a single windmill keeps them active.
3: The floodgates prevent the carts from moving.
4: The lever to the far left opens the floodgates when it's time to discuss market prices.
5: We don't know what happens, but intense diplomacy occurs and prices are debated.
6: Carts drop to the lower level where haulers pick them up and put them back onto the upper loading level, allowing for re-firing.
7: When the lever is pulled again, the merchants have gleefully agreed to donate much of their wares free of charge!

Issues:
1: Sometimes when striking a large caravan, carts can get stuck on the depot floor.
2: Rarely, live traders will be pushed into the pit on the left, and may or may not be struck by the next minecart that falls down.
3: I need to tidy it up a bit, as it is there's room for wounded traders to wander out of flight path.  More creative bridges and doors would be needed for very fun haggling.

And finally, the science I've learned.
Rollers will push a cart at 2 ticks per tile.
A cart striking a creature will deal one combat strike, usually non-fatal as it destroys the creature's leg but not their skull.
Rollers take 2 energy per tile.
You CANNOT build a windmill directly over a roller, it claims there is no nearby machine!
Rollers can push a cart into a wall or doorway, keeping them at "max speed" while allowing you to open the door at a later time.
Yaks are hilarious.

[nttea]

Possibly too dwarfish for me... i don't understand anything of this

[dirkzen]

...when it's time to discuss market prices.

I don't think i've lol'd so hard in a while.

Nicley done.

Question..  do the goods get moved as well by the carts, or is it just the people on occasion?
Second question..  are carts affected by water at all?
 (I'm still a bit new to this 'cart' release.  Haven't had a chance to play around with them yet.)

[dirkzen]

Possibly too dwarfish for me... i don't understand anything of this

Its basically a large dwarven version of a windshield wiper.
..with carts.
The merchants are the bugs.

[Martin]

I'd put track from the pit back up to the start with some rollers to auto reload the trap. And you can run 2 carts per track with the 2nd cart stacking on top of the first one.

[Girlinhat]

I haven't tested water yet, this is just a dry run.  Specifically, this is a dozen stones and a dozen ore.  Relatively very easy to set up.  However, it works exceedingly well.  And it does NOT move items.  In fact, items are specifically ignored by carts.  You can ram a cart into a stack of stone and it will just move over it as if it weren't there.

[peskyninja]

Have you tested loading those carts with sharpy or heavy stuff?

[Girlinhat]

It would do nothing.  There's two types of minecart weapons.  The first is railguns, where the cart is launched via derailing and collides with an enemy.  The second is the shotgun, where the cart suddenly stops and the contents fly out.  The Haggler is a railgun.