@markAFK You're probably right, however I have no iron at all on my map.
@ZeroSumHappiness I have no idea, I've never tried this sock-knockout thing but it seems like it would work, I don't know it if would make them easier to hit though, they don't seem to block any of the ammo so only if the armour user skill stops being used when unconcious I suppose.
@Puzzlemaker You could totally have it switchable to a magma machinegun when the ammo is dry, just have a T junction that becomes a L junction when a door over one of the exits is closed.
@Qwernt A heads-up bridges and floodgates are near-useless when dealing with carts because they take 100 frames to open/close and 100 frames is an eternity in cart terms, a cart shoots through my shotgun twice in 100 frames. The death-stairway plan sounds like it would work, however items stationary on staircases stay there, I don't know if enemies hit by stuff would start falling and any ammo that hits a guy would stay where it hit him. Give it a try! It would be great for collecting the ammo afterwards as it would all be in one place.
Here's your schematic Gearheart.
z 1
#
Enemies #. ===^ This is the actual firing part, the # are walls with fortifications above them,
# the tile with the channel also needs to have an empty tile above it.
z 0
^>>=====\
||
S=\ || This is the reloading area, the ^ is the bottom of the hole on z 1 and should
|| || || be a roller like the > which are rollers by the way, the S is a track stop.
|| \==/ The V leads to the left ramp in the magazine.
V
z -1
^ This is the magazine, the > are rollers pointing right, there should also be rollers pointing
^ || up but I didn't want it to be confused with the up ramp. You then place a hatch
>>>>>>>>/ over the ramp leading out to act as a trigger, these rollers should be on low speed.
Next you just need a ramp connecting the up ramp on z -1 going up 4 z-levels (use rollers) and then going down 3 z-levels to connect with the up ramp on z 1