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[Mimodo]

Hey guys, just this guy again with more questions :p

Anyway, I've found some marble on my map (YAY, flux stones), so i've immediately set out my miners to grab me some and start producing steel (finally). All good, except the marble is deep down below all my smelters. What I'm wanting to do is to set up practically a vertical minecart shaft so shift the marble from the bottom up to my smelters so i can get a decent amount of steel pumping out. I have tried once or twice to get the minecarts working, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I have a space of about 3 high and 7 wide on the first floor, and from there I have pretty much as much space as I could want (I have room to make it go horizontally to avoid other designations).

Can anyone spare the time to try and explain this to me please?

 
Here is a picture of the floor I've got all my smelters on

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where the x is is the space I have for the minecart, and yes, I'm at the bottom of the map. As I said, from there I can go anywhere on the next floor. This is also my first attempt at this layout, and as you can see, it's not great

[Mimodo]

No one? Cause seriously, It's taking 5 minutes just to smelt one pig iron bar right now

[Broseph Stalin]

You probably aren't going to get it vertical but tou should be able to set up a spiral ramp dealy. Have the cart pushed down when it's empty and guided up when it's full.

[Di]

As of now, mining is the least rational use for minecarts. You'll have to worry that no dwarf goes through minecart tunnel when it's rushing down. You'll have lots of dwarfs running down to put a single item and then return all the way back to meeting zone. And finally, only five boulders can fit inside a cart.
Just place several marble stockpiles with three wheelbarrows and set them to give to smelters if dwarves still would prefer to go down for flux.

[Mimodo]

This is over 40 vertical levels down, and with staircases staggered across from one side of the map to the other in places (I was worried about scary things coming from below). I'm thinking of having a cart only tunnel, and i'm literally just mining out the area for flux and flux alone.

If i'm to do the multiple marble stockpiles, how many would work for that distance, and do I put them up close to the smelters?

[Trif]

It's a bit complicated to describe it, but I'll try.

You'll basically have to dig a spiral staircase with ramps. 2x2 would be most efficient, but 3x3 works better if you want to keep your fortress symmetrical.

Code: [Select]

3x3   
z-level -1
000
00▲
0▼.

z-level -2
000
▼00
.▲0

2x2
z-level -1
0▲
0▼

z-level -2
00
▼▲
After you dug it out, carve tracks in the ramps and all the tiles on the staircase (d-T). Then, you'll have to build a track stop (b-C-S) on the smelter level and the marble level. Both stops have to be on a track tile, or they won't work. Set both to maximum friction, and the upper stop to dump in a direction of your choice (bot not on the tracks). This way, the marble will be emptied upstairs immediately and the minecart can be sent down again without having to wait for the dwarfs to unload it.

Set a marble stockpile downstairs and maybe upstairs, too. Then you'll have to wrestle with the hauling menu (h).

Press (r) for a new route, move the cursor to one of the track stops and press (s), repeat with the other stop. You'll probably see some error like "Set dir/connect track" now, but don't worry. Choose the upper stop (Enter) and set the correct direction of the track with (d). You should also delete the two lower conditions with (x) and set the remaining condition to push the minecart (p).
Choose the lower stop, set the direction, but keep the conditions with this one. Minecarts should be guided upstairs by default. Now you'll have to set your desired items (Enter). This works like the stockpile menu, just choose stones, then marble.
Now you'll have to link your stockpiles to the stops. Choose your lower stop, move the cursor to the marble stockpile and press (s). That should do it.
Now you can mess with the timing, if you want. You should definitely set the upper stop to push the minecart immediately down when it's empty. Pick your condition and go to advanced conditions (C). Press (m) until it says "Push when empty of any items" or something like that. Also, press (t) to set the time to "immediately".

If you're feeling brave, you could also mess with the conditions on the lower stop, but those should be good for now. All that's left to do is to set the right minecart. Choose your route and press (v), then pick a minecart. I recommend a cart that's made of a light material like wood, but it doesn't make a huge difference.

Now, if you did all that, the dwarfs should put a minecart on the lower stop, fill it with marble, guide it upstairs, empty it and push it down again.
If they don't do that, just ask more questions here. Good luck!

[Di]

This:

This is over 40 vertical levels down, and with staircases staggered across from one side of the map to the other in places.

and this:

I'm thinking of having a cart only tunnel, and i'm literally just mining out the area for flux and flux alone.

won't mix together.
Just dig another staircase for marble mining so that scary things won't get into it. Placing stockpiles near workshops is obviously good idea, for effectiveness at least. Also, I don't know what distance, and I doubt I could calculate relation between hauling time and production time. Just add stockpiles with wheelbarrows till your dwarves drown in stone.

[Mimodo]

I think everything is about to change anyway.. I just encountered a magma pool... goodbye excessive use of coal

[GreatWyrmGold]

Now, use minecarts to dump ores and flux right into your magma smelter!
...Maybe NEXT to the smelter would be safer, though...

[Wyrmnax]

Now, use minecarts to dump ores and flux right into your magma smelter!
...Maybe NEXT to the smelter would be safer, though...

Neither will be safe, as there is always Urist McNoHelmet that wanders through the drop chute.

But yeah, next to the workshop should lead to less deaths.

[misko27]

Well dep[pends on how much you want to do. I personally like the quad-helix design that someone put up, Its symetry appeals to me. Frankly, I've been avoiding using minecarts, but i've started work on a ramp, to connect a huge deposit of flux, magnetite, lignite, and bitunimous coal, with my far off smelters. I'd also like to connect my hugely far-apart magma and coal smelters. Yes, I still use charcoal, Cause I like annoying elves.

[Xenos]

Now, use minecarts to dump ores and flux right into your magma smelter!
...Maybe NEXT to the smelter would be safer, though...

Neither will be safe, as there is always Urist McNoHelmet that wanders through the drop chute.

But yeah, next to the workshop should lead to less deaths.

What if you drop on an impassable tile of a workshop?

[Sutremaine]

If I recall correctly, it gets stuck as though inside a fortification.

I'd recommend skipping the minecart down and using a vertical shaft with a retracting bridge somewhere in it. Dump the marble in, make sure nobody's anywhere near the smelter, pull the lever and drop the marble right into the centre tile of the workshop. You'll have to be careful with stone stockpiles if you do this.

You can still have symmetry with a 'vertical' (ie. one tile per level) track. Instead of having the ramps around the edge of a 2x2 square, have them round the edge of a 3x3 square. Or a 5x5 square with any tile not required to support a ramp or block access to the mine track being turned into stairs.

It's possible to overlap four of the 2x2 ramps so they form a fifth at the centre travelling in the opposite direction, but on any given level the overlap means there are only three separate paths and one of them is separated from the others*. If you used the four outer spirals as a quadruple-helix set of tracks and dug out all non-necessary walls you'd probably have enough floor tiles to allow dodging of a guided cart, and with four carts on the job haulers would have less time to wander off. Or you could use that 4x4 space to have four tracks round the edge and a 2x2 staircase in the middle, which would be much less irritating to designate and much less complicated to expand and make symmetrical around one tile. But the fewer items you can fit in a minecart the faster you want it to move, and guiding a cart with five items is probably slower than barrow brigade and definitely slower than throwing each of those five items down a hole.

Edit: *wait what? If you can't find your original plan, recreate it instead, and end up with three intersecting paths when you should have five overlapping ones, you have done it wrong.

It might be worth it if you never disable hauling on more than a few dwarves, as the dead time when the cart isn't ready for loading allows other jobs to be taken. The stone hauling will be slowed if  everybody with hauling enabled is making stuff or hauling made stuff, but it doesn't need to be supervised.

[Triaxx2]

It's not that difficult. Dig it two tiles wide, with the outer tile designated track, and the inner tile high traffic. Do this all the way down. If you run two tracks, both swirling down in a 3x3 path, you can get an awful lot of flux up and down in fairly short order.

On the other hand, with guided you can get four carts going up and down, using two pair of switch back tracks. That'll get you 20 stones at a time. Hang on, I miscounted. You can stuff 6 of them into the two sides, and pull 30 stones at a time.