Finally, a method of getting minecarts down to the forges has been designed. It's just a gigantic drop (31 levels to be precise), before landing on a ramp and skidding across 7 brakes (5 maximum strength, 2 powerful). It ends up slowing it down to nearly a complete stop (but not quite). Minecarts have a maximum speed of 270,000 units, and the maximum strength brakes slow it by 50,000 units, while the powerful brakes slow it by 10,000 units.
nothing dangerous or out of the ordinary here.
Actually, since the ONLY part that i even ALLOW dwarves to touch is the initial push of the minecart and the final product, it's quite safe. The tracks themselves are marked as RESTRICTED traffic zone, and numerically speaking, it's a lot quicker to use the stairs. Im also using a simple impulse generator to provide the power needed for the horizontal movement (the shaft is about 50 tiles away from sand that wont flood the base.
This is actually the saner of the ideas that i had for minecarts. I designed cart railguns in forts of my own, flinging water hard enough to pulverize bears (seperating head and limbs from a body at 20 tiles). These produce magma mist, and are basically instant death to virtually anything that enters my fort.
Since fortifications dont impede water, the carts are behind a fortification wall, and they never actually get exposed.
The end results is this (an exerpt from a successful use in one of my own forts, HammerLaw):
This was to be Nithod's seventh assault on the mountainhome known as HammerLaw in the dwarven tongue. Sealed off for years, the usual method of assault was to sit outside, around ramshackle campfires, and tell stories of what they were going to do to the dwarves when they arrived. It was more of a camping expedition than an actual assault, with the dwarves long having sealed themselves off.
Nithod was a goblin squad leader, and he had used this "Assault" as a high point for the troops under his command, with them looking forward to this trip for months. With the extra motivation that it provided, the goblins trained extra hard, becoming extra proficient at the skills that they had decided to master (his squad was a squad of lashers).
This year was different. It started out the same, with the best campsites being picked by the early newcomers, Nithod wandering around to find the best site that he could. As he found what looked to be a promising spot, a voice cried out in goblin "The Dwarves have left an door open, To BATTLE!"
The goblins under Nithod's command looked at him, clearly a but upset about not being able to enjoy the restful time that they expected. Neverthless, Nithod moved his goblins into an attack formation (with all goblins in a swarm and him at the lead) and slowly moved towards the voice that cried out the location.
The opening seemed strange, a hole dug into the ground, with a long straight tunnel proceeding into blackness. Nithod took point, cautiously moving towards the other end of the tunnel, his copper clad goblins feeling a mix of excitement and fear. Early experiences with the HammerLaw military force had been met with disaster, with only the most skilled of their comrades able to land a single blow upon the military, before retreating. The goblins had never actually made it inside the fortress before.
As the last of the goblins cleared the entrance, a loud "Thunk" was heard, a floodgate slamming closed behind them, plunging them into darkness. "Light the torches, Let's see these worms wriggling in the rock," Nithod said, after a moment of silence from his fellow goblins. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, and Nithod knew that there were dwarves at the end of it, due to his training and his smell (dwarves smell incredibly powerful, and an individual dwarf's scent can permeate through entire layers of solid rock).
As they moved swiftly down the hall, another loud "Thunk" was heard, with the ground in front of his squad and behind it swiftly withdrawing, leaving them trapped on a bridge.
The troops getting nervous, Nithod replied "Let them come to us, we will kill every dwarf for the glorly of Astod, our demon lord!" This did seem to calm his squad members, but inside, Nithod was nervous. Dwarves may be strange createures, but for what purpose did the dwarves trap them here. Abyss stretched in front and behind him, with solid rock on either side.
A word was heard from the end of the tunnel that chilled Nithod to his bone. "Fire!" This word came from a dwarven voice, spoken with such clarity that he was sure that he was about to be ripped apart by crossbow bolts. Yet they didnt come. No bolts rained down upon the goblins. They instead heard a strange sound, almost like a whistling in the wind, if it was combined with grinding of stone. Whatever it was, it was getting louder. The sound now remining him of a rushing waterfall, Nithod knew that something bad was coming.
As something flashed in the corner of his eye, Nithod instinctively tumbled out of the way, knowing that something was coming down the tunnel, and he wanted to avoid it. His squad members were not so lucky. As a glint of something large and seemingly liquid flashed by him, it seemed to take most of his squad with it. At least part of them.
In the instant that he was able to see, before the torches all went out, limbs were flying back, separated from their owners by a colossal force. The bodies of his now dead squad members were reduced to a fine mist, flying back with such force that he could hear the disgusting sound of splattering on the wall, far behind him. As it passed, he was covered with a strange mist. Instinctively reaching up and tasting it, he tasted only water.
"Water? How can water possibly do this" Nithod asked to his terrified squad, the two that remained. There was a stunned silence in the air, as the goblins that were swept away uttered no sound. It was almost as if the grim reaper himself had swooped in and snatched most of his squad from reality.
"FOR SCIENCE!" came a shout from down the tunnel. Truely terrified, the Nithod could only look in fear at what was to be coming. He heard the same whistling that seemed to get louder and louder, increasing in volume and intensity.
A glint of light was seen at the end of the tunnel, in the same direction as the mysterious water had come from. This glint of light glowed orange and seemed to get closer and closer. As Nithod again dodged out of the way, recognizing it for what it was, the glob of magma streaked through the air. Smashing through the chest of his two remaining squad members, it passed straight through, leaving gaping holes that were instantly cauterized.
As terrible as this was, what followed was even worse. The magma trailed a strange orange glow that expanded to fill the tunnel. As the glow approached him, he realized what it was. Magma Mist. As the mist hurtled towards him, the final thoughts going through his mind were "How is this possible, Magma Mist is supposed to be impossible to weaponize at range!" The mist reaching him, Nithod bursting into flame, screaming as his armor fused to his skin.
That strange sound was heard again, with another point of light seeming to get larger and larger. As Nithod struggled to remain standing, he surged forward, attempting to meet the mist headlong, if for nothing else, to die with hatred in his heart and adrenaline surging through his veins. The magma impacing him left little residue, nearly incinerating Nithod instantly, the Magma passing through his head.
As the tunnel lay quiet once more, a voice at the end rang out, "Complete Success. But these goblins didnt make it as far as the elves"
Yeah, put into operation successfully, a water/magma railgun borders gamebreakingly powerful. This may have been a bit of elaboration on what happened, but the combat was all real (most of the squad died in the first water attack, the remainder of the squad (minus Nithod) died in the second attack (magma), with Nithod catching fire from the resulting magma mist. Nithod died in the third attack, the magma nearly instantly vaporizing him.)
To think, this was the idea i decided not to implement (since it's totally gonna hold up in a community fort), going with an impulse elevator instead.
Ill try and have an actual gameplay update tomorrow, had a long day at work, and only felt like writing fiction tonight.
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Topic: gateivory, all is silence (CLOSED!) (Read 87409 times)