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[Urist Da Vinci]

...
But I found a much better linear accelerator:

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
=LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL=

Where W is a wall and L is a N/E curve track ramp (for example). The cart derails and lands on the track ramp, which accelerates it east even though the wall is to the north! This repeats until it's more than fast enough to launch items. I'm not certain if there's a maximum speed, but it did become fast enough to sometimes move 2 tiles in 1 tick.

I made a large "particle accelerator" closed loop using this linear accelerator. The cart appears to reach some kind of a maximum speed where it is often skipping two squares per step and landing on the third (moves 3 tiles per tick). More testing is encouraged.



If going downhill 3 z-levels is the minimum required to "shotgun" items from a cart, then we can make compact shotguns using the following layout:

Code: [Select]

WWWWWWW
=LLLL=W   the space above the rightmost = has to be open, and the space above the end wall has to be a fortification or open.
WWWWWWW


[Mura]

I just tried this out with a twenty-tile-long "railgun" aimed at a calf in a one-tile pasture.

The calf was alternately dragged behind and plowed in front of the cart before being thrown free like a ragdoll when hitting an oak tree. It lost a hoof and broke one leg, but is otherwise surprisingly intact (at least, compared to the boar I tested earlier, which took it like a chump).

Further testing warranted.

[HmH]

If going downhill 3 z-levels is the minimum required to "shotgun" items from a cart, then we can make compact shotguns using the following layout:

Just tested this, and the answer is yes. Below is the blueprint of an accelerator I used:

Code: [Select]

WWWWW..
.=LLL=F, where . is a floor and F is a fortification.
This is enough to make ten logs shotgun out of the accelerator and fly somewhere between 10 and 16 tiles after leaving it.

QuantumMenace, I salute you! Your invention combines the infinite weaponization potential of a mass accelerator and the beautiful simplicity of a well-researched exploit with that unique spirit of the Twelfth Bay, where threads thrive upon the derailment instead of being stopped by it. Bravo!

[Urist Da Vinci]

The following staircase design should be a way to "free energy" a cart uphill. The cart needs a small linear accelerator at the bottom to get going.

Code: [Select]

Z

██████████
███X██████
█▼████████
█╚╚╚▲█████
██████████


Code: [Select]

Z+1

██████████
█████▲████
███X█╝████
█████╝████
████▼╝████
██████████

The easiest fast way to have a cart go downhill is still a drop chute onto a roller.

[HmH]

The easiest fast way to have a cart go downhill is still a drop chute onto a roller.

I disagree, having just tested a hypothesis of mine. My experiment shows that dropping a minecart onto a corner ramp via a drop chute accelerates it quite well.

UPD: The experimental device's blueprints:

Code: [Select]

Z:
WWW
WL=
WWW

Z+1:
WWW
WH.
WWW

W - wall
L - NE ramp track
= - EW track
H - lever-controlled hatch with a minecart on it
. - empty space
When the lever is pulled, the minecart drops onto the ramp and gets accelerated to the east. This proves both my hypothesis on the nature of this bug and the fact that this exploit can be used as a cheap substitute for rollers.

[therealmarauder]

Following this success, and with the intention of building a lift hill, I put the theory to work. If a derailed cart landing on a hill lands at the top of that hill, then why can't you derail off a ramp onto a higher one directly? I tested this, and results were extremely encouraging.

Code: [Select]

       ______
      /
     /
____/Let the above be the horizontal view of a lift ramp. Each uphill is to the east (or west, or north, or south, depending on your configuration) and the tracks are EW tracks on the flat segments, and E-facing only, on each ramp.

A dwarf pushed the cart, and it rolled up all three hills, with a speed of 5 ticks per tile at the top, and 5 ticks spent on each observed ramp. This is strongly encouraging, and implies that this configuration very nearly turns a hill into a flat track, which would mean a dwarf could potentially push a cart up 100+ z-levels without additional same-level accelerators, or, realistically, one or two, given curves (and the desire for speed).

The most convenient thing about these configurations is they can push a cart to top speed and then send it to the top at that speed, making transit times to the top about the time it takes an unencumbered, average peasant to walk 4 tiles. I have not tested downwards pushes on the same route, but, of course, dedicated one-way tracks are simpler to manage for unguided routes, so a simple downwards hill would likely be better.


In summary, ELEVATOR!

[therealmarauder]

Experiment 2: Push the carts back down the hill.

Result: No acceleration. Maybe somehow it's leaving a hill on a track that increases speed, and entering one that decreases speed? At any rate, instead of insanely fast carts flying down hills, this seems to also slow their descent, making a hill which acts in every respect like a level track. How odd, and how very, very applicable.

[ZzarkLinux]

Thank you QuantumMenace for this thread 

Code: [Select]

Z

██████████
███X██████
█▼████████
█╚╚╚▲█████
██████████


Code: [Select]

Z+1

██████████
█████▲████
███X█╝████
█████╝████
████▼╝████
██████████


If I'm reading this right, we can create a power-free repeater that brings magma from Z level -100 and bring the magma up to the surface, auto-dump it, and fall back down again right?

Instead of traps, could you just have a hallway that has random-magma-drops that invaders must avoid?

Incredible

[Reese]

I tried, but it seems like you can't use this to derail carts uphill. I wanted to make a free energy cartlift.

If we come up with a way to release the carts from the perpetual motion machine, I wonder if they "charge up" enough energy to go uphill?

I'm sure we can come up with ways. As for going uphill, I think you need rollers or dwarfs for that.

In another thread about a magma elevator, someone had a design that was pretty simple that he said worked... I forget which thread or author, though

basically, set up ramps like so:

███
▼╔█
▼╚█
███

pretend the two track sections are ramps, basically, the cart swings back and forth between the two ramps until it gets slung up to the next Z-level which is exactly the same layout

[Triaxx2]

Pothole lift accelerator?:

Code: [Select]


    _  _/
  _/ \/
\/

Should Toss the cart out of the pothole and up the ramp into the next one, presuming I read the numbers I've read right.

[therealmarauder]

Pothole lift accelerator?:

Code: [Select]


    _  _/
  _/ \/
\/

Should Toss the cart out of the pothole and up the ramp into the next one, presuming I read the numbers I've read right.

I don't know what you mean. The instant that a cart enters the tile of a valid ramp that has track which can go to the next level, it starts rolling as if starting at the top of that ramp and rolling towards whichever direction it's going, or whichever direction it can go if it stops.

If the pothole is designed with only east-facing carved tracks, then this would accelerate and lift, accelerate and lift. But with a longish accelerator at the bottom, the carts will be flung uphill very fast without this design, but yours would send them flying off the hills. Continuous hills avoid flying carts.

[Triaxx2]

The numbers I've read are three units of speed gained going down, one for going up, and one across a flat track. This is designed to send it jumping up the hill with no net loss of speed. Without the need for a linear accelerator of any kind. Being able to give it a push and have it shoot up several levels without any further need for interaction. Of course I'm still digging it out to test.

[therealmarauder]

I'm pretty sure this is patently wrong. The cost going up a hill is much more than 1, and I'm pretty sure the boost going down a hill is not more than the cost of going up a hill.

[Reese]

I'm pretty sure this is patently wrong. The cost going up a hill is much more than 1, and I'm pretty sure the boost going down a hill is not more than the cost of going up a hill.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=112831.msg3536975#msg3536975

It isn't, but not by as much as one might think, and there are some weird things about being put half way across the next tile coming off of a ramp that cause those boosters to work.

[therealmarauder]

So this, yes, it means that going up a hill and then back down, or vice versa, is the same cost as going on level ground. And yes, I think the exploit in this thread might be due to landing in the middle of the square and being assigned a value at the top of the square because of it.