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[doublestrafe]

Ok, ok, I know it's undwarfy to think about safety, but I'd really like some ideas here.

So I've got a bunch of cool stuff--iron, coal, chalk, sand, fire clay--way up at the top of my fortress. And I've got a bunch of hot stuff--magma--60 levels down at the bottom. And what I've done so far is to build a straight 1x1 shaft all the way from the former to the latter, and set up simple guided minecarts to dump stuff down the shaft, and at the bottom is a quantum stockpile, from which my magma workshop stockpiles pull. So far so good.

Only problem is, twice so far, some dwarf has been down at the bottom picking up goodies when a load of stone comes down, and the results have been tragic, albeit spectacular and amusing. Right now I've got a manual safety system in place where there's a floor hatch one z-level up, walled off, with a lever to operate it, and every month or so I have to open and shut it manually. This is a pain, and if I forget to do it my industries shut down. Not optimal. This is the first version I've played where falling objects hurt, so I don't have any stock ideas for how to get objects from point A to point B without landing on point D.

I've come up with a few vague notions of what can be done, but they all seem, well, extremely dwarfy, involving burrows and water blasting from reservoirs and floor grates and probably flooding the workshop. I have to imagine there is a solution somewhere involving an airlock in the shaft, but my grasp of pressure plate logic is really, really shaky.

Any ideas how to drop things from a great height without squishing my dorfs?

[Di]

Link a hatch to a pressure plate several steps away from point B, so the stone would fall down well before point D blocks it's way down.
Though I myself carve tracks all the way down since I use them for more than one hauling route.

[krenshala]

Set it up so a hatch closes just above the stockpile whenever a dwarf is in to pick stuff up.  Timing is, of course, considered critical.

[doublestrafe]

Set it up so a hatch closes just above the stockpile whenever a dwarf is in to pick stuff up.  Timing is, of course, considered critical.

See, this is where my poor pressure plate-fu comes in. I could make a hatch open when a dwarf comes near, but I'm not at all sure how to make it close when triggered.

What I'm imagining is a rig where a dwarf comes near he trips the plate, which causes a reservoir to dump, at the top of which is a pressure plate that tells the shaft hatch to stay open while it's at 7/7 water? The reservoir would be continuously refilled from the aquifer, so I'd just have to make it big enough to buy the dwarf time while the toilet tank is refilling. Is that complicating things too much, or is that about normal? Also the wiki says it takes 99 ticks for a hatch to close, and I don't know how far a dwarf can walk in that time...

[krenshala]

Dwarves typically move 10 ticks to the tile.  On average.  Those with a higher speed (or less weight encumbering them) need fewer ticks per tile, while slower dwarves (or those carrying heavy weight) require more.  Sometimes significantly more (e.g., carrying a granite boulder).  So, at 100 (or 99, depending on construction order) ticks, the average dwarf will move 10 tiles.  7 to 13 tiles is probably not an unusual range of actual distances, though I'm guessing on this part.

[SharkForce]

perhaps i'm just ignorant, but... you're dumping the carts down, or you're dumping random "stuff" down?

because if you're dumping the carts down, couldn't you just have a cart that leads to the stockpile for everything to be taken from?

(alternately, you could just actually have a double-helix cart track that takes stuff down, dumps it into the stockpile, then sends the empty cart back up).

[doublestrafe]

perhaps i'm just ignorant, but... you're dumping the carts down, or you're dumping random "stuff" down?

I'm dumping stuff out of the carts and down the hole. Dumping the carts down would be a bit counterproductive.

[JimiD]

I did something similar with a hatch opened by plates.  If the distance from the workshop to the stockpile is too long, then it is much less efficient for the workers at the base, as the raw stone is very heavy.  I ended up carving tracks all the way down after losing too many experienced masons.

[Gentlefish]

Build it so the hatch is connected to both a lever and a  pressure plate - the lever is just for priming. Once you get your first load down, you can dismantle it. The build the pressure plate on the route to the stockpile so whenever a dwarf walks over it, the hatch opens and drops the stuff before the dwarf reaches the pile.

[doublestrafe]

Build it so the hatch is connected to both a lever and a  pressure plate - the lever is just for priming. Once you get your first load down, you can dismantle it. The build the pressure plate on the route to the stockpile so whenever a dwarf walks over it, the hatch opens and drops the stuff before the dwarf reaches the pile.

Now this is elegant, and much better than my complicated toilet tank thingamabobber. I'll do this, and keep the lever around--if the downstairs dwarves clear out the stockpile before the upstairs ones dump a cart, I'll need to dump it manually. Thanks!

[acetech09]

One z-level above the pickup area, build a hatch. Then on the level below, make a single tunnel entering the landing area, and about 10 tiles away build a pressure plate. Whenever stuff is dumped, it falls on the hatch cover. A dwarf walks into the tunnel and over the pressure plate, which dumps the stuff into the landing area. By the time the dwarf gets the 10 tiles over to the pickup area, the pressure plate should have un-triggered, so any falling items will be blocked by the hatch cover. I don't know how much of a delay pressure plates have before they un-trigger. The dwarf picks up an item, then he walks out. Can be pictured alot simpler than described:

Code: (Level above pickup) [Select]

╔═╗
║¢║
╚═╝

¢ = Hatch Cover


Code: (Pickup level) [Select]

╔══════════
║=+++++++^+
╚══════════

^ = Pressure plate linked to ¢


[acetech09]

I just realized described solution won't work with multiple dwarves. I think your inverter idea was the best.

[acetech09]

On second thought, if you have one dwarf whose sole purpose is to haul back and forth between landing and a intermediary stockpile, it would work. Simpler and quicker than fluid logic once you get the burrowing set up.

[Fnear]

perhaps i'm just ignorant, but... you're dumping the carts down, or you're dumping random "stuff" down?

I'm dumping stuff out of the carts and down the hole. Dumping the carts down would be a bit counterproductive.

Ah, not at all.  If you drop the full cart down and have a powered roller on the landing space, you can run the cart down a very short track to a stop set to dump into the quantum stockpile.  Only problem is getting the cart back to the top.  You can either build a powered return spiral... or perhaps only designate a route at the top, assign carts to route, once the cart falls and dumps, dwarves should realize it is in the wrong place and carry the empty back up.  Somewhat inefficient, but way better to carry empty carts than heavy stones.

[Reese]

um...

put a pressure plate on the track space just before the track stop set to detect carts of any weight

link it to a hatch just above the landing zone and to an inverter[see wiki] that links to a door blocking the pile off.

When the plate triggers, it opens the hatch and closes the door.

If necessary for the height of the hole, just put in a delay mechanism(eg: a pair of inverters in sequence) before the link to the hatch and door.