Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Wrex]

So, I have never played around with minecarts. What are some simple things I can do with them?

[melphel]

Make a simple supply chain to carry wood or stone to your workshops.  Bring crafted goods to the depot.

When you get simple routes down, move on to powered systems.  Make automated delivery systems, spiral tracks, drop shafts.

If you want something a bit more complex, try out the "minecart pump" to move liquids.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Haul.

One thing I like to do is dump logs from the surface down to the working levels of the fortress. You can also gather traded metal and ore in a minecart at the surface, push it down, and have it dump its cargo at the magma smelters and forges, then have the minecart filled with metal goods and guided back up.

[Wrex]

But how does that even work? Is it automatic? I dunno >.>

[Nkosi_SW]

If you dunno, then read the wiki.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Minecart

[Urist McSpike]

Check the wiki for all of the details of building tracks, track stops, and setting up hauling routes.  But, one of the really great things is that you can set up a hauling route to dump all of the carts contents into a single square - quantum stockpiling without (d)umping refuse into a garbage zone.

There are some things to keep in mind with minecarts though, such as the guidance method.  You can guide, push or ride a minecart.  Pushing simply gives it a shove, and away it goes.  Riding means you give it a kick & jump in.  Guiding is the safest, as the hauler will guide the cart along the route, avoiding obstacles (like other dwarves).

But lets go beyond simple projects...
You could make a Dwarven Auto-Shotgun.
Or maybe a Fully Automatic Watergun.
Then again, you could build a Perpetual Motion Minecart Grinder!

Be sure to check out the "How Does Minecart" thread, for lots of great info & ideas.  I like Rafal99's design for Magma Minecarts inside Wheelbarrows from that thread.

Really, there's a lot of things you can do with them, just search around.

[Lich180]

Another good source I found is http://gamingsession.taterunino.net/2012/05/15/how-to-set-up-minecarts-and-cart-hauling-in-dwarf-fortress/ . Gives a pretty decent walkthrough of making a basic quantum stockpile, and this is easily transferred into much larger projects.

[wuphonsreach]

So, I have never played around with minecarts. What are some simple things I can do with them?

Create a quantum stockpile in a 2x3 or 3x3 layout.

Code: [Select]

...
.>Q
...
. = source stockpile, takes from anywhere, does not allow any bins
> = track stop, auto-dump in direction of Q, single-stop minecart route that takes from the source pile
Q = quantum pile, takes from nowhere, no bins allowed

Later on, you can run a minecart track past the "Q" point and do a 2nd route that shuttles the goods to another quantum stockpile.

[GreatWyrmGold]

But how does that even work? Is it automatic? I dunno >.>

The dwarves fill the cart, push it down the ramp, (hopefully) dodge it, empty it unless you're using some method to automate it, refill it, and push it up to the fort without input from you.

[Itnetlolor]

You can always make a minecart repeater that automates a spike strip. Just remember to shut it off or forbid everything inside the spike pit before collecting.

EDIT:
You can also make a slot-car racetrack with minecarts.

[Oaktree]

I had an automatic mine cart loop that acted as a mist generator for the dining room entrance.  Cart looped out, dropped into a ditch full of water filled by an aquifer, "ratcheted" out using the ramp derail exploit, and then came back around to dump water down a grate at a track stop.  Once the access doors were locked the dwarves couldn't get into the system, and there was a lever for stopping it if necessary.  (Plus a floodgate and pump if I needed to empty out the ditch.)

[Mudcrab]

Think my next fort will have quantum stockpiles like this

[Oaktree]

Think my next fort will have quantum stockpiles like this

Cart-based quantum stockpiles rock.  My current fort has about 6 of them since they allow you to concentrate industry workshops around them and save on your skilled crafters hauling raw materials far.  Less worry about needing lots of bins and sprawling areas of storage space as well.  And I think it's a FPS saver as well in the long run.

[wuphonsreach]

Only (6)? I have 30-40 quantum stockpiles using mine carts and my next fort will probably have 60-ish.  The output from a single magma smelter alone often requires multiple quantums so that the smelter gets emptied in a timely manner.

[Urist McSpike]

The output from a single magma smelter alone often requires multiple quantums so that the smelter gets emptied in a timely manner.

You could make the receiving stockpile larger, so that more dwarves will cart goods away.  Isn't it 1 dwarf per stockpile tile?