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[AutomataKittay]

Edit: Also, I don't want the Mason workshops in the mine as then I have to ship 4x as many blocks to the surface, plus I want all my buildings to  be above ground.

I haven't used minecarts yet myself, but according to the "Capacity" section of the wiki, a minecart can hold 5 boulders (x 4 = 20 blocks) or 83 blocks. If that is true, having your mason's workshops below ground would be several times faster. Although, you did also mention that you want all your buildings to be above ground, so I guess you can rationalize a boulder-breaking station not being a serious subterranean structural commitment if the lost increase in efficiency is likely to haunt you in your sleep.

I used to usually have mason's shop near the construction site for on-demand blockmaking, because I was making other stone things at same time. Plus I can skip stockpiling the blocks, without using bins, and abuse the workshop clutter to slow or speed up on demand. I found it much better than making block near the stones because I had less clutter and shorter distance.

It's pretty much dependant on preference and demands, wouldn't play nice with minecarts due to varying distance and all that, though

[Dwarfotaur]

Right, well I'm at work now so I will try again later (9 hours time I guess).

I think I just lost that Fortress anyway due to out of control Were-spiraling. I was no where near prepared and got attacked by a were creature just as the second year started. It infected a bunch of dudes, who turned and infected a bunch of dudes and so on... Does anyone know a way of identifying dwarves who have been injected by a were-creature?

I didn't have any military so I couldn't stop them I at least had a few buildings up and ready this time (too bad the Were creatures seem to have blasted the doors down) but still wasn't fast enough. I think I need to worry about some kind of defence first like a moat/bridge.

Random question: If I limit population using LNP, do I have to regen for it to take effect? Or can I embark with a cap of 40 - wait till I'm ready and then increase it to say 100?

[AutomataKittay]

Right, well I'm at work now so I will try again later (9 hours time I guess).

I think I just lost that Fortress anyway due to out of control Were-spiraling. I was no where near prepared and got attacked by a were creature just as the second year started. It infected a bunch of dudes, who turned and infected a bunch of dudes and so on... Does anyone know a way of identifying dwarves who have been injected by a were-creature?

I didn't have any military so I couldn't stop them I at least had a few buildings up and ready this time (too bad the Were creatures seem to have blasted the doors down) but still wasn't fast enough. I think I need to worry about some kind of defence first like a moat/bridge.

Random question: If I limit population using LNP, do I have to regen for it to take effect? Or can I embark with a cap of 40 - wait till I'm ready and then increase it to say 100?

Only way to tell is see if they changes under full moon for werecreatures, AFAIK, or checking combat record for biting and drawing blood.

And you need to restart the program for pop cap to take effect ( I've heard that DFHack can do it without restarting and manage to force it, but I've never used it ), but it don't need regen. You can gradually increase the cap, but it don't always works reliablly and depends on liasions reporting back

[melphel]

I haven't used minecarts yet myself, but according to the "Capacity" section of the wiki, a minecart can hold 5 boulders (x 4 = 20 blocks) or 83 blocks. If that is true, having your mason's workshops below ground would be several times faster. Although, you did also mention that you want all your buildings to be above ground, so I guess you can rationalize a boulder-breaking station not being a serious subterranean structural commitment if the lost increase in efficiency is likely to haunt you in your sleep.

Having more items would take longer to load the cart.  You might be getting 63 more blocks per trip, but that's also 78 more jobs to load the minecart in addition to all the jobs to move blocks into the stockpile that gives to the route stop.

[Sutremaine]

Yeah, I haven't tested it with longer ramps, but I'm guessing you would need something like this.

Code: [Select]

....._/
..._/..
__/....You'll still need guide, because a minecart slows down too much going up ramps.

Dwarves can guide carts up multiple levels of ramped track. If you're talking about powering the cart up the ramps, then it's better to use a 2x2 spiral with rollers every seven levels and connected to the same vertical axle + gear power train. You need one tile of flat track to allow the rollers to be lined up in the most power-efficient manner, as rollers can't quite push a cart up the eight levels required to get the rollers to line up naturally.

[Dwarfotaur]

How should I do it if I just want to guide up and down? My diagram before did not work.

[PlatypusMD]

I use minecarts for stone to mason and also moving blocks from the mason to the surface.  I use a 3x3 spiral with a central powershaft for rollers, and pressure plates to turn it off on the way down.  Works great for me.  Make your ramps in the cardinal positions and the flat parts in the corners, if that makes sense.

[cvar]

How should I do it if I just want to guide up and down? My diagram before did not work.

Did you block off the top of one of the ramps?  I did that once thinking I needed to build a straight piece of track over the down ramp to make them connect.  Your diagram mentions soil so I'm assuming these are constructed tracks and the wiki doesn't mention having to do anything weird to make them work (besides getting the directions right).

Possibly go through and check to see if you have a one way piece of track in there on accident.

[PrivateNomad]

Don't let dwarves get in the way of a full speed minecart.

[Dwarfotaur]

Ok I fixed my problem... It's a weird one. Up ramps require a wall to be infront of them (so a NS ramp going UP needs a block to the south of the ramp on the bottom of the two z-levels...)

However, I know cannot ship blocks, even in the most basic form. Here's the steps I took

1) 2x5 block stockpile
2) 10 squares of connected NS rails.
3) Track Stop on square 1, next to the stockpile, set to no dump.
4) Track stop on square 10, set to dump north.
5) 1x1 Block Stockpile north of track stop.
6) Set conditions (leave north when full of desired item, set desired item to blocks, return south when empty of any item). Link to pick up from 2x5 block stockpile
7) Assign cart

There are no problems on the debugging but the cart stays at "0%" loading (even with a green icon to show its ok). The dwarves did load the cart up once (and somehow fit about 3 bins worth in it) but would not move it. If I set it to always move, they would push it just fine (and it even dumped the first time I did it).

I have the -exact- same setup that deals with rocks and it works 100% fine.

[mscantrell]

They're fussy, but not impossible...

 Your departing stop:
   Linked to stockpile?
   Has correct desired items?
   Departs the right direction?
   Departs when full?
   Has a cart assigned? Present?

The stockpile:
  Correct items?
  No bins?
  Not set to give anywhere?
 

[Dwarfotaur]

Linked to stockpile? - Yes, I saw them load from it once.
Has correct desired items? - Yes, I saw them load from it once
Departs the right direction? - Yes, as when I set to "Push Immediately" it works.
Departs when full? - Yes, they loaded it to full once, never pushed it and then stopped loading it for any future occurances.
Has a cart assigned? Present? - Yup, I've had it going up/down the track with no items in it to test.

Correct items? - Again, yup. I'm only using one type of stone and everything else is working flawlessy.
No bins? - Uhh... It has bins assigned (they even put the whole bins + contents in the minecart). Is this the problem?
Not set to give anywhere? - It is not giving anywhere.


The only question it fails on is "No bins", does having bins assigned to a minecart stockpile break it?

[mscantrell]

Seems to for me, at least most of the time. Try without bins!

[Triaxx2]

Yes, bins, bags and barrels not containing alcohol are busted badly.

I actually have mine carts running two ways, up and down. One running down from the kitchens near the surface to the dining room a few z down in the rock. And another running up from the workshops finished goods levels to the depot.

[Dwarfotaur]

Set the stockpile to 0 bins, dumped the cart manually (it had bins in it) and now everything works as expected, thanks!

Only problem now though, I have 4 workshops putting blocks out, each block requires 1 dwarf power to get to the stockpile... So there's 20 blocks at a given time which sometimes means 20 dwarves all come running at once (before with  bins, a single dwarf would go round and collect them all).

I guess I could limit it with Wheelbarrows. Can a wheelbarrow hold more than one block?