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[Necromunger]

I have played dwarf fortress for a very long time. And when i say a very long time, i mean since 2009.

I know all you guys are using minecarts and stuff now but I don't understand the purpose.

I effectively place my wood for my woodcrafters 1z above them and furniture stockpile 1z below them, it works perfectly.

What cool and useful stuff do minecarts actually do?

I have not been able to find anything useful for them to do that I have not already found a solution for.


So can you guys please list cool and useful stuff you use minecarts for?

[Spy227X]

Run over stuff with em

[Lich180]

Quantum stockpiles, eliminating the need for massive rooms of stuff. condensing all that stuff into a 1x1 pile is quite nice.

Mine cart shotguns and mine cart grinders. Perfect enemy disposal, no muss no fuss

[Triaxx2]

Mass dumping. Instead of having to manually designate everything to be dumped, the minecart pulls from a refuse stockpile, and dumps it all in one spot.

Alternately, I end up with my workshops several levels below the surface where my Depot is, so being able to fill a minecart with crafts and send it up to the surface so the stuff is close to the depot when the traders come, makes it easier to get everything there. I also enjoy using them as a magma or water lift.

Mostly what I use them for is transporting stone over long distances, such as up from quarry levels, or down from surface quarries to underground workshops. Or bringing ores from their current location to the smelters and forges.

[flabort]

Quantum stockpiles, eliminating the need for massive rooms of stuff. condensing all that stuff into a 1x1 pile is quite nice.

Mostly this. I haven't figured out how to use them for anything else yet (my track designation attempts wound up... less then satisfactory). Nor could I figure out any of the other ways to quantum stockpile. So this nice overlap fit my agenda perfectly.

[Mura]

Use them to create timer circuits that are wired to upright spike traps.

[hiroshi42]

Shotguns, water cannons, and particle accelerators are all fun and only mildly safe anti-intruder applications of minecarts.

You can also use them to quantum stockpile as others have said.  Minecarts generally use less dwarfpower than abusing a dump order and can be selective and run constantly in the background.

If you run a minecart up fast enough it can pass over small gaps and can be an effective slightly dangerous isolation method although I have not tested this much.  Also would function as a new mist generator.

Magma safe minecarts can also be used to bring the hot stuff up to the surface to power workshops without the need for the engineering of a piston or pumpstack.

[Necromunger]

Magma safe minecarts can also be used to bring the hot stuff up to the surface to power workshops without the need for the engineering of a piston or pumpstack.

Oh for the sake of Armok could someone elaborate on this please? How do minecarts pick up liquids?

[Urist_McUser]

Oh for the sake of Armok could someone elaborate on this please? How do minecarts pick up liquids?

Minecarts get filled with a liquid when they are submerged in it.
How to get them out of it? Either by powered rollers or draining the fluid.

[Triaxx2]

Minecarts fill by being submerged in 6/7 liquids.

Getting them back out is possible in several ways. Rollers, or draining works. There's also shooting them in fast enough by pushing it down a three z level ramp so that it pops up the other side, though some reports say that it needs to pass through two tiles of magma to fill properly, which might interfere with rising up the ramp on the otherside.

Draining the fluid works under any circumstances. An alternate option is to knock it out by hitting it with another magma-safe cart.

[Girlinhat]

Carts can also be used to push materials from the surface to the magma forges, and vice versa.  As long as it takes your dwarves to haul charcoal and ore down to the magma forges to make steel, you can toss all the charcoal in a cart and send it down in one package.

Which is the most basic use.  Moving bulk heavy resources.

[Gigaz]

I found that a minecart-based fog generator works reliably, is quick to set up, needs almost no space and does not drain the FPS. Very much superior to the usual pump solutions.

I also use iron minecarts to carry magma directly, without a track. And to transport wood into the fortress.

[Urist_McUser]

I also use iron minecarts to carry magma directly, without a track.

Putting magma-filled carts into (magma safe) wheelbarrows makes the hauling a lot faster.

[EBannion]

I also use iron minecarts to carry magma directly, without a track.

Putting magma-filled carts into (magma safe) wheelbarrows makes the hauling a lot faster.

The physics involved in this operation make my eyes water.

[Soadreqm]

I use them to haul stone and ore. Carving a track to a hematite vein can be a worthwhile investment, and carving a track to a magnetite vein or a marble quarry almost certainly is. Also, minecarts are cool. They make my dwarven mine feel more like a mine.