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[Szkeptik]

I have been playing around with them, but I couldn't make a rail track in time to be useful in a mining effort. Usually by the time the route was done and ready to begin operation, the veins to which it lead were already mined out and hauled away the old fashioned way.

I  know you can use it to take magma topside, but that's kind of a dwarfy extra, not a basic thing the carts are supposed to be for.

[itg]

I once had a fort where I used a powered minecart route to bring sand from just below the surface to the glassworks about 100 z-levels down. I was pretty happy with it, but it would've been more efficient to bring the magma up to the surface and put the glassworks next to the sand. That's really the problem with minecarts right there. It's just too easy to build a really compact fortress that doesn't need or want long-range transportation. Really the only major practical use for minecarts is quantum stockpiling, and that's a quasi-exploity unintended use. And there's minecart shotguns, but that's a "dwarfy extra," if ever there was one.

[Ace_Warbringer]

I generaly use them for automated quantum dumping. a simple loop with a smasher or into the magma sea.

again unintended extra

[Matoro]

Ore hauling when there isn't much dwarves. If I have a large surplus of workers, everything can be hauled, but especially at the fortresses start bringing ore to the magma furnace floor is usually very labor-intensive and it's easier to just build a minecart route for it.

[Oaktree]

I mainly use them for the "extras" (quantum stock piles, shotguns, repeaters) as compared to hauling loads for distance.

Main issue with ore hauling is that unless I have haulers burrowed with the miners a ore hauling job to a cart is a dwarf walking down into the galleries just to move a stone to a cart.  And then later there is another job to move the cart.  And then a job to move the stone from the cart dump to the ore pile.  As compared to just one job where the dwarf grabs a wheelbarrow off the stockpile in the forge area and goes and gets the stone - which is about as much walking as the first job when using carts.

[laularukyrumo]

Minecarts? Useful.

Minecarts used for their "intended" purpose? Not worth it.

It's kinda sad, too. It's nice to use automated minecarts to haul ore/sand to the forges/glassworks and then haul the products back, but it's a lot easier and less resource consuming to just use the minecart to take magma up to the surface.

[Mr. Palau]

I just use wheelbarrows. Setting up minecart routes is just too much work, even in the beginning. I like wheelbarrows because they are flexible, and not attached to dedicated routes like the minecarts. Hell, I use tons of stone but just never bother to setup minecart routes.

[Sutremaine]

Minecarts need to be waaaaay bigger to be useful for mining. Five stones just isn't enough.

Whenever I remember to I mod in three sizes of minecarts -- the original 100% capacity, a 20% capacity one for time-sensitive items that would take forever to get moved with the default minecarts, and a larger one for stone. Originally the capacity was 200%, which isn't really enough either. You need to be able to fit in at least a vein's worth of ore to make the minecart worth it, which would make the modded capacity closer to 1000%. Heck, boost it up to 2000% and get a whole hundred stones in there.

[Matoro]

Well, a minecarts are so fast that they will still be far more efficient in stone hauling than dwarves. One dwarf with a wheelbarrow = five trips to the mines and back. With minecart, one. And it's fast.

[Swonnrr]

Also, minecarts doesn't need pathfinding.
That's a 2xFPS improvement: less dwarves moving, less dwarves idling.

One could not care now, as the FPS is still high and 30 dwarves turning their thumbs.
But when optimization start to become a problem, or when your 30 idlers become... temporary unavailable... Then they become handy.

Local stockpiles, linked to one or multiple minecart routes, linked to central stockpiles, linked to workshops stockpiles allow a lot of optimization.

Also it get rid of unwanted pets and children.

[Button]

Minecarts for transportation are only really efficient IMO when you have burrows set up to keep the dwarves at each stop in that general area. Then you can have a subcolony of deep dwarves at the magma forges, and a subcolony of hill dwarves at the farm, and a subcolony of military and haulers at the fortifications, all supplying each other with a minecart network.

I've never had the patience to set up this sort of system, though.

[Oaktree]

Well, a minecarts are so fast that they will still be far more efficient in stone hauling than dwarves. One dwarf with a wheelbarrow = five trips to the mines and back. With minecart, one. And it's fast.

True.  If the dwarf loading the cart is already in the mine.  If not...

[Mr. Palau]

Well, a minecarts are so fast that they will still be far more efficient in stone hauling than dwarves. One dwarf with a wheelbarrow = five trips to the mines and back. With minecart, one. And it's fast.

Yes, but I have so many idlers I already have most of the stone moved to where I need it before a mine cart route could be setup.

[fricy]

I've never had the patience to set up this sort of system, though.

Same here. I made the plans to build a minecart network, and I swear I will build it, but I don't think it will be very effective:

1. To build an automated network you need a driving logic. The most effective I designed would use 2 newton's cradle logic boards for track switching. That's 4 minecarts just to open up the tracks needed for one hauling route for one minecart.
a. because you cannot have more than 9 pressure plate states in your network, so you need to compensate for this limitation. With overly complex switching logic.
b. because of the above limitation you can't have more than 9 active minecarts in the system at any time. I doubt you can have more than 3 active routes at the same time.

2. You need to design your fortress from the beginning with minecarts in mind. You cannot make quick and easy additions to your existing fortress. You need to think burrows.  And burrows are a PITA. Even with the dfhack burrow search plugin.

3. A lot depends on planning. And planning minecart speeds and behaviour is not easy.

Clarification: DF is the only game where I had FUN figuring out how NOT to do/build things. So either way it's a win-win situation.

[WanderingKid]

I use minecarts constantly for my Quantum storage.  I usually have a magma proof rock storage on the surface for blocks and a number of unique drops down in my crafting area in case I really want to customize what I'm making for a particular dorf.

Now, I need to go retest this, but it was possible to setup a minecart with no track down in the mining area, get it loaded, and have a dorf just path it straight up the stairway system via guide.  So yes, I have gotten some pretty good use out of guided carts.  Just without rails of any kind.

Now, how did I set that up last time?  Errr, I don't remember offhand.  When I do an ore-mining operation I'll try it again and get back to you on that.