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[Brotato]

The last version of DF I played was 31.18 and that was well over a year ago, now; and I'm really feeling the itch to play it again after so long.  Although I am aware of the new features (minecarts and wheelbarrows)  I really have no idea how to use them.  If somebody could bring me up to speed on all the new features, their kinks, known bugs, and any tips that might be useful, I'd really appreciate it.

[Sergarr]

Use wheelbarrows only for stone hauling. You can't set more than 3 wheelbarrows per stockpile so use multiple stockpiles. Stones without wheelbarrows slow down dwarves TREMENDOUSLY, like, 1 tile per 2 seconds.

Minecarts have 2 general purposes:

1) Effortless quantum stockpiles. Just don't add bins and barrels!

2) Killing. May also involve magma and multi-ton balls of water.

Dropped items now can and WILL kill (1 sock from 2 tiles will maim/kill a dwarf). So you can use minecarts loaded with 100s of spears to BLOAT OUT THE SKY.

I recommend checking out the wiki. http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Minecart

[AutomataKittay]

Wheelbarrow's uncomplicated. Stockpiles can be assigned wheelbarrows, and it'll limit hauling dwarves to how many wheelbarrow it have ( up to 3 ) with 0 being normal pre-wheelbarrow behavior. Weight influence dwarves' speed a lot more now, so wheelbarrows are recommended for stone and heavy bins. It can be made from wood and metal.

You can now link as many stockpiles as you want and assign them to workshops to limit them to only use those stockpiles to take or give materials.

Falling materials will hurt, a lot, even socks are murder. Falling weapons is a threat to even most clad dwarves.

Minecart's a bit complicated to set and run, so I'd ignore it if you just want to pick and play a fortress, wheelbarrows work well enough for most purpose involving hauling.

[WanderingKid]

Wheelbarrows are covered above.  I happen to disagree with the above regarding minecarts though.  They're some of the most fun I've had with DF.

They can also be the most annoying pieces of !@#!@#!!!! you'll ever argue with.

Minecarts are amazing little tools, particularly if you're doing significant work with small materials.  I use a trackless minecart half the time.  You can load them and then have one of your dorfs haul the thing at the speed of a sleeping snail to where you want it to go... but instead of sucking up 200+ dwarves moving those sandbags, you get one guy once a month dragging it down to the magma forge.  Same again for goblinite cleanups. 

Don't use minecart/quantum storage for food or booze, and bins seems to make a mess (for me) too.  Booze is a significant problem, as dorfs will hang around at the minecart and their stubby little arms can't reach in for the booze, but they won't let anyone push it to dump it for them either, so they die of dehydration beating off their saviors.  It's kind of funny but a bit odd.

You'd think you'd want to use minecarts for stone, but it's time intensive.  You'd need a few (3 or 4) legendary engravers to really keep up with stone hauling via minecart if you're simply bringing it to a local mason/stoneworker.  It's just not worth the effort for that, not for 5 stones and a deadly cart parading through your traveled locations if unguided.  Go wheelbarrow.

However, I've about nailed down a magma-forge drop and cart return without power requirements for all my ore.  That's been a personal goal and once I get it I think it'll be well worth it.  Now, do I happen to have over 1000 bars of iron already along with other asundry bits from manual hauling... well, yes... but that wasn't the point.  After 4 years my dorfs have barely made a significant dent in my ore hauling after I overmined the heck out of some veins.  I'll let you (and others) know how well that plan works out.

As for bugs, wheelbarrows are pretty much foolproof.  Occassionally some dorf sticks them, with the stone, into the minecart.  When you dump the cart you'll get the barrow back but I recommend quantum rock stockpiles be set to guide at 75%, instead of 100%, because of that.

Minecarts are... well... they've got a few oddities.  There's impulse ramps, water cannons, jumping magma mist defense systems, and a few other assorted things going on with them.  A lot of !!science!! has been done with them.

[CR055H41RZ]

1) Effortless quantum stockpiles. Just don't add bins and barrels!

Wait what?

[AutomataKittay]

1) Effortless quantum stockpiles. Just don't add bins and barrels!

Wait what?

Dwarves keep hauling bin and barrels back to other stockpiles if it's enabled and used for same stuff that's being quantum-dumped by carts. It can get to them running in a loop dumping and dragging it back. Bins and barrels works fine if you're working through airlocks or between sealed rooms, though.

[Merendel]

Minecarts are amazing little tools, particularly if you're doing significant work with small materials.  I use a trackless minecart half the time.  You can load them and then have one of your dorfs haul the thing at the speed of a sleeping snail to where you want it to go... but instead of sucking up 200+ dwarves moving those sandbags, you get one guy once a month dragging it down to the magma forge.  Same again for goblinite cleanups. 

Or theres my method.  strait shaft all the way to forge level.  linked hatch cover at forge level +1 with stockpile benieth it.  quantum dumping minecart at top of shaft.   Whenever the forges need more material pull lever to hatch twice, stuff falls off hatch onto stockpile and your forges are happy agian.  No need for even that 1 hauler to take a month to get down.   Mostly safe but you could add a lockable door to keep dwarves out during the final drop if your a panzy.

[WanderingKid]

Merendel, I don't usually have a surface to magma sea level drop that'll cut through all the caverns safely in a straight line, particularly not one that's convenient.  I've had to work out alternatives.

Though the idea of dropping goblinite and ore on an invaders head if they dared to get into the drop tunnel is actually quite amusing to me.  Have to stay continuously aware of them but that'd be hysterical.  Death by socks.