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[Urist MacNoob]

"Ser Urist, for all it's genius, there are not enough sows in all the mountain homes to power such a contraption!"


"That all depends on what one considers to be a sow, Doctor Kazbok."

[Snaake]

I very well understand the dwarf-style-points using a werebeast automation system to auto "butcher", but wouldn't it be a lot easier to simply have minecart ride on a pressureplate ordered to be be pushed once every so and so days?

My idea for a automated retract butcher system would be:

Have sows chained on 3x3 areas with auto retract bridges - and kill the offspring by retracting the bridge - maybe not all will die every time, but then there is always next month.  The sow will be safe while constantly produce new meat. Given that there are enough sows, bitches, alligators - or what ever you want to fabricate into roasts, soap, cloaks, crossbows... One will have a fully automated system with no need of micromanaging

Werebeast transformations are 13 times a year, like clockwork. Minecart push jobs do get queued after a fixed time, but there's a variable time as to when it actually gets performed. So it would be much more erratic, and get delayed more when your dwarves were particularly busy (siege cleanup etc.). Plus it's still an extra job that has to be done every so often.

[Fenrisson]

Therefore the option of replacing the sows with- or adding other non-pasture-dependent-offspring-production-units (NPDOPUs) was implemented in the suggestion. There are many NPDOPs in the game, but not all can be brought on embark.

For maximum yield, one could of course construct a delay system in which the offspring to be manufactured (OtbM) will ripe towards adulthood before being dropped to further use.

For example: One has a goose (NPDOPUs) on a chain on a 3x3 pillar including a nest box. The pillar is surrounded by retracting bridges the OtbMs will hatch and at t=0 the bridges will retract and let all he OtbMs that are on the bridges fall down 1 z-level onto the next bridge. This processes can be repeated if the max time delay for the mine cart repeater is to low to reach the crucial t=x*. t=x* by the time every OtbM is old enough yield a maximum of the needed product. a multilayer system will allow a higher security in only admitting ripe OtbMs to the final drop.

The only downside of ha fully automated drop system is (as I experienced whit a prototype of fully automated garbage drop chute) that dwarfs tend do go at places they are not supposed to go at the time. Therefore falling and exploding OtbMs can result in unwanted non-production-relevant-corpses (NPRC). On the plus side a rise in NPRC will lead to an increase in fortress value due to extra furniture in the catacombs and a reduced need of OtbM.

[Fenrisson]

I very well understand the dwarf-style-points using a werebeast automation system to auto "butcher", but wouldn't it be a lot easier to simply have minecart ride on a pressureplate ordered to be be pushed once every so and so days?

My idea for a automated retract butcher system would be:

Have sows chained on 3x3 areas with auto retract bridges - and kill the offspring by retracting the bridge - maybe not all will die every time, but then there is always next month.  The sow will be safe while constantly produce new meat. Given that there are enough sows, bitches, alligators - or what ever you want to fabricate into roasts, soap, cloaks, crossbows... One will have a fully automated system with no need of micromanaging

Werebeast transformations are 13 times a year, like clockwork. Minecart push jobs do get queued after a fixed time, but there's a variable time as to when it actually gets performed. So it would be much more erratic, and get delayed more when your dwarves were particularly busy (siege cleanup etc.). Plus it's still an extra job that has to be done every so often.

Fair Point

[JAFANZ]

So build a minecart clock of the desired duration, the simplest would of course be an impeller-based loop of the necessary length (though for 28 days I think that'd be pretty long) but other methods involving logic & math should possible.

[Snaake]

So build a minecart clock of the desired duration, the simplest would of course be an impeller-based loop of the necessary length (though for 28 days I think that'd be pretty long) but other methods involving logic & math should possible.

Of course they are, but the previously proposed timer was a minecart with a push order. I'd still maintain that a werebeast clock (or vampire clock; defending a different pressure-plate containing 1x1 burrow every month) is among the simplest ones possible. Minecart logic loops with exact timing etc., while capable of amazing things, are not what I'd call simple to make; you get one tile wrong and it doesn't work as advertised. With a werebeast clock, the hardest part is catching the werebeast. Then you just build a 1x1 pit with a pressure plate connected to something, and pit the werebeast in.

[Button]

I very well understand the dwarf-style-points using a werebeast automation system to auto "butcher", but wouldn't it be a lot easier to simply have minecart ride on a pressureplate ordered to be be pushed once every so and so days?

My idea for a automated retract butcher system would be:

Have sows chained on 3x3 areas with auto retract bridges - and kill the offspring by retracting the bridge - maybe not all will die every time, but then there is always next month.  The sow will be safe while constantly produce new meat. Given that there are enough sows, bitches, alligators - or what ever you want to fabricate into roasts, soap, cloaks, crossbows... One will have a fully automated system with no need of micromanaging

Werebeast transformations are 13 times a year, like clockwork. Minecart push jobs do get queued after a fixed time, but there's a variable time as to when it actually gets performed. So it would be much more erratic, and get delayed more when your dwarves were particularly busy (siege cleanup etc.). Plus it's still an extra job that has to be done every so often.

If the dwarves are too busy to kill the piglings, they'll be too busy to butcher them and store their meat in food stockpiles before the corpses rot. For maximum efficiency, the pigs should be left alive and slaughtered using autobutcher - with the breeding stock safely out of the butcher's reach.

[wierd]

Hence the clever use of necromancy in LoudWhisper's "bacon like a pro" setup.

It effectively removes several handicaps to "Big Bacon!" That the game imposes.

1) animal breeding limit. By killing the animals, and immediately raising the corpses as zombies, more can be bred before processing, increasng throughput.

2) the zombies don't kill each other when packed in like sardines, making industrial processing more efficient.

3) raising the drowned corpses as zombies instantly increases their muscle mass, making the output magically greater

4) zombie preserved meat doesn't rot.

It just has one little problem: the zombies have to be efficiently killed before they can be butchered, and witnessing the preserved pork can cause traumatic mental injury to untrained dwarven industrial workers. Apparently, seeing where Soylent Pork comes from is too mentally taxing for some of the less hardy among your average fortress.

[wierd]

Its delicious! It's delightful! It tastes better the second time!
So stupendous, and insightful, it deserves a double post rhyme!

[flameaway]

I don't believe items actually enter minecarts when they fall onto them.

They don't. Objects fall next to the minecart not into them.  I wish though.  If someone knows how to make stuff fall into a minecart, please let me know.