Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Uzu Bash]

If you mine a tile next to a ramp then it becomes unusable in that direction. But if you mine next to a track ramp, does it still connect with the track above? For example if you mine the tile east of a south-east track, under the east-west track it connects to, will it still connect or will the minecart run straight east into the open tile on the same level?

A similar question would be if you could build a track with only interior support (a single pillar down the center,) or only exterior support (an hollow shaft,) but no walls beneath the track tiles. Would a ramp built from the side of a wall connect to a higher track built against the same wall?

[Arx]

For the first: no, as far as I am aware. I seem to recall that breaking the first real minecart build I tried.

For the second: tracks are like floors as far as support goes. I doubt the thing with the ramp would work, though.

[Larix]

How isolated ramps behave depends on which direction you try to use them in: as far as i can tell, a cart won't move _up_ a ramp if there's no wall behind the ramp (blocking movement on the same level). But a cart can go _down_ a ramp that has no connection to walls, i.e. you dug a hole with no wall next to it on the level below and then _built_ a ramp on that disconnected tile. This setup is not normally traversible on foot, but carts go down into it just fine.

Code: [Select]


   ║     .║.
   ▼     .▲.
   ║     ...
z+0      z-1


A cart travelling along the track from south to north on the upper level will dive down the ramp and continue on the level below. That the ramp is completely unusable (plain floor all around it) doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what if any track is on the ramp. Unengraved ramps work just as well. The only restrictions are:
- the tile on the upper level from which the cart is to enter the ramp must be track or a bridge.
- the cart must move at less than derail speed, or the upper tile at the ramp entrance must be a ramp, too.

@below: sorry, i don't have an answer; i mostly didn't understand your question, and i've never looked much into spiral construction, i find them inefficient.

[Uzu Bash]

How about going up?

I found that constructed impulse ramps don't require space overhead, so it's possible to run dual impulse ramps with a central staircase or vertical axle within the same 3x3 square. If a central axle, then to do any maintenance on it would put the track out of commission while a dwarf walks and stands on it -- however long it takes them to even get started. This is an 89 zlvl track that I want to keep exposed as little as possible from end to end, to minimize access especially to animals and children.

If I could mine the space between each impulse ramp, I could add a staircase that way. It would at least be faster than walking the track, and would discourage mechanics from attempting it.

[krenshala]

Do you have a vertical column where you can build a stairwell and mark it as high-access so they will prefer to use it for traversing z-levels?  They should only get onto the track on the level they need to work on that way.

[gchristopher]

@below: sorry, i don't have an answer; i mostly didn't understand your question, and i've never looked much into spiral construction, i find them inefficient.

Darn it Larix! I keep hoping you'll do that so I don't have to.

The context there is that you can use a "checkpoint" mechanism (Larix's term) to move carts up very quickly without loss of velocity, and the cleanest known way to build the upward ramp is in a straight line. The only downside is that it's easier to avoid caverns using a spiral, but most known spiral designs run into annoying quirks with turning upward ramps that cause loss of velocity.