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[omega_dwarf]

Larix: I like to build ornamental minecart waterguns when I'm not working on a turing complete dorfputer capable of running df.

We are all in awe of Larix.

[Bearskie]

I can't imagine what Larix did in the pre-minecart era.

[omega_dwarf]

Probs fluid and animal logic, which is even more fiddly and tedious.

[Larix]

I can't imagine what Larix did in the pre-minecart era.

Simple: not play DF

Really, i started with DF 0.34.11, when minecarts were part of the game and reasonably debugged already.

[omega_dwarf]

@Larix: Hey, same here.

Test 1: 8-z ramp, gold minecart, drake

Result: Dead drake

However, I am concerned that this was mostly due to him being thrown against a wall and pulping a bit, opening arteries, etc. I am not convinced that this would kill a dwarf thrall, even with many shots, especially when there isn't a backwall (instead, an open corridor behind him...)

The next test subject was going to be an ewe, but then a certain somebody had a strange mood and, well...bones...

It would be relatively feasible for me to extend the construction another 6-8 z-levels. It's an outdoors project, and needs to fit into my tower floor plan. I might extend it underground, but that would require a special multi-z aquifer pierce. I mean, really, I could go higher than that, but it takes quite a while to build anything aboveground in DF because of the order in which you have to designate things.

[XXXXYYYY]

ptw

[omega_dwarf]

Test 2: 14-z ramp, gold minecart, weasel

Result: Live weasel

A couple attempts to smash chained weasel failed. Either the drake was a fluke or weasels are bouncy. The minecart glances away in its collisions, and even though the weasel hits the wall, no damage is done.

Before doing anything with the ramp, I'm going to try using a heavier test dummy (wild boar sow) to see if size is an issue. Also going to see if the weasel ever gets hurt.

[Larix]

Weasels are too tiny to properly hurt. That's the case for several very small animals, i've seen it with cavies - my very first minecart grinder test used a cavy as subject and it survived: teeth got knocked out and one of the limbs bruised/broken, but the main body was never hit and hits to the head just glanced off.

Just took a look and of course it's been reported, too: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=7283

Somewhat meatier targets should give meaningful results.

[omega_dwarf]

Ah, yeah, I'd suspected something like that. Wild boar it is! But probably tomorrow, due to RL.

[omega_dwarf]

Test 3: 14-z ramp, gold minecart, wild boar sow

Result: unconscious and rapidly bled-out wild boar

The specific injuries were a crushed foreleg and an exploded neck, both of which opened arteries. (Jeeze, these new injuries are brutal.) It would appear minecarts are quite capable of pulping hefty targets, which is good for anti-zombie applications. From the reports, it looks certain that the foreleg-crushing happened before the boar slammed into an obstacle, which means that in the setup I'm thinking of making (a long corridor ramp as the entrance to the fort), where there wouldn't be a wall immediately behind the impact site, the minecarts can still do their work.

To shorten the amount of work required in the arduous above-ground construction process, I'm luring the miner husk belowground, sealing him at the bottom of a long series of track ramps, and seeing what it takes to take him down, so no further live test subjects are required. (Of course it's easier to haul tons of solid rock out of the way via pickaxe than to build a pretty pile of stones. That's DF for you.)

[ShutUpWesley]

PTW.

Also...

Either the drake was a fluke or weasels are bouncy.

...can I sig this?

[omega_dwarf]

Haha, sure! Gotta love DF's quirks.

[omega_dwarf]

Test 4: 42-z intermittent ramp, crude gold minecart battery, husked wild boar

Result: one bruise on said undead boar, and many scattered carts
(Also an unusable lower portion of the fortress until I recapture the boar. Evidently he doesn't smell us yet, and isn't interested in walking into a cage trap.)

It's quite likely that only one or two carts actually hit the boar, and didn't happen to cause it injury. My hauling highway is four lanes of tracks, and I put four carts in each lane for this test, but...

I evidently need to refine my firing system from "hey, let's drop some rows of carts onto my existing hauling route from above via a bridge, that should work!" to something more orderly. Maybe the bridge scattered the carts as it retracted? Idk, but half of the battery got stranded on the first flat part (which I did admittedly put into place to check the progress of lost carts when I built the system), when there should have been more than enough momentum to power through it. Carts bumping into each other on the tracks as a result of the bridge-induced scattering is a plausible explanation. (This was well above the impact site/end of tracks, so it wouldn't have been caused by the boar collision.

So much for shortcuts. The good news is that I still have this boar, another undead boar, and a live boar to test on.

The interesting thing about this whole experiment is that it's really quite like building roller coasters all over my map...it's like evil Disneyland.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Yeah. Bridges scatter carts. Use hatch covers instead.

[omega_dwarf]

...that's a really good idea, because I can directly place stockpiles on those, too. I was doing the stockpile on the floor above and then destroying the floor to have them drop on the bridge, lol.

Also, I like the idea of hatches rather than bridges, from an aesthetic and idea perspective. Just the sound of it, if that makes sense.