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[Spectre9000]

How would I go about setting a schedule so that my Dwarves pull a lever at the end of autumn and again at the start of summer? The reason being I have my trade depot relatively secure behind a moat with bridges. Obviously during the seasons there are no caravans I should be able to keep the Bridges raised, but during the months with caravans, I can't because then they'd pass me by due to my depot being inaccessible.

I get... visitors... randomly and they get pretty close, and I know I can do early warning stuff, but it seems silly when I can just raise my bridges and not worry about it altogether.

[Loci]

Use a minecart? Set up a timer to move the minecart onto a pressure plate to lock down the fortress, and a second timer to move the cart back to the first stop and unlock at the desired time. Unfortunately the timer option is based on "days" not "specific day-of-the-year", so you may have to tweak the durations for a reliable yearly cycle. Alternatively, you could set up the minecart to only accept one specific good and depart when full, then have a repeating manager job automatically produce that good once per year.

[Fleeting Frames]

Though note that if you seal up the fortress, migrants and visitors may have trouble entering as well - though granted, their paths are far easier to secure, what's with you being allowed to use doors/hatches/traps/pressure plates on every tile.

[timotheos]

Alternatively put your depot in an airlock system. The depot is always accessible with the outer bridge open, while your dwarves are safe with the inner bridge closed.

[Derro]

Alternatively put your depot in an airlock system. The depot is always accessible with the outer bridge open, while your dwarves are safe with the inner bridge closed.

Main problem would be powerful foes wandering into the depot and staying there. Remember, traps can't be easily placed without obstructing the wagon's path.

[gchristopher]

Alternatively put your depot in an airlock system. The depot is always accessible with the outer bridge open, while your dwarves are safe with the inner bridge closed.

Main problem would be powerful foes wandering into the depot and staying there. Remember, traps can't be easily placed without obstructing the wagon's path.

Oh dear Armok I would love to have a "season" switch.

Just make the depot the center of a squirt gun firing range! Turn it on when you want it cleared out. There won't be any lingering problem enemies.

Or heck, keep a few minecarts full of trade goods, shotgun the enemies, then when you go in afterwards, you already have the next season's merchandise conveniently lying around the depot!

[Fleeting Frames]

You can do that, but even if you keep depot outside, still might want to let pets, children and visitors in (dwarves can get in with minecart jump through a fortification). Because of this and hauling, I prefer to have depot deep in fortress with path into it having traps for wildlife, buildingdestroyers, thieves and trapavoid friendly/kill nonfriendly check.

[Starver]

I have, several (sub-)versions ago, experiment with a seasonal timer/switch controlled by the freezing/melting of open-air water. In that version, a cliff-side aquifer (which might be replacable by a closed-loop mechanical water-recycler in a hole in the ground, depending on what is available) slowly empties water out into the open air.  When it freezes, the exit is blocled, the water backs up and a specially set-up pressure-switch activates.  Later, when there's the thaw, the ice-plug goes and lets the water empty out to below pressure-plate activation levels.

Obviously that method needs freezing (and thawing) cycles. Possibly very hot summers (vs not cold winters) could be tapped in some way for a similar effect, dependant upon the evaporation rates of water, but fine-tuning might be more difficult.

My suggestion is to just turn on Seasonal Saves, with the Pause On Save (whatever it's called, I don't have the INITs in front of me) and just use the notably visual cue that Autumn has now become Winter or Spring has now become Summer to remind you to set the appropriate lever(s) to be pulled. A more manual method than requested, but needs no complexity of fortress layout...

[Sanctume]

It would be possible to have a track stop that is guided every 28 days (monthly), always, and the track loops back to the original track stop.
So this can be a more consistent way to send a signal once a month via pressure plate on the track. 

The defined objective is for bridge to be down at the beginning of summer, and raised at the beginning of winter (end of autumn).

Spoiler: Defined objective (click to show/hide)

spring 1
spring 2
spring 3
summer 4 - open bridge
summer 5
summer 6
autumn 7
autumn 8
autumn 9
winter 10 - close bridge
winter 11
winter 12

So in terms of DF, a minecart is guided once a month in a loop of track that runs over a pressure plate.
The pressure plate sends a signal once a month.
We need to devise a mechanical plan to:
1. Interpret the signal #1 to toggle the condition of a raising bridge to a "down" position.
2. Ignore the next 5 signals: #2, #3, #4, #5, #6.
3. Interpret the signal #7 to toggle the condition of a raising bridge to a "raised" position.
4. Ignore the next 5 signals: #8, #9, #10, #11, #12.

[Starver]

For the count, I would have a series of pumps between channels, started by (reverse ordered) pump-triggers on the track.

In fact, 'simplest', have twelve thirteen pumps between each of twelve thirteen channels. No, make it fourteen, for obvious design reasons. When minecart rolls round, it triggers the 'final' pump to suck any liquid compleyely out of its source and shoved it into its sink-channel.  Shortly after, minecart activates penultimate pump to take from its source and put into its sink (final pump's source, but final pump now stopped, so it stays). Repeat for remaining pumps in contrary order.

(As 'first' pump in chain would operate after the 'last', if water transfers by the last it always transfers by the first, thus effectively two of the thirteen pumps act as one. But due to geometry, 13 'links' don't link up. Make it 14 with three pumps ("two last ones/one first" or "one last/two first" configuration) and a 12-step chain with a single three-pump step in it would work. IYSWIM.)

Put sensor plates in the appropriate channels (#s 1 and 7, by effective convention) to send the on/off signal to the protective architecture, et voila...


Perhaps (a different kind of) simpler is 24 pumps, in a circuit. Only two minecart triggers. One starts every other pump (from the twelve sink/source pits into the twelve transition pits, if there's anything to draw), the second activates when the first has ended to activate the alternate pumps (transition pits to next sink/source one).  Each minecart run thus, again, advances a physical counter around a circuit in a measurable way.

I've not yet combined minecart logic with fluid logic, but that should suffice. From my experiments with Tetris emulation via fluid logic alone...

[Fleeting Frames]

@Sanctume: 28 days is not max limit:


If you want it open for half a year, have two steps: 1 to guide north 1 tile every 168 days onto a pressure plate to open the bridge, second to guide south every 168 days off the pressure plate to close the bridge.

Or could do like Loci suggested and use instead variation of 294 days/42 days.

Would need to duplicate steps (onto same locations, even) if you want to open it every spring, summer, autumn but not winter.

Mind, it being low-priority it is more likely to go out of sync than lever, and a good clock will not go out of synch at all.