If you could assign a lever to a stockpile. And then when a few cages are placed on this stockpile. And the lever is pulled all the cages on the stockpile are opened. So you only need one lever and two mechanisms to open a lot of cages with goblins. This could remove a lot of tedium.
And if it would be possible to select that the cage is placed on the stockpile and opened to one z level below the stockpile. You could make an automatic pit drop system and reclaim the empty cages after they are emptyd. And have fun with the goblins.
You could introduce a new gameplay element, building the cagerelease stockpile/aka=drop pit. You or the dwarf will place an goblincage on the cagerelease flip the lever and the cage will be emptyd -z level below the cagereleasestockile.
Lever /
Stockpile# z0 #### z-1*g** g=released goblins to the traps
and cage s #### ***g
/linked lever to#### *gg****T*T*T*Traps*Champion.
after the cage is emptyd to -z level or to +1 left/right to the pits.
goblin in cage #+1
cage +1 after the lever is released [g ]
[ ]
[pit]
The goodthing,
about this system is that you only need a stockpile and a linked lever. And the hauling of the cages will be an almost automatic system.
Full cages are placed on the stockpile and released with the flip of a lever. And after that the emptyed cages will be used in the old cage traps. You don't need to manual select the cage the mechanism and the lever. It will remove tedium speed the emptying and moving of cages and increase the game flow.
The badthing;
about this system is that it will remove tedium. Limit the use of mechanisms and limit the use of the mechanic. This could be countered by the use of a maintenance tax. See second post for maintenance sugestions.