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[Othob Rithol]

That's not the point. Mist sprinklers are a single (and also imho poor*) idea but the rest of the list is mostly things that aren't possilbe/aren't implemented/need balancing.

Before flaming you should read the thread, or be more specific in your criticism. Who's lazy?

*The reason I said mist sprinklers are poor is that barring a hot temperature, have mist sprayed on you by a pipe does not give the same sense of well being that a waterfall does. In fact, in a room temperature cave, it would just make you wet and cold. The same criticism can be said of making water passages and artificial mist generators using current technologies. It's an exploit.

Making a dwarven shower on the other hand, is one of my quests

[korora]

I would like to see a way to put axles through walls.

I agree. For now you can just use screw pumps as axles.

[Sukasa]

Honestly, why do people always equate steam with rusty pipes, giant robots, and zeppelins?  I'm sorry, but that is not the idea behind it here- IMHO it was rather well covered in my thread just how far steam should and should not go- I am very against zeppelins/robots (those are not DF material), but I'm quite in favour of being able to hook up steam to a valve and pressure-cook goblins, and also use steam as a power source for mechanical stuff.

Also, the mister isn't so much for dwarven happiness as it is a look-ahead to the fire/lighting arc, to help deal with fortress fires.

Lastly, I have a question for everyone who says no to anything:  You may not think it belongs in DF, but if it were to be switchable, so that you could play without it and other people could play with it, what reasoning would you have in saying no?  I'm going to be very honest and say I disagree with magic and would much rather play without it, but I'm not going to say not to it, because there are people who would like to play with it- just make it an init option so I can play without it, plzkthx.

[Techhead]

If there was a new mechanical building, you could just not build it.

[Othob Rithol]

Complaining about people saying no does not win arguments. People have the right to their opinions. When someones says no, just assume it means, "No, I don't think so" or "No, I don't think I'd like/use that." Or ignore it. When I use "no" here, it almost always means "no, I'm against its inclusion". But hey, I'm not Toady. His game. But I do have my opinion.

On topic: If the "misters" are for fire suppression, maybe they should be called "sprinklers" or "fire extinguishers" to avoid ambiguity. That was two people in a row that mistook the idea. As a potential fire suppression tool it makes sense in the game, albeit a bit high tech for my taste (give me a coded, organized +tower-cap bucket+ brigade please)

I'm completely behind this thread's purpose; I want more toys for my 15 year fortresses. I want to make the uber-automated fort. But I don't want to just hit (b)uild-(m)echanism-(d)ifferential engine.
I want the tools (component parts) that let me make one. LEGOs!

But you can't endlessly use the "but you don't have to use it" argument. that holds true for simple things (like mandates on/off, zero rent, etc) but more complex issues (like adding in electricity, explosives, guns, single piece mechanical logic systems) aren't stand-alones. They change the fundamental nature of the game.

[Starver]

I had a quick search for mention of conveyor belts.  Didn't see any.

[edit: Which  is strange, because I've since seen them as a voting item on the "A new round of suggested voting has started" thread, which seems to indicate that a search should have found them.  Maybe I typoed.  Okay, then, I'll see if I can read up on past suggestions, and feel free to ignore the naive mutterings that follow.  But I'll let them stand for all to see, regardless...]

Now, conveyor belts I think are 1900s tech (suspended bucket systems are older), but I don't see them as beyond the artifice of a decent dwarven industrial society.  I envisage a mechanism (or multiple/divisor thereof) needed per square and a power source, created with a N-S/E-W direction and from/to directionality like a pump (or just a series of 1x2 units that can be linked end-to-end).  The input end could perhaps be given a stockpile-like item preference for dwarves to place items on them, items falling off of the end to pile up, or taken along a new route where there is another belt at that spot.  Alternately, only one item (especially of bulky items) falls off of the end and the rest of the belt ends up with one item occupying each square until there is no space left, movement reoccurring when the resource is retrieved.

(This could highly mess up resource accessibility, as well as overpower what was originally a haulage option, if you want to know the main reasons why I think it's an idea to reject.)

However, if a belt driven by the existing power sources (waterwheels, windmills) a variant of the pump (dwarf-powered) or the speculative ones mentioned in this thread (steam-power, 'lectrickery) isn't practical, there's always a "roller gradient" or plain 'chute' solution.  Perhaps limited in length (to seven blocks or so, mirroring the same sort of height differences that water has, as the item goes between squares?) and no ability to drop off the end onto another such conveyancing device (unless you're fans of Escher-like constructs that defy the z-axis).

Otherwise, a variant of the current pump system would use the Archimedes Screw principle to convey bulk items (sand and seed, but not cages or rock blocks) in some way, instead of water.

Again, if any of these are considered too modern (despite historic precursors and the fact that dwarven development is  already proven to be fairly sophisticated), a gravity and/or powered binary tram system.  Two (or 2x) squares wide, carts of 1 (or 'x') width on two tracks with a rope (or several) linking them, sending them back and forth between two points with goods (or dwarves?) on board.  A not-quite-like-system was around in 600BC in Greece or... sometime in the middle of the first millennia (CE) for China to develop a more similar system, if you were wanting me to provide (loose) reference dates.

Sorry.  Got a bit carried away.  What I meant to say was just "Hey, has anybody mentioned conveyor belts yet?", but my fingers have a life of their own, sometimes.

[catpaw]

I think having screwpumps to be operated directly should be removed and replaced by a new crank handle building. That is a screw pump itself does need external power regardless. A crank handle is a seperate building that can be operated by a dwarf to provide power. You can build a crank handle directly next to the pump for it to work manual as usual. Or you could operate the pump at some distance, given the dwarf can input enough power lost on the gears/axles.

[JujuBubu]

I think having screwpumps to be operated directly should be removed and replaced by a new crank handle building. That is a screw pump itself does need external power regardless. A crank handle is a seperate building that can be operated by a dwarf to provide power. You can build a crank handle directly next to the pump for it to work manual as usual. Or you could operate the pump at some distance, given the dwarf can input enough power lost on the gears/axles.

I like this very much .. this would also add a lot of style points to drawbridges and the lever powered spike traps

[Othob Rithol]

A hand crank building would make a lot of sense. Replace the Pump Operator skill with Crank Operator.

I can imagine whole rooms of little unicycle exercise-bike contraptions, with an engraved image of a tankard of dwarven ale on one wall.

[Tormy]

Honestly, why do people always equate steam with rusty pipes, giant robots, and zeppelins?  I'm sorry, but that is not the idea behind it here- IMHO it was rather well covered in my thread just how far steam should and should not go- I am very against zeppelins/robots (those are not DF material), but I'm quite in favour of being able to hook up steam to a valve and pressure-cook goblins, and also use steam as a power source for mechanical stuff.

I dont know...if theres an RPG what I really disliked, it was Arcanum what combined magic and technology. The use of steam must [should] be very limited in DF, else it can totally change the gameplay concept.

Just a little history lesson.

The History of Steam Engines

Thomas Savery was an English military engineer and inventor who in 1698, patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679. 
Thomas Savery had been working on solving the problem of pumping water out of coal mines, his machine consisted of a closed vessel filled with water into which steam under pressure was introduced. This forced the water upwards and out of the mine shaft. Then a cold water sprinkler was used to condense the steam. This created a vacuum which sucked more water out of the mine shaft through a bottom valve.

Thomas Savery later worked with Thomas Newcomen on the atmospheric steam engine. Among Savery's other inventions was an odometer for ships, a device that measured distance traveled.

So even something like this wouldnt fit in the gameplay concept of DF.

[Othob Rithol]

I had a quick search for mention of conveyor belts.  Didn't see any.

Class G:  Other Stuff
                 Small Traps
                 Mine Carts & Conveyer Belts
                 Clocks
                 Alarms & Bells
                 Logical Operators (AND Gates, etc)
                 Ability to hide floodgates/doors

It was there. Misspelled, but there.

[catpaw]

I can imagine whole rooms of little unicycle exercise-bike contraptions, with an engraved image of a tankard of dwarven ale on one wall.

The dwarfen fittness center :-)

[Granite26]

Fixed conveyor spelling.

Tormy:  While I agree that a full fledged steam engine would be inappropriate for the theme of DF, I have three devil's advocate style counterarguments:

A:  First century DID have a steam 'engine', more as a toy than as work tool, but the technology was there.

B:  Steam Whistles (on teapots at least) have been around for a while.  That is, the concept of steam has a lot more uses than just a steam engine.  I can probably dig up some historical heating uses if you'd like. 

C:  Mods.  Sure Vanilla DF shouldn't be Steam Punk, but a Steam Punk mod might be fun.

That being said...  I'd rather have the ability to run a pipe through a magma room and turn it to steam (for whatever purpose I wanted) than actually have a steam engine built for me.

[Dolohov]

I have swarms of pixies around my map - I've been dying to trap them in a green glass aquarium and use them to power machinery.

[Granite26]

Oh man, awesome mental image of a dwarf on stilts walking down the hall stuffing bread crumbs into the lanterns...