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[Othob Rithol]

Something not on the list yet about pressure plates (maybe suggested prior, and certainly implied)...have the ability to see the pressure plate settings and modify them. If they are modified, generate task at mechanics workshop "tune pressure plate".

[Random832]

How would you hook power up to a trap without allowing invaders a way into the fortress?  From above would work, I suppose.  That's still pretty limited.

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

You can pump water inside and use a water wheel on the underground channel thus created - the output end of the pump is impassable.

A windup spring power storage device (Dwarves wind it to store energy, which can then be released on demand) would be nice. Especially if the traps don't need power until triggered.

[MagicJuggler]

Allow me to interject 

Class A:  New Systems

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Steam - I approve of it. Steam has been described in Hero of Alexandria's Aeolipile; the main issue is providing sources of heat. Be it through mixing magma and water, or burning wood through a furnace (e.g. steam is emitted one level above the furnace), it would allow for power in windless/waterless maps.
Electricity - Depends. No ability to generate electromotive force would be allowed. However, the ability to electrify floors/wires by hooking them up to an elemental=FUN!
Conservation of Energy (No perpetual motion machines) - Yes. Additionally, the speed of a gear should depend on the power available to it, allowing for the construction of clocks through use of rotatable walls/floors.
Gravity damage (ability to drop things on people for damage) -Yes
Moving Objects and Inertia (Giant Rolling Boulder) - I agree wholeheartedly. Frictional forces across different surfaces should be taken into account as well. Such a system would help allow for vehicles.
Tech Tree - I disagree. Spell research might be nice for Human/Elf games though.

Class B:  Power Providers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Steam Turbine - I agree with turbines; it essentially is a waterwheel that uses steam instead of water as a flow.
Kinetic Battery (Hanging Stone) - Yes again.
Chemical Battery -No
Capstan (Animal Power) - Yes.
Furnace/Incinerator - Set it so the wood furnace generates steam one z-level above.
Archemides Mirror - Integrate with general light+fire system...Mythbusters pretty much debunked it's use.

Class C:  Power Transfers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pipes (For liquids and gasses) - Yes; would allow improved rate of flow and allow Dwarves to occupy the same square.
Waterproof Axle Section - Yes; leather-coat it for extra waterproofness.

Class D:  Power Users

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Heavy Doors (require power to move) - I believe these are simply walls located on an axle...so I disagree with this.
Clocks - I believe they should be integrated with rotatable floors/walls
Bells - Use it to gather the attention of nearby stuff; additionally, hydro-powered pianos would be entertaining.
Rock Grinder -What purpose would it serve?
Workshops (Increased efficiency?) - It depends on the workshop. Having a hydropowered mixer would be really nice for making that awesome Sunberry smoothie shake.
Fans - Yes
Scissors Lifts (Really Mechanical Lifts of any sort) - Yes
Power Drills (Hydraulic, multisquare, digging straight down)The issue would be finding a reliable way to transfer power. Personally, I believe one terrain/constructions should have durability values and be treated as weapon targets, with some weapons having damage modifiers against them. (e.g. pickaxes do extra structure damage)
Dwarf Trainers (Sparring Partners or exercise machines) - Yes; the best example of this would be the wooden training dummies used in the old Shaolin temple.

Class E: Flow Controllers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Vertical Pump - Most excellent. Would save the trouble of having to build that stupid stackable tower of screw pumps.
Spiggot - Yes; the ability to create boozefaucets for your dwarves to enjoy a drink at their local workplace would be priceless.
Pressure Equalizer - One can make this to an extent through use of numerous pressure plates in a water tank.
Internal (pipe) Pump - Water would flow faster through it due to a lower surface area, and Dwarves could still walk through the tile.
Dams and other depth controls. - We can already do this. The main issue is creating lots of floodgates. Once we gain the ability to make movable walls, floodgates as a construction should be made obsolete.

Class F: Existing Constructions Improvements

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I believe pressure plates should be linkable to levers so that when the lever is pulled, the pressure plate "locks"
Make them weight sensitive (rather than creature size); Definitely, also allow people to push blocks and stuff on it. Would make adventure-desigining all the more awesome.
Weapon Traps - See comments:
They should be activatable either by pressure plate or lever. (especially in the case of the crossbow-trap).
Make them take up space (Put them in walls, floor, ceilings)
They should only be installable in walls in my opinion
Make them require power
Agreed
Give Ranged Weapon Traps range
you have pressure plates or levers, how would one set a range for these traps
Allow some traps to hit more than one square (Large Serrated disk)
Reduce maximum weapons in one trap (to 3)
I say the amount of weapons in the trap should depend on weapon size. E.g. a large serrated disk would take up more points than a spear
Stone Traps - Yes
Make them require ceiling
Big stone trap (blocks path)
Drawbridge - Yes
                                  Make non-instantaneous
I say the drawbridge be integrated into the rotatable walls segment
                 Mechanisms - Yes
                                  Make out of Metal
                                  Make ONLY out of Metal
Levers - Yes
Ability to close a door and open a window with one switch
This isn't possible now?
                 Traps - Yes
                                  Separate Trigger from Trap in most/some cases
                                  Separate Power from Trap in most/some cases

[Granite26]

Can you please wrap that in a spoiler tag?  Big walls of 'good idea'/'bad idea' make the discussions hard to read.

[MagicJuggler]

Can you please wrap that in a spoiler tag?  Big walls of 'good idea'/'bad idea' make the discussions hard to read.

Sorry mate. Here ya go. I believe that with movable and rotatable floors and walls, a lot of the stuff you suggested could be built; focus more on the blocks and the structure follows. 

[G-Flex]

MagicJuggler: Aelopiles don't mean jack. They literally didn't do anything except spin around; it performed no useful work whatsoever, and they didn't know how to make it do so. In short, there's a reason steam power wasn't particularly used until relatively recently.

Also, considering the way flows work, getting rid of perpetual motion would be extremely hard, if not impossible.


Hell, a LOT of these suggestions are explicitly modern, or at least much, much more modern than the era DF represents.

[MagicJuggler]

What use could a spinning machine be? Let's think that one over very quickly...hmm...could it be related to those spinning gears and axles? Nah...

[G-Flex]

You're forgetting most of what I said. It spins ITSELF. It was not in any way powerful enough to actually do work. It couldn't provide that sort of energy. Hell, people at the time didn't even really know steam COULD do that kind of thing.

[StrayCat]

Fire's fun. I mean, real fun. We need more of it! But doesn't it just suck that our fort's catch fire due to constant dwarven stupidity? Oh, if there were some preventative and combative ways of stopping (unwanted) fires in our forts, we would be so much happier!

Oh hai. I'll just leave this right here.

[MagicJuggler]

This wasn't about whether it was efficient. In an area where there was no wind and the only sourced water was a brook or ocean, the ability to take a lot of small-power aeolipiles and use them to power a system would be an option. Or we could use Taqi-al-Din's steam turbine if we were willing to expand tech to include Islamic science.

[Foa]

Scissor Lifts ( Connected to ceiling for Locking to the floor ) + Scissor Pusher ( Ceiling Connected to provide Movement ) + Powering System + Godly Amounts of Labour = Urist's Moving Castle

Spoiler: Diagrams: Better ( By Diagram, and Movement Speed ) Version Coming in a later post (click to show/hide)

Start ( X = Relaxed Pusher; X- ( or -X ) = Extended Pusher; X = Relaxed Lifter; X ( with a '|' above or below it ) = Extended Lifter )

OOOOOOO
  O  O
 _X _X
 X  X
 |  |


Step One

OOOOOOO
  O  O
 _X _X
 X  X
    |


Step Two

OOOOOOO
  O  O
_-X _X
X  X
   |


Step Three

OOOOOOO
  O  O
_-X _X
X   X
|   |


Step Four

OOOOOOO
  O  O
_-X _X
X   X
|   


Step Five

OOOOOOO
  O  O
_-X_-X
X  X
|   


Step Six

OOOOOOO
  O  O
_-X_-X
X  X
|  |


Repeat...

OOOOOOO
  O  O
 _X _X
 X  X
 |  |

[MagicJuggler]

Except for the most part, scissor lifts are just an extension of rotatable floors/walls. The main issue is that the power needed to get to larger heights would continue to increase (because of larger gravitational potential energy). Assuming winch-technology also, a conventional elevator would work best anyway (a lever to go up one level, or go down one level, with level being tracked as a binary variable).

[Foa]

They have rocks, ropes/chains, gears, the ability to make extremely extreme mega projects.

Thus they have enough brains to make counterweights, and use technology to make a castle run on internal energy ( Windmills, Waterwheels, blah. ) , and how to supply energy to the moving legs!

They can make the Hoover Dam, if the omniscient being ( you ) can plan out the shit!

[MagicJuggler]

I'm not saying it was impossible. I was just saying that using  rotatable floors and walls, one could build a scissor elevator from the ground up.

Legend
/ and \ represent walls, as does |
=== represents a conveyor belt
---- represents a floor.
The conveyor belt is actually two separate ones going in opposite directions, and each diagonal wall is on a separate belt

----                   ----
===                   ===
\   /                     |
 \ /                      |
  o    ---------->   |
 / \                      o
/   \                     |
===                     |
------                  |
                         ===

Of course, both gears would require connection to a power source for them to rotate inwards, it would require increasing amounts of power as the elevator rised, and unless a locking mechanism were in place, (e.g. another conveyor belt with a wall), then the bridge would fall as soon as there was no more power. Meaning if you wanted to safely lower the elevator, you would need a way to gradually decrease the power input). But that's an easy thing to solve.

I would like to see an interruped screw as another option. We already have the screw pump so we know how to make screws. The ability to use the interrupted screw as a way to provide an airtight lock would allow for tougher doors to breach, better elevators, and breechloader cannons. &_&

[Foa]

Here is a Scissor Jack, as you see, you need advanced machinery to establish constant power.
I recommend a WORM GEAR!!!