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[Granite26]

In the spirit of all the other managed lists out there, I wanted to create a list of mechanical items that are wanted.  I'm going to try just listing names, hopefully they will be self explanatory.  Please contribute ideas for new items, new ways to use the existing items, and previous threads.  Thanks.


Class A:  New Systems
                 Steam
                                  Steam Appreciation
                 Other Gasses (Steam, Dust, Miasma, Mist, Smoke and DragonFlame exist now.)
                                  Toxic
                                  Flameable
                                  Explosive (Coal Dust and Flour)
                                  Water Vapor
                 Electricity
                 Conservation of Energy (No perpetual motion machines)
                 Gravity damage (ability to drop things on people for damage)
                 Moving Objects and Inertia (Giant Rolling Boulder)
                 Moving and Rotating Walls (Build your own draw bridges + atom + wall smashers with more 'realistic' damages.)
                                  Possibility of moving entire fortress segments (This is crazy)
                                  Devices to transform rotational energy into linear, and vice versa.
                 Tech Tree
                                  Allow dwarves to build anvils without an anvil, picks without first mining.
                                  Assign Techs by Civ, Research new ones over time.
                 Fluid Dynamics
                                  More Flows (Booze and Blood are the most popular, but also acids, bases, etc)
                                                   Define all liquids in the raws, including water and lava
                                                   Ability to define new liquid reactions(magma+water=obsidian style)
                                  Smoother transition from puddle/bucket to a flow
                                  Pressurization and Temperature
                                                   Ability to pressurize objects to change temperature.
                                                   Objects under pressure explode
                                                   Screwpump should not zero out pressure.
                                  Conservation of Mass
                                                   Floodgates should displace, not destroy.
                 Fire
                                  Lighting stuff on fire
                 Optics
                                  Archemides mirror
                                  Mirrors in general
                                  Parabolic Mirrors
                 Construction
                                  Concrete: Period, but of questionable utility
                                          Reinforced Concrete: This is arguably non-period
                 Vehicles (planned, I know)
                                  Raw defined traits for :
                                         Speed, Carrying capacity, Size
                                         Crew,
                                         Movement type (flying, floating, swimming, crawling, climbing, same as critters)
                                         Attacks, Defense, Construction Raws, etc
                 Signal Propagation Delay (Natural delay between i.e. lever and bridge opening)
                 

Class B:  Power Providers
                 Steam Turbine
                 Kinetic Battery (Hanging Stone, Springs, Tension Coils)
                 Chemical Battery
                 Capstan (Animal or Dwarf Power)
                 Furnace/Incinerator
                 Combustion/Piston Engine


Class C:  Power Transfers
                 Pipes (For liquids and gasses)
                 Waterproof Axle Section (Gaskets or any other method to have power transfer through an impassible wall)
                 Belts (Use cloth or leather or rope instead of logs for axels.)


Class D:  Power Users
                 Heavy Doors (require power to move)
                 Clocks
                 Bells
                 Rock Grinders
                 Workshops (Increased efficiency?)
                         Include extra components (I.E. Serrated Saws for Carpentry)
                 Fans
                 Scissors Lifts (Really Mechanical Lifts of any sort)
                 Power Drills (Hydraulic, multisquare, digging straight down)
                 Dwarf Trainers (Sparring Partners or exercise machines)
                 


Class E: Flow Controllers
                 Vertical Pump
                 Spiggot
                 Pressure Equalizer (needed if Screw Pump is 'corrected')
                 Internal (pipe) Pump
                 Misters (Water Pressure = Mist)
                 Dams and other depth controls.
                 Tripwires
                 Cycling/Alternating device (on/off/on/off/on/off without dwarf intervention)
                 Fuses (Low power, turns on a stored potential device, AKA Mech. Switches)
                 Delay Boxes
                 Temperature Sensor (Unclear if there are good period methods of making this work)



Class F: Existing Constructions Improvements
                 Pressure Plates
                                  Make them not traps
                                  Make them weight sensitive (rather than creature size)
                                  Allow in the same square as other devices
                                          Inc. hatches for pit traps
                                  Compare to other pressure plates (triggers if greater)
                                  Trinary state (Heavy, Light, in-range)
                                  Extract state from plate (multiple attached devices trigger at different weights.)
                                  Adjust settings after placement
                                  Plates larger than a single tile
                                  Plates with grates (vertical grates too) 
                 Weapon Traps
                                  Make them take up space (Put them in walls, floor, ceilings)
                                  Make them require power
                                  Give Ranged Weapon Traps range
                                  Allow some traps to hit more than one square (Large Serrated disk)
                                  Reduce maximum weapons in one trap (to 3)
                                  Limit weapons to single type (bashing/thrusting)
                                          Require extra mechanism per type
                 Stone Traps
                                  Make them require ceiling
                                  Big stone trap (blocks path)
                 Drawbridge
                                  Make non-instantaneous
                 Mechanisms
                                  Make out of Metal (including axels)
                                  Make ONLY out of Metal
                                  Ability to decouple mechanisms without losing their support.
                                  Grease could be used to improve efficiency (power costs)
                                  Power consumption set in raws (for Axels also)
                                  Power consumption varies by quality (1/X the normal modifier)
                                  Mechancs Templates
                 Levers
                                  Ability to close a door and open a window with one switch
                                  Ability to link levers to levers (master switch controls multiple levers)
                 Traps
                                  Separate Trigger from Trap in most/some cases
                                  Separate Power from Trap in most/some cases
                 Siege Engines
                                  Link to Pressure Plate
                                  Apply power to speed loading(Cocking)
                                  Catapult other objects (barrels of oil
                 General Devices
                                  Able to decouple Levers and Plates from devices.
                                  Able to show linkages
                                  Control from device.  (AKA lower the drawbridge from the drawbridge)
                                  Off/Disabled state for Pressure plates and traps
                                  More complicated signals (On, Off, Heavy, In, Light, etc)
                                  Controllable Time Delays (wait 100 ticks before firing, also, must be on for 100 ticks straight before firing, pendulum for regular timing)
                                  Controlled states (On, Off, Toggle, rather than just ON one way and OFF the other)
                                  Buidling Damage States (Cut the counterweight, door shuts without access to lever type stuff)

Class G:  Other Stuff
                 Small Traps
                 Mine Carts & Conveyor Belts
                 Clocks
                 Alarms & Bells
                         Alarms/levers could be tied to automatic alert level changes.
                 Logical Operators (AND Gates, etc)
                 Ability to hide floodgates/doors
                 Small Mechanisms (Bloat 41, Could be used for Clocks, etc)
                 Sound Pipes (tin can telephone, still lacking a game purpose)


Class H:  Previous Suggestion Threads

Mechanics
Traps
Logic Gates 1
Metal Mechanisms
pre-1400 Techs
Trap Nerfing
Ice Traps?
Perpetual Motion discussion


Disclaimer:  I don't agree with everything up here, this is just a list view of the suggestions I've seen.  I plan on keeping the list updated, but only with new items.  The goal is to make new tools for users to design their own physics stuff, not add complicated new 'building in a box' options.  I've also tried to avoid non-specific suggestions involving wear and tear, and other such.  You'll also notice a distinct lack of alchemy, gunpowder, smelting, etc...

Edit: New ideas and links v1
Edit: New Weapon Trap info
Edit: Tech info and Power drills
Edit: Suggestions from below
Edit: Suggestions from below

[sweitx]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Class A:  New Systems
                 Steam
                                  Steam Appreciation

   Discussed before, generally a potentially good idea.

                 Electricity

   No, too hi-tech for DF tech.

                 Conservation of Energy (No perpetual motion machines)

   Good idea, but relatively minor.  It is funny to look at thou.

Class B:  Power Providers
                 Steam Turbine
                 Kinetic Battery (Hanging Stone)

Kinetic Battery should probably be abstracted.  Currently there is not much use

                 Chemical Battery

Again, no electricity.

                 Capstan (Animal Power)

Cool idea.  Power out should depend on size (hm... dragon powered millstone).

                 Furnace/Incinerator

We already have furnaces, maybe an incinerator for item disposal on map with no magma.  Of course, dwarven atom smasher will work.

                 Archimedes Mirror

Do you mean using sunlight as a weapon?  Probably after Toady implement lighting and fire.  And it should be relatively large to be feasible (5x5 building, above ground)

Class C:  Power Transfers
                 Pipes

Nice idea, make it transport liquid too.

                 Waterproof Axle Section

What do you mean?

Class D:  Power Users
                 Heavy Doors (require power to move)
                 Clocks
                 Bells
                 Rock Grinders
                 Workshops (Increased efficiency?)
                 Fans

All good ideas, but for workshop should be restricted (how does power help with cooking?)

Class E: Flow Controllers
                 Vertical Pump
                 Spiggot
                 Pressure Equalizer
                 Internal (pipe) Pump
                 Misters (Water Pressure = Mist)
                 Dams and other depth controls.

Misters - I don't think misters exist before the 1400s
Dams probably should fall under ability to construct wall INTO water.

Class F: Existing Constructions Improvements
                 Pressure Plates
                                  Make them not traps
                                  Make them weight sensitive (rather than creature size)
                 Weapon Traps
                                  Make them take up space (Put them in walls)
                                  Make them require power
                 Stone Traps
                                  Make them require ceiling
                 Drawbridge
                                  Make non-instantaneous
                 Mechanisms
                                  Make out of Metal
                                  Make ONLY out of Metal
                 Levers
                                  Ability to close a door and open a window with one switch

I think we should extend this further, separate triggering mechanism and trap type.  So you can have a trap be triggered using pressure plate or lever.

Class G:  Other Stuff
                 Small Traps
                 Mine Carts & Conveyer Belts
                 Clocks
                 Alarms & Bells
                 Logical Operators (AND Gates, etc)

Logical Operators?  I don't think this should be in DF.

Class H:  Previous Suggestion Threads

Mechanics
Traps
Logic Gates 1
Metal Mechanisms
pre-1400 Techs


Disclaimer:  I don't agree with everything up here, this is just a list view of the suggestions I've seen.  I plan on keeping the list updated, but only with new items.  The goal is to make new tools for users to design their own physics stuff, not add complicated new 'building in a box' options.  I've also tried to avoid non-specific suggestions involving wear and tear, and other such.  You'll also notice a distinct lack of alchemy, gunpowder, smelting, etc...

[Osmosis Jones]

Don't forget waterproof axels 

[Granite26]

None of these are new suggestions, nor are they intended to be complete descriptions of them

[Dae]

Same as Sweitx, with a little more interest in kinetic energy.

Also, I don't understand what fans would be for.

[Buugipopuu]

Ventilation, extraction of waste gasses.  Eventually, furnaces will make smoke and people have suggested deep mines should have a ventilation requirement.

[Granite26]

Also, I don't understand what fans would be for.

Honestly, me neither.  Spinning blade trap that sucks enemies in?  Grinder you drop people into?  I don't really like harnessed electricity either, but electrified floor traps could be cool.  I just collected a list of the past suggestions that came up under 'technology', 'mechanism' or 'trap' that seemed to fit the core 'more massive mechanical constructions' theme.

I agree wholeheartedly with seperating the trap from the trigger from the power source in all but the most trivial solutions.

Powered workshops: I think they should be specific versions, much like the magma forges.  Not for everything, either.

Bells&Alarms : Should wake sleeping dwarves, also have the option to pause on an alarm.

Waterproof Axels // Section.  There's a desire to have a wall with an axel going through it, one side wet, one side dry.

Furnaces: Could also create steam?

I like the ventilation stuff, and think it's a good use for fans.  Also... WASTE GASES... Blow toxic or explosive gasses into the goblins holding cell!!!

[Dae]

Perhaps fans much more like wooden fans than metal helixes. To get decent ventilation with an helix, you'd have to make it turn with quite a good speed, or it has to be huge. Without electricity, I suppose it'd be hard.

[Pilsu]

Pre 1400s

Whoosp, just about all of that went out the window. Some of it's good but damn, you might as well ask for machine guns while you're at it

[Granite26]

Actually, I challenge you to find anything on that list that wasn't used prior to the 1400's

[Konis]

Dunno if this is on there or has trickled through the community somewhere, but I was thinking about this:  Mechanized sparring partners?  Build a statue, link up a power source, assign it in the barracks, and dorfs can train on them?  Eliminates the need to have 2 dwarves to spar. 

[Skid]

And would decrease the injuries that happen.  I'm all for it.

[Techhead]

No injuries, unless you count the garbage dump full of broken dummies from training your hammer-dwarf to champion status.

[Granite26]

Falls more into new buildings than new physics toys, but I added it up top as 'Dwarf Trainers'.  No reason to limit the thought to combat trainers, could be exercise machines, or spinning 'dodge the violence' trainers.

Personally, I think it sounds more DF to make your military dwarves walk through small weapon traps, but I hate my dwarves and want them to suffer.

[olemars]

I'm not too fond of the idea of dwarven steampower. Archimedes mirror sounds way too undwarven as well. They don't like the sun, doubt they'd try to use it for anything.

Alarm bells is something I've been thinking about though. A bell item (metal or glass), connected to a lever or pressure plate. You could have different functions assigned to them: one bell for burglar alarms. One bell for "man the defenses" which would activate all off-duty squads and send all civilians to the meeting hall or other designated gathering point; perhaps one bell for fire brigades.

Also tripwires.