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[LumenPlacidum]

Archimedes mirror, while I disagree about its being very un-DF (stupendously elaborate machinations that can go horribly wrong meets the awesome burning power of the sun...), is simply too difficult for anything other than starting fires over time.  Couldn't be used as a weapon.

Alarm bells triggering dwarves would be cool, but honestly I'd kind of like a bell object that, when triggered, just played a sound to get MY attention, not the dwarves' attentions.  Pressure plates to call attention to the fact that someone's walking out or in the main door.  Well-made ones can give a slight happy thought to dwarves that hear them.

Dwarf Trainers are neat.

We already have dwarven "dodge-the-violence" trainers in the form of a short fall (say, two z-levels) onto a weapon trap.

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

plus

Grinder you drop people into?

*ahem* http://www.willitblend.com/
It helps the butcher, the military AND the cooking!  Offending goblins and you're hungry?  Just add one live, squealing goblin lasher into the dwarventec blender and listen as lunch screams its horrible way onto your plate*!  Build now and your mechanics, masons, and miners (MMM Brigade) will throw in the drawbridge loader and hopper!  For when you just don't want to have to stuff each goblin in, kicking and squealing like they do, the drawbridge loader will raise to unload many goblins into the hopper, and they'll fall right into the dwarventec blender!  Oh, the convenience!  Nasty, filthy warmongers in one side, healthy** meatshakes come out the other.  Now only 18000 dwarfbucks!

*note: dwarventec is not responsible for any psychological damage that may result from the acquisition of delicious, delicious meals.
**note: Surgeon Hammerlord's Warning: may or may not contain iron scraps and filings, bone shards, and grime which, while totally harmless to a healthy adult dwarf, might detrimentally affect a dwarven child or pansy elf.  Use the dwarventec blender on its highest setting to limit this danger.

Personally, I really favor the idea of the rock grinder (i.e. highest setting of the blender offered above).  It solves the possible issue of having too many loose stones around and can create sand for those who don't have it on their map at the same time.  One stone plus one empty bag at rock grinder equals one bag of sand.

[Granite26]

Hmmm, what's the difference between a training dummy and a weapon trap?  Why not the ability to set weapon traps to target dwarves (A la the current preasure plate system), and then make them attackable.  Would solve people's desire to have goblins destroy traps and also make trainers possible, with the same object.  If you're especially clever, you could build the grinders by making them attack inannimate objects as they fall through...  (Imagine the vg style conveyor belt with giant hammer weapon traps smashing rocks into dust...)

[Skizelo]

Have Flywheels been mentioned? Because they would be awesome.
Anyway, I'd like traps to be difficult to establish, like a mix of setting up automated screw-pumps and placing siege weapons. Just so nobody could call a zero-military fortress cheap.

[Soadreqm]

I think using steam for power might make the game too steampunk. It's a slippery slope, you add a simple steam hammer and suddenly it's all rusty pipes and zeppelins and steam-powered robots. Some kind of natural and artificial geysers might be nice, though. I can see dwarves harnessing geothermal energy for steam traps, central heating and pretty steam clouds in the dining hall, but going too much beyond that might be thematically inappropriate. I disagree with mechanised training dummies for the same reason.

Logic gates, on the other hand, are simple. If you can build an automated crossbow trap, you should be able to make it trigger or not trigger based on any number of conditions. They obviously weren't called logic gates in the fifteenth century, but that doesn't mean clocksmiths couldn't make them.

[Granite26]

Have Flywheels been mentioned? Because they would be awesome.

What would flywheels be used for?

I think using steam for power might make the game too steampunk.

don't disagree with you.

[Veroule]

The main think I want to see added is the ability to link a pressure plate or lever to a weapons trap or pressure plate.  The goal of this linkage being turning the trap on and off.  Pressure plates and weapons traps already have an inactive/or disabled state so this should not be too hard.

[Captain Xenon]

hmm.... Grinder (needs power like a millstone) to turn 'chunks' into ground meat? double your meat output! but probably inefficient- 1 ground meat per 2 chunks? oh well, theres plenty of kitten to power it over time ^^

i agree that the higher tech stuff dosent really fit the theme... animal power would be fantastic. a kitten-powered kitten-grinder amuses me ^^

hanging stone sounds fun. rope/chain and a rock, and you have to link it to something else. hmm... dwarven elevators? would be awesome to have a platform move from one z-level to another, especialy if you can put a stockpile on the platform.

[Impaler[WrG]]

I think using steam for power might make the game too steampunk. It's a slippery slope, you add a simple steam hammer and suddenly it's all rusty pipes and zeppelins and steam-powered robots. Some kind of natural and artificial geysers might be nice, though. I can see dwarves harnessing geothermal energy for steam traps, central heating and pretty steam clouds in the dining hall, but going too much beyond that might be thematically inappropriate. I disagree with mechanised training dummies for the same reason.

Logic gates, on the other hand, are simple. If you can build an automated crossbow trap, you should be able to make it trigger or not trigger based on any number of conditions. They obviously weren't called logic gates in the fifteenth century, but that doesn't mean clocksmiths couldn't make them.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by Soadreqm, steam power is out along with anything that smacks of 'robots' or 'automatons'.  I would be open to gunpowder as an expensive Alchemist created material along with primitive cannons but nothing beyond that.

As for the specifics heres a quick boolean opinion

Class A:  New Systems
                 Steam - No
               
                 Electricity - No
                 Conservation of Energy (No perpetual motion machines) - Yes
                 Gravity damage (ability to drop things on people for damage) -Yes
                 Moving Objects and Inertia (Giant Rolling Boulder) - Yes
                 Tech Tree - No
                                  Allow dwarves to build anvils without an anvil, picks without first mining.
                                  Assign Techs by Civ, Research new ones over time.

Class B:  Power Providers
                 Steam Turbine - No
                 Kinetic Battery (Hanging Stone) - No
                 Chemical Battery -No
                 Capstan (Animal Power) - Yes
                 Furnace/Incinerator - No
                 Archemides Mirror - No


Class C:  Power Transfers
                 Pipes (For liquids and gasses) - Yes
                 Waterproof Axle Section - No


Class D:  Power Users
                 Heavy Doors (require power to move) - Yes
                 Clocks - Yes
                 Bells - Yes
                 Rock Grinders - No
                 Workshops (Increased efficiency?) - No
                 Fans - No
                 Scissors Lifts (Really Mechanical Lifts of any sort) - Yes
                 Power Drills (Hydraulic, multisquare, digging straight down) - No
                 Dwarf Trainers (Sparring Partners or exercise machines) - No


Class E: Flow Controllers
                 Vertical Pump - Yes
                 Spiggot - Yes
                 Pressure Equalizer - No
                 Internal (pipe) Pump - No
                 Misters (Water Pressure = Mist) - No
                 Dams and other depth controls. - No


Class F: Existing Constructions Improvements
                 Pressure Plates - Yes
                                  Make them not traps
                                  Make them weight sensitive (rather than creature size)
                 Weapon Traps - Yes
                                  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)
                 Stone Traps - Yes
                                  Make them require ceiling
                                  Big stone trap (blocks path)
                 Drawbridge - Yes
                                  Make non-instantaneous
                 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
                 Traps - Yes
                                  Separate Trigger from Trap in most/some cases
                                  Separate Power from Trap in most/some cases

[Techhead]

Woah, some of these are currently too advanced tech for these dwarves.

Spoiler: Spoilered due to size (click to show/hide)

Class A:  New Systems
                 Steam
                                  Steam Appreciation
                 Other Gasses (Steam, Dust, Miasma, Mist, Smoke and DragonFlame exist now.)
                                  Toxic
                                  Flameable
                 Electricity Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600
                 Conservation of Energy (No perpetual motion machines) One waterwheel would then provide less power than a single pump.
                 Gravity damage (ability to drop things on people for damage)
                 Moving Objects and Inertia (Giant Rolling Boulder)
                 Tech Tree
                                  Allow dwarves to build anvils without an anvil, picks without first mining.
                                  Assign Techs by Civ, Research new ones over time.
Class B:  Power Providers
                 Steam Turbine Steam power is 18th century tech.
                 Kinetic Battery (Hanging Stone)
                 Chemical Battery Invented by Volta in 1800.
                 Capstan (Animal Power)
                 Furnace/Incinerator
                 Archemides Mirror Possibly a hoax, and the technology was never used by anyone else until the 20th century.

Class C:  Power Transfers
                 Pipes (For liquids and gasses)
                 Waterproof Axle Section

Class D:  Power Users
                 Heavy Doors (require power to move)
                 Clocks
                 Bells
                 Rock Grinders
                 Workshops (Increased efficiency?)
                 Fans The first recorded mechanical fan was the punkah fan used in the Middle East in the early 1800s.
                 Scissors Lifts (Really Mechanical Lifts of any sort) No elevators or lifts other than rope-drawn until 17th century prototypes.
                 Power Drills (Hydraulic, multisquare, digging straight down) Invented by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel in 1825.
                 Dwarf Trainers (Sparring Partners or exercise machines)

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

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, 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)
                 Stone Traps
                                  Make them require ceiling
                                  Big stone trap (blocks path)
                 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
                 Traps
                                  Separate Trigger from Trap in most/some cases
                                  Separate Power from Trap in most/some cases

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

[Granite26]

I'm not going to argue for steam, personally I'm as sick of steam punk and guntech anime as the rest of you appear to be.  My personal interest is less in new end results as it is in expanding the simple physics possibilities of the traps and tools.  This is a laundry list of all the major physics based techs that have come up, not what I like or support. 

Now I won't defend most of this stuff as being thematic or necessary, but I will argue the historical inaccuracies.  There are a lot of apocraphal techs out there, but since this is a fantasy game, they're still fair game.  Archimedes Mirror is the most famous example.  Baghdad batteries are another popular choice.   

As far as the stuff we have good records for, the wiki on Punkah has it dating back to at least the 8th century, although I'd be surprised if there weren't examples of mechanical fans even earlier.  There were also steam engines from the first century AD, albeit not useful ones.  Our good friend Archimedes is credited with a design for a useful animal powered lift.  There's not a lot of records for things other than rope lifts, but I'm willing to bet their were some interesting examples out there.

Hydraulic Mining was used by the Romans Also check this page out More Hydraulics.  For mining tech, this book is a century past the cutoff, but then again, it's a conclusive book on mining technology written pretty close to the period.

[Jay]

The Archimedes Mirror was proven to only cause small patches of flame very very slowly.  Not a feasible way to do anything except burn away grass/impurities on the ground.  While it's a possible substitute for sending our dwarfs over the grass repeatedly to expose the soil below (for sand gathering or simply finding out what it is) it's not a valid substitute for a good old conventional flaming arrow/bolt.

[Granite26]

...

[tigrex]

Now that you mention it, why not flaming arrows and bolts?  Why not fire in general, torches and oils and heaven knows what else?  We have the opportunity to drown our dwarves with careless water use, so why not give the world dwarven arsonists?

[Duke 2.0]

 Possibility: Firing siege engines via switch. Other possiblities include:

 -Rotation require either dwarf power or mechanical power, like millstones. Mechanical power is as fast as either a dwarf switching a lever, or a lever being switched somewhere else.

 -Loading would remain a task for the workers. No automated loading.

 -Puressure place triggering of a siege engine? A must!

[Granite26]

I was thinking about the power capabilities of the siege weaponry.

A ballista bolt fired by pressure plate might be a little too powerful, also the spar would realistically break under the constant strain.

On the other hand, there's no reason not to use mechanical advantage to cock the thing.  By which I mean hook the seige engine up to power and it is automatically cocked.  (not loaded, but it would drastically reduce the load time).  Additionally, you could set up a trap where when the pressure plate is triggered, it is mechanically cocked and then fired.  Basically what you said, only with an long delay and power requirement to balance it out.