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[Granite26]

Comment: I thought of something that would be useful: giving pressure plates different sizes using the umkh keys like other stuff, so that I can rig up a corridor more easily.

nice... I like

[Vengeful Donut]

As someone who has recently designed built an adder, just throwing in my $.02:
As far as mechanical logic goes, the most useful thing I can see being implemented is a rotation sensor, which would easily reduce the complexity, power requirements, mechanism requirements, size etc. of my adder by half or more, though I hear that point is a dead horse by now. They would need a delay, or it would be trivial to make a device that is both powered and unpowered.

A rotation sensor would be amazing. Complex mechanics wouldn't be so water-reliant any more.

Overall I think this is a bad idea because it makes complex logic ridiculously easy and not at all entertaining.

If complex logic was easier, then projects that seemed too insurmountable for you to even attempt would come into reach. This would make it even more entertaining than before. By far.

[darkflagrance]

How about if we say a new powered device that flips every few seconds?  Then you could hook it up to your spears, to floodgates, whatever.

Definitely this. Automated atom smasher...

[Sukasa]

As someone who has recently designed built an adder, just throwing in my $.02:
As far as mechanical logic goes, the most useful thing I can see being implemented is a rotation sensor, which would easily reduce the complexity, power requirements, mechanism requirements, size etc. of my adder by half or more, though I hear that point is a dead horse by now. They would need a delay, or it would be trivial to make a device that is both powered and unpowered.

A rotation sensor would be amazing. Complex mechanics wouldn't be so water-reliant any more.

I'll second this; even just something as simple as "Is Rotating"/"Is Not Rotating" would be brilliant; you could do just about anything you want mechanically with something like this.

[Dvergar]

I can't find anything similar so.......pendulum

sorry for the necro by the way, a pendulum would be so crucial, similar to the above it could act as a switch that activated every few seconds, it would have to be powered

[RAM]

Make one that weighs ten tonnes and has an axe-head on it and put it above your trade depot!

[shadowclasper]

I'd LOVE something that would allow me to move entire segments of my fort around. I WANT CASTLE HETRODYNE!

Noble goes to sleep, wakes up his room is on the other side of the fort... and surrounded by magma...

Goblins suddenly find that the pesants have been moved down almost 30 z-levels and can't be gotten at... ouch

Seriously, elevators would be nice.

[Saber Cherry]

Hmmm, I didn't see this before...  nice compilation.  If you would be so kind as to add my "tension coil" suggestion to the list of energy storage options...

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=42630.msg787956#msg787956

[Granite26]

Added pendulums(for timing) tension coils and other springs (as batteries), and multitile pressure plates

[Bacu]

Conveyors, maybe?

2 flavors. Horizontal and vertical. Horizontal would be walkable. Anything on the horizontal conveyor would move in whatever direction it's set for. The vertical ones would move any item right in front of them up or down a z-level.

[Silverionmox]

Connecting levers/p plates to restraints, so you can release the dogs of war upon intruders.

Conveyor belts are pretty fragile.. I'd rather say tilting or raising floors. That way, damage to the belts and small items falling through becomes much less of an issue. You can do a lot with just three things:
- a floor that tilts in a direction (changeable by mechanic) when triggered (by lever, or alternating continuously when powered). (essentially alternatingly acting as a floor/wall) and reverts the next time.
- a floor that raises when triggered and reverts the next time.
- a wall that moves 1 square in a direction away from its place (changeable by mechanic) when triggered, and reverts the next time.

These can be combined to form transportation lines, for water or goblins even, while still being useful in their own right, for example as traps on narrow ledges etc. (For now they can require mechanisms+metal bars+blocks to make, and ought to transfer power like gear assemblies aside from using that power themselves, so they can be connected easily. Their position should be displayed and function like a gear assembly when their wall/floor part is extended. That way no new things need to be defined, they would have mostly the same properties as walls, floors and gear assemblies.

[ManaUser]

Here's a simple wish: Metal axles.

Currently they can only be made from wood, which aside from being an undwarven disgrace, is very inconvenient when working with magma.

[The Architect]

This is great, though I will willingly state right now that I have no intention of reading through all of the comments made. If this isn't helpful, ignore it.

Maintenance, implemented alongside quality changes (defective products and such are going in) and object damage/wear. Among other things, this would take the form of greasing parts with fat/tallow and plant matter (or even clay and liquid/submerged lubrication for permanence). This could have various effects from efficiency (speed in the case of some actions, damage in the case of traps, and so on) to preventing jams and such (which I hope we will see in future as a result of poor engineering, not just clogging).

Quality of components and the design/construction (architect and mechanic skill levels) affecting function in various ways.

Player-set delays in many if not all devices, from levers/plates to bridges to traps. A fixed 100 step delay is "unrealistic" and extremely inconvenient, a huge restriction on what we can currently do with the mechanics.

Water wheels can measure volume and velocity of flow to conserve energy; that section is heavily vague and the problem seems like a difficult one at first glance. This little tip should be included there as it might be helpful to Toady if he takes the list seriously.

[RAM]

I like the idea of maintenance, although there will need to be room for extremely heavy, long-lasting equipment for submerged operations, and maybe even legendary dwarven workdwarfship that will last thousands of years to be awed over by archaeologists...

[Starver]

Player-set delays in many if not all devices, from levers/plates to bridges to traps. A fixed 100 step delay is "unrealistic" and extremely inconvenient, a huge restriction on what we can currently do with the mechanics.

I'm a little unsure about player-configurable delays.  If a delay is required, it should be enabled through building.  Now, 100-step multiples (give or take other delaying factors) are already possible, but consider 'solving' the (other than the fixed delay) "instantaneous action at a distance" issue.

How about a 'speed of action' delay between lever/plate and its switched mechanism?  (With or without further token delays intrinsic to the mechanics themselves.)  Proportional to either Root(dX^2+dY^2+dZ^2) or Max(dX,dY,dZ), depending on in which manner you want the universe to propagate its messages[1].  And for a precise delay you could place your lever exactly so far away from your mechanism-enabled-whatever, or 'delay loop' (out and back, or polygonally, allowing for the water-logic/whatever delays on the inter-stage transfer), or even just take advantage of the delay to get a "mexican wave" effect of bridges/doors/floodgates, all connected to a single repeater off to one side and 'chomping' sequentially.

(Imagine a row of 1-wide bridges acting off a repeater guarding the fortress.  At any one time, there's always at least one path into the fortress (perhaps even wagon-width), but those who try to route through it have to catch the step just right, and may end up being catapulted if they step on a section too late to get off the other side before it raises.  Also imagine the game lag that might accompany this innovation, whether from the almost continual re-pathing or the implementation of the dynamic landscape changes themselves.

[1] Though naturally it would be just "wait until you should know about this before acting on it" background-delays, not be actually wave-fronts of propogated messages or beamed information pathing to destinations...  Unless you wanted it to be more realistic and relate to where the ropes or push-rods must be laid in order to enact a physical connection, in which case the delay could be worked out on a one-time best-route pathing basis (which may be far less optimal than the best-route pathing possibility at the time of activation).  But that's making things complicated.