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[Cles]

Hello there! This is my first post on this forum after a few days of lurking, but you guys seem nice. It's really cool what a clever DF player can do with some well-placed mechanisms. I was thinking that could be greatly expanded on. Here are some of my totally wild suggestions:

Conveyor belts: Unpowered, long lines of these would help dwarves carry heavy objects faster, by just pushing them along on top of the belt. Powered, they would drag any object on it at a set speed from the beginning of the belt to a square at the end. Useful for setting a Dump zone at the beginning to shorten the distance dwarves would have to travel to get rid of stones, letting the belt push them out of the fortress or into a chasm. Longer belts with naturally require more power.

Elevator: Fancy way to traverse Z-levels, especially when there are a lot. Could either be dwarf-powered or mechanized. Probably suggested beforehand.

Boiler: Steam power, hell yeah! It'd generate more power than a water wheel or windmill, but would require both heat and water to operate. A dwarf on bucket (or cleverly placed pump) and coke duty should do for a while. Place it on magma and you're really cooking with...well, magma.

Pipelines: Not just for screw pumps anymore! Attach some to a pump to get water into your boiler or underground farm, or run some from your boiler along a river to thaw it out during winter. Pass them inside of walls or under floors.

Rain catcher: A strategically positioned barrel, pretty much. Good for forts which lack water sources. The function is obvious.

Steam Cannon!: Or...maybe not.

Now, the alchemists's lab, at this moment is only used to make the not-implemented-as-of-yet soap bar, which in my opinion can be done just as well in a kitchen. I'm a bit disappointed, as I was expecting something more exiting.  But! It has potential, don't you think?

Black powder: Blast mining, hellz yeah! Or make it into traps, and possibly deadly catapult ammo! Of course, this wouldn't be easy to create in the game. Naturally, this has been suggested, but I'm just trying to think of things to add to the alchemist's lab.

Potions: Using the Extracts and other chemicals, as well as glass vials, the alchemist can produce brews that create various effects, possibly for use in tanning or drugs that help an injured dwarf heal faster.

Soap:

Urist McSoapmaker feverishly worked the ivory bar against the roughly hewn stone floor, occasionally dipping it into his oaken bucket of water. The lumbering footsteps drew closer, and he knew that soon the...thing would come into view. Satisfied, he left his instruments and ran around the corner, peering fearfully around it. The T stepped into the slippery square, stopped and an electric blue X began to flash over it. Sighting in relief, Urist used the time he bought himself to run.

Just a suggestion...

[SolarShado]

Hate to shoot you down but several of these have already been suggested.
Conveyor belt: already suggested (Personally, I don't get it. I always have plenty of haulers
Elevator: already suggested (See the suggestion about winches for a more generalized version)
Pipelines: neat idea, heh, this is what i thought pipe sections were for at first
Rain catcher: interesting, but in my (admittedly limited) experience, there's always a pool or two, and plenty of booze
Boiler: I recently thought of this myself, but i was thinking of a steam trap
Steam Cannon: Hmm... well if we've got a boiler... an new type of siege engine?
Black Powder: very cool. but it'd have to be really hard to make
Potions: interesting, and a use for extracts would be nice
Soap: Toady probably has something planned, I haven't read the dev notes extensively, but as a trap? it'd definately add more humor

[Tenebrais]

Well, let's take a look here...

Frankly, more things need to be powered. There's a whole section of the build menu dedicated to making screw pumps and millstones function properly, and even then neither actually need power. But anyway.

Conveyor belts: A good idea. Probably been suggested several times in the past, but a good idea nonetheless.

Elevators: Rather than having some sort of variable up/down motion, just make them vertical conveyor belts. Dwarves and items on one side go up, and on the other side go down.

Boiler: Could work. Put in water (either pumped into the side or from buckets) and heat (Either from fuel or having magma pumped in) and get out power and steam. Steam would make it more interesting, at least. For best results have it be emitted from a specific tile so that you can build a safe way to eject it.

Pipelines: As it is, they're useless since you can just build a tunnel or a channel. Unless you allow dwarves to path through pipes. That's the only function I can think of - moving fluids without restricting motion.

Rain catcher: I don't see what this has to do with steampunk, but anyway. Might be useful if it's possible to have a map with rain but no pools of any kind.

Steam cannon: Best not.

Explosives: I would consider this a good use of the alch lab. Perhaps it could be used to mine out large areas instantly, become part of deadly AoE traps, or perhaps make a cannon with it as a siege engine.

Potions: Probably another common suggestion. Should probably be put in a separate suggestion if you ask me.

Soap trap: Sounds funny but... probably not. Using soap to make a slippery floor that forces a creature to continue moving in the same direction might be an application though.

[Cles]

Yeah, a lot of those have probably been suggested but I tried to add to previous suggestions. I had something I was going to add to elevators but I forgot...

The soap trap wasn't really serious, though I think it should have a use. Nobles demanding it? Wash bloodstained clothes? Dwarven bath house?

Steam cannon was a joke too, though it'd be really cool to have one. Not just as a siege weapon.

The point of pipes was to make them able to pass through walls and floors without obstructing dwarf movement. This could carry both pressurized steam, cold water and in case of magma-proof pipe materials, magma.

[Duke 2.0]

 Bloat166, BATHS, (Future): Bath tubs. Golden bath tubs. Use of soap with a bucket of water.

 Bloat316, PIPE SECTIONS, (Future): Square-filling pipes sections that you can place and walk inside and hook together over many tiles and fill with fluids and stuff.

[Cles]

 Bloat166, BATHS, (Future): Bath tubs. Golden bath tubs. Use of soap with a bucket of water.

 Bloat316, PIPE SECTIONS, (Future): Square-filling pipes sections that you can place and walk inside and hook together over many tiles and fill with fluids and stuff.

Sweet. Anything for alchemy?

[Draco18s]

Take a look.

[Random832]

More general mechanical ideas than steampunk, but should be included in any attempt to extend the variety of machinery --

Load-dependent power - e.g. conveyor belts should have low (maybe 1) power requirements when they're not carrying an object, pumps should have power requirements based on the height difference of the water and only consume power when they're actually moving water.

Power-splitting when there's _not_ sufficient power - i.e. millstones and pumps work less efficiently if there's not enough power input in the system, rather than not working at all.

[MagicJuggler]

Or assuming rotational detection is added, gears would turn at a slower rate. Power input should also be variable, dependent on water velocity (building dams), or wind orientation.

[Mikademus]

Hello there! This is my first post on this forum after a few days of lurking, but you guys seem nice.

WHAAARGH! ALREADY SUGGESTED, NEEEEWB! DIE! DIE! DIEEEEEEEE!

[Dari]

In regards to steampower, I think (were it to be implemented) it would add some spectacular features in both Fortress mode, and Adventure mode (that'd be a long way off yet though) I just imagine my dwarves getting from one side of a map to the other via underground railway (could be a dwarven world construction for getting through the mountains!) P.S. (Bracket)

[Granite26]

Or assuming rotational detection is added, gears would turn at a slower rate. Power input should also be variable, dependent on water velocity (building dams), or wind orientation.

Honestly, if you assume a basic knowledge of gear ratios for the dwarves, that doesn't even matter.

[Silverionmox]

In regards to steampower, I think (were it to be implemented) it would add some spectacular features in both Fortress mode, and Adventure mode (that'd be a long way off yet though) I just imagine my dwarves getting from one side of a map to the other via underground railway (could be a dwarven world construction for getting through the mountains!) P.S. (Bracket)

The economic implications of that would thoroughly disrupt the game world. Look at what it did historically.
Steam power could potentially have some applications in fixed constructions with elaborate requirements (eg. steam cannon-like buildings); using extrasomatic energy to produce or transport definitely doesn't fit in a steady medieval economy.

[MagicJuggler]

And using hydropower to produce is? Dwarves already have an impressive techbase to work from after all.

[PTTG??]

I hate to burst your bubble but Mikademus is pretty much correct there. Dwarf Fortress has a unique setting (well, as unique as any other Tolkienesque setting). These aren't World of Warcraft dwarves. This is the Word of God (of Blood), Toady One.

For that matter, I suggest you take a look at the Tree Toe Stories. That's the feel of the gameworld(s) that's been established. That's not to say that it won't be possible to add these in a mod at some point, or something along those lines. For now, however, that's all off the table.

Again, really sorry to ruin your dreams of steam-powered Dwarven deathtraps.