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[Retro]

So, here's what I'm wondering. Bridges, even retractable ones for some reason, kind of randomly fling creatures around a bit. But does anyone know if they continue to fall at an angle after this? Like, say, over 50-60z levels? I'm carving out a nice-sized circular chamber and colouring it for different points, and it'd be awesome if one bridge pull would do the trick to randomize the scores some.

If it doesn't, which I imagine is the case, I could try multiple sets of retracting bridges before the big fall to get my captives/darts nice and randomly flung about before the big limb-splosion. Any other ideas for this? The body part explosion is a must, of course.

[Hortun]

Test it and find out!

[winner]

check out the dwarven science thread

[Sphalerite]

Dwarf fortress dows not model parabolic motion.  Objects flung by whatever reasons - bridges, hammerdwarves, cave-ins - move horizontally on the same Z-level until they run out of momentum, then fall straight down.

[blue emu]

Considering that Bridges only toss creatures (and objects) a few tiles, you might consider setting up a "Goblin Pinball" game instead... a large room channeled out several z-levels tall, with a retracting bridge at the center of the top level, surrounded by a few similar bridges one level down, and several more two levels down... in a basically 3D-pyramidal shape.

You could set up the timing by laying down a series of water-activated pressure plates in a tunnel, with a lever-controlled floodgate at the source end and a drainage grate at the other end. Connect the pressure plates to the bridges, so that when you turn on the water the top bridge flips first, followed by the ones below it, then the ones below them, and so on.

With a little ingenuity, you could even use pressure plates on the bottom floor to total up your point-score, with the outer ring being worth the most points.

[Retro]

I think Goblin Pinball/Pachinko's been done before; I was hoping to do something different. Reading the Dwarven Science bridge stuff helped a bunch. I just need to make my bridge / multiple bridges rather wide, and have a lot of them. I'm thinking if I use a circle with a diameter of, say, 25 squares, that gives me enough space to bother setting up point circles. I'm not sure how many sets of bridge drops I'll use to throw the gobbos around-- if the Dwarven Science thread's percent chance of objects staying still is right at about 25%, then dropping gobbos from the center through five sets of bridges before the fall would put me at about a 0.097656% chance of the goblin staying exactly where it is... then again, the highest scoring target would probably be five squares wide, in a plus shape.

Hmm. Would it be better to place goblins at the farthest edge of the circle, to make it harder to hit the center? That'd make 'overshooting' come into play as well.

[Grendus]

If you want goblin darts, I would suggest a dartboard on the ground and use a hammerdwarf or bridge (be sure if it raises, it doesn't raise in the direction you want to throw them) to fling them out onto it.

You could use a hammerdwarf to throw them vertically at the wall, but there would be no parabolic motion, and in order to get them reliably thrown (sometimes hammerdwarves just curbstomp them) you'd have to use a bridge which doesn't throw them hard enough to hurt).

[Retro]

Oh, I'm not trying to get the goblins to splatter on the wall-- the target's going to be on the ground, at the bottom of a rather deep, very wide pit. The whole bridge-flinging-around stuff is just to try and randomize the score/splatter I get

Of course, I'll be building seating near the base for bored dwarfs to watch. No sense in letting all that gore go to waste.

[Grendus]

Then definitely use a retracting bridge dead center suspended above the splatterzone. A building support will hold it in place, either a solid tower of them from the ground or one suspended from above will do. Personally I recommend supporting from below, that way you can pit them onto the flinger then pull the lever and give points based on where the gob lands.

[Count Dorku]

Here's another idea:
Mark the value of each point struck...by putting the most valuable gem-encrusted steel spike at the centre, then working outwards to the crappy wooden ones.

[Vicomt]

what I'm doing in my current main fort is dropping gobbo's off a bridge 20+ levels up onto a circular target and scoring points for how far the body parts travel from the point of impact. Every time a body part beats the previous best distance, I add another ring of walls (in a different metal) to the target. My best currently is 12 squares distance between the point of impact and where the limb landed.

Dwarf fortress dows not model parabolic motion.  Objects flung by whatever reasons - bridges, hammerdwarves, cave-ins - move horizontally on the same Z-level until they run out of momentum, then fall straight down.

oh, and splattering bodyparts definitely involves some level of vertical motion, from the impact point at z=0, with walls all around, the bodyparts sometimes travel half a dozen z-levels up before dropping down while steadily moving away from the point of impact. If that's not parabolic, it's certainly close.

[Grendus]

what I'm doing in my current main fort is dropping gobbo's off a bridge 20+ levels up onto a circular target and scoring points for how far the body parts travel from the point of impact. Every time a body part beats the previous best distance, I add another ring of walls (in a different metal) to the target. My best currently is 12 squares distance between the point of impact and where the limb landed.

Dwarf fortress dows not model parabolic motion.  Objects flung by whatever reasons - bridges, hammerdwarves, cave-ins - move horizontally on the same Z-level until they run out of momentum, then fall straight down.

oh, and splattering bodyparts definitely involves some level of vertical motion, from the impact point at z=0, with walls all around, the bodyparts sometimes travel half a dozen z-levels up before dropping down while steadily moving away from the point of impact. If that's not parabolic, it's certainly close.

I think that DF's parabolic motion is up -> horizontal -> down. It's not a true parabola.

[Retro]

A 'body part bonus' might be neat too. The fun for me right now is that where the volunteers land is going to be somewhat randomized, so it'll actually be leaving bloody marks for accuracy - out of prevalence the target itself will probably be rings of microcline/orthoclase.

And expensive deaths vs. sad, weak deaths? I likes. Perhaps the outmost ring could be designated as magma for-- oh hey, new idea.

Adding to Vicomt's idea, dropping a goblin onto one end of a long, thin rectangular platform with magma at the sides. Goblin bowling! The body parts serve as the bowling ball, the magma is the gutter. Put up some statues for pins, and hey hey! You can't knock down the pins, of course - the house always wins.

[Sphalerite]

oh, and splattering bodyparts definitely involves some level of vertical motion, from the impact point at z=0, with walls all around, the bodyparts sometimes travel half a dozen z-levels up before dropping down while steadily moving away from the point of impact. If that's not parabolic, it's certainly close.

Objects can be thrown upwards by splattering and bridges, but as far as I've been able to tell it's still straight line movement until the object hits a wall or runs out of momentum, then falls straight down.

[blue emu]

I fed a Gobbo to my pet Alligator, inside a constructed building with a roof. One of the Gobbo's arms landed in a nearby pond, OUTSIDE.

The building has no Windows, and no Door on that side. Pretty odd, no?