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[Samrobot]

I'm setting up a danger room and i want to know what is the best and easiest repeater design.

[Urist Imiknorris]

MrFake's, I'll go get the wiki link.

EDIT:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:MrFake/TwoStepAlternatingRepeater
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:MrFake/NStepCyclicRepeater

[gtmattz]

MrFake's, I'll go get the wiki link.

EDIT:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:MrFake/TwoStepAlternatingRepeater
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:MrFake/NStepCyclicRepeater

If you want easy and simple, those are NOT the right answer...

The most basic repeater:

Code: [Select]

≈≈≈≈≈ - river or brook
═╗≈╔═ - wall to channel out after construction
 ╠╬╣ - fortification (to filter out any creatures inhabiting your river)
 ╠F╣ - shutoff floodgate (linked to exterior lever)
 ║#║ - 1-tile raising drawbridge (linked to pressure plate, raising direction does not matter)
 ║p┼ - pressure plate (set to 7-7 water), and access door
 ╠F╣ - floodgate (linked to pressure plate)
 ╚═╝
Source: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Repeater#ixzz0zzfJnwLR

I like to use this design but use a pressurized cistern for my source, as the pressure make the filling stage nearly instantaneous so the thing works a little more consistently.

[Quietust]

The only downside of that 2nd repeater (using bridges and floodgates) is that it causes noticeable lag every time it toggles (due to pathfinding being updated).

[gtmattz]

Interesting point there, I never noticed the lag myself, but I can see why it would cause it.  I will have to do some SCIENCE and see what kind of impact it has.

[Samrobot]

that fluid repeater is a lot easier when i was looking at the pump repeaters i was thinking "this is the easiest i can't understand it "

[Emily]

I thought the pump repeaters were pretty straitforward; moreso then the floodgate one.

That said, they aren't going to be easier to build.

Also I was under the impression that it only recalculated paths when a dwarf bumped into an obstruction, so unless you're routing your dwarves through the repeater, it shouldn't cause pathfinding lag--and even then it'd be minimal.

There may be other sorts of lag, though.

[Impudence12]

I just hooked my traps up to a lever and had Urist McUseless pull the lever on repeat.. What's the point with having elaborate machines to do a dwarf's job.

[Tommy]

The second repeater is certainly the simplest repeater design really available, and if built properly it shouldn't cause too much lag.  It does require a constant source of water, but it's quick and easy to build and requires no power.

It's worth noting that an elaborate combination of repeaters and XOR gates can create a repeating system that flips much faster than any individual repeater within the system.

[Reese]

that first design has an extra pressure plate, you only need one for it to work; you hook the gears for both pumps up to the upper pressure plate and use a lever to change on of the gears to be opposite the other, and you can deconstruct the extra lever to reclaim two gears, and only one pump can be powered at a time, saving power and materials.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39587.msg790281#msg790281
(I regularly use the design as described in that post now... has it really been a whole year?)

[Vattic]

I usually use the one gtmattz suggests but I've heard people have had success with the following design:

++++++      top floor
+_%%_+
+%++%+      _ = channelled tile
+%++%+
+_%%_+
++++++

██████      bottom floor
█+██+█
██████
██████
█+██^█
██████

Build it, link the resetting presure plate to something, turn pumps off, get your dwarves to bucket fill one of the channelled tiles till 7/7, turn pumps on. The pumps will pass the 7/7 block of water around the system triggering the pressure plate as it goes. If I remember correctly the water will move once per 100 ticks; I want to make a section of the fort that only opens once every so many years.

[Shoku]

I thought the pump repeaters were pretty straitforward; moreso then the floodgate one.

That said, they aren't going to be easier to build.

Also I was under the impression that it only recalculated paths when a dwarf bumped into an obstruction, so unless you're routing your dwarves through the repeater, it shouldn't cause pathfinding lag--and even then it'd be minimal.

There may be other sorts of lag, though.

Yeah, we're talking about two different things. The game first builds this sort of map to say what tiles are somehow connected, like how the third cavern does not originally include a path to above ground. This stops creatures from trying to go to nonsensical destinations and also keeps all of the solid rock out of the equation. This obviously needs some computing when there is suddenly a new wall somewhere or suddenly is not one.

Within those spaces individuals will set destinations and then check for the shortest path they can take. When they bump something they then retry with simple pathing (ignores 4/7 water, traffic designations, maybe other stuff) which is what you were thinking of. This is kind of a resource hog but it is much smaller than it could be thanks to the pathing maps built by that other thing.  Unfortunately simple pathfinding doesn't immediately check if the destination is still in a connected zone which is why you get such nasty lag when you build a wall to keep impending doom away from the fort. After like 100 failures to path a unit gives up though so we don't see them swarm as soon as a wall is taken back down.

One day Toady will change some aspects of this but right now it makes sense in most circumstances and he will probably never do full AI for swimming, flying, and building destroyers cooperating or anything like that. (Can you just imagine how complicated it would be trying to decide the shortest path when you had to consider when some unit was going to bust open a door or when something was going to swim into some place and pull a lever to open a path? Sure it's POSSIBLE to make the computer work that out but not in a way that would run at a bearable speed.)