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[FearfulJesuit]

I was thinking about the 10,000 year clock, and had an idea.

If DF is anything like real life, then everything falls at a constant rate.

This means that it should be possible to have a breeding area of puppies which is connected to a hatch. Or, suppose that you had a whole bunch of puppies that each could only stand on a single hatch.

Basically, one calculates the amount of frames per in-game minute or hour; then one calculates how long it takes for an object to fall per Z-level. Then, find an amount of time that is divisible into the length of a dwarven day that is also the amount of time for something to fall down a certain number of Z-levels. When the clock is started, the first puppy falls, say, 100 Z-levels onto a pressure plate. This pressure plate is hooked up to the next puppy's hatch. With enough puppies falling and releasing the pressure plate hooked up to the hatch on which the next one stands, it should be possible for the dwarves to measure any length of time through the pointless and gratuitous slaughter of puppies or kittens.

!!SCIENCE!! is needed.

[Sphalerite]

All creatures fall at a constant 1 Z-level per 6 ticks.

I'm not sure if the pressure plate will trigger, however, since the puppy will splatter into chunks when it hits.  Will it exist as a living creature on the pressure plate long enough to trigger it before dying?  Someone needs to test this.

[FearfulJesuit]

I'll test it.

Results:

To test this, I built a stairway all the way up to Z +14:

X++C

where X was the stair, + floors, and C a floor hatch. There was a pasture defined over C and a puppy assigned to it.

On Z-Level -30, I built a pressure plate directly underneath the hatch and a clear tunnel all the way down. The pressure plate was hooked up to a floodgate I'd built. So, when a dwarf pulled the lever, the puppy falls, and if the floodgate falls, then the clock can be built.

And unfortunately, the floodgate *didn't* fall.

I regret to inform the community that the mass murder of puppies does not create a viable clock.

[Sphalerite]

Did you first verify that the pressure plate would trigger if a puppy stood on it normally?  The minimum weight on pressure plates can be weird, a puppy might not be enough to trigger it.

[Xen0n]

How predictable is the breeding rate?  Is it possible to have a small enclosed area with a breeding pair of dogs, over a pressure plate that detects when a certain number of dogs are on it (by combined weight) then opens a door to allow one (and only one, using pressure plates) puppy to walk onto a hatch that then drops it?  I guess the idea is to have all the measurement happen at the top of the clock if pressure plates can't detect falling objects.

OR if, hypothetically, we were willing to abandon the puppy murdering aspect of this idea (stay with me), you could do it with goblins, and have a single dwarf burrowed on a room adjacent to the shaft, repeatedly pulling a lever / burrowed over a pressure plate.  When the goblin falls past, it interrupts him and he flees, abandoning the lever / releasing the pressure plate he was standing on until it passes him and he returns.

[FearfulJesuit]

Did you first verify that the pressure plate would trigger if a puppy stood on it normally?  The minimum weight on pressure plates can be weird, a puppy might not be enough to trigger it.

I'm pretty sure. How should I set up the weight?

[Sphalerite]

Set the weight as low as it will go.  Set the pressure plate to be triggered by civilians.  Then, pasture a puppy on the pressure plate to make sure that it's actually triggering when a puppy stands on it.  Then pasture the puppy on the elevated floor hatch and do the drop test.

[FearfulJesuit]

Set the weight as low as it will go.  Set the pressure plate to be triggered by civilians.  Then, pasture a puppy on the pressure plate to make sure that it's actually triggering when a puppy stands on it.  Then pasture the puppy on the elevated floor hatch and do the drop test.

I'll check this afternoon.

[ZeroSumHappiness]

Don't forget to check that a live puppy not falling to his doom will also set off such a plate of course.

[Xen0n]

Don't forget to check that a live puppy not falling to his doom will also set off such a plate of course.

I'm not sure if I follow the logic here.  So... how do we kill the puppies?

[FearfulJesuit]

Don't forget to check that a live puppy not falling to his doom will also set off such a plate of course.

I'm not sure if I follow the logic here.  So... how do we kill the puppies?

Well, they're falling on the pressure plate.

[Xen0n]

Don't forget to check that a live puppy not falling to his doom will also set off such a plate of course.

I'm not sure if I follow the logic here.  So... how do we kill the puppies?

Well, they're falling on the pressure plate.

Ah, sorry, I think I forgot how to understand words for a little bit there.  Carry on.

[Varnifane]

I regret to inform the community that the mass murder of puppies does not create a viable clock.

Sigged

[Nil Eyeglazed]

I was doing some testing with this with goblins.

I found that goblins did not set off pressure plates when they "died after colliding with an obstacle" onto them.

I saw dodging that led to weirdly timed actions when being dropped from a bridge.

There was some weirdness with when the pressure plate actually triggered from a goblin-drop (1 z-level).

I didn't do enough testing-- questions are, is a hatch drop a predictable length; does dropping from a single square bridge produce a reliable signal; does a 1 z drop lead to a predictable delay on triggering a pressure plate.

In a way, it's pretty far-fetched anyways-- a 6 tick delay in a device with a several hundred tick refractory period would mean you'd need at least thirty linked to each other to form a viable clock.    If bridges or grates could work, you could make that a 106 delay, and you'd need far fewer, maybe just two.  It's difficult to get the clock to return to original position with anything other than domestic animals  (almost impossible to get a goblin on a single, droppable square, not without paraplegic or carefully timed goblins).

[plynxis]

has anyone tried to actually trigger it with a plain honest rock?

or a caged goblin if you really want flesh in the mix - fill the bottom plate with magma, include the slower drop rate of the cage through the magma in the calculation, and you've got a clock that still kills stuff.

maybe we'll have to skip killing puppies but we can still get our clock