Minecarts
Jan Melcher
It would be so cool if you could build a simple rail/minecart system to transport rocks and ores out of a mine.
Currently, the best early-game way to move stuff out of a mine seems to be moving stuff between stockpiles, which does not feel good doing. Carts are not really feasible because they require a 4:1 slope. Later, you research the elevator, but it also requires quite a large hole to be dug to fit in an elevator.
The minecarts I imagine would be relatively simple and should be available before Machinist is unlocked, e.g. with carpentry + basic engineering. You basically put down wooden rails and maybe pull the cart manually with a rope and crank at the top.
Aaren Myatt
Yes
Z
Zachary Frederick
I personally can never get the cart/wooden elevator to work right. It flips everytime for me. I think if you have a minecart and mineshaft (new wooden elevator) system where carts can be elevated without necessitating the player to go “up” with it, like the mineshaft tips it into a single stockpile, THAT would be the answer. I believe they’re called “tipples”. If players can just push a button and it raises up to be unloaded into a stockpile without player intervention, and then the tracks don’t allow any grade or turn whatsoever, I could see a huge, immersive options for it for mid tier mining solutions for the game. Once industrial elevators come out, they’ll be obsolete though which makes sense to me historically anyways. If we want grades… we could do it where animals pull them but we can’t push them up a 100% grade. Later could be mechanical driven by rope. Not sure. Just throwing ideas out. It’s just difficult to deincentivize the being used as roads on the surface with having grades and turns.
TwisteD
Oooh didnt even think of this one i mean its kind of minecrafty but really would or could tie in nice with the trains especially since they would have to run on the same tracks and attach or need a way to be moved <3 Trains train-cars mine-carts oooh railroad hand cars they would all be amazing!
MetallicDragon
In order for a mine cart setup to be worth building, it would need to be much better to use than the current stack of stockpiles. Otherwise, why spend a bunch of time digging out and laying down tracks when you can already move entire stockpiles of material very quickly?
Here's one way to make it worth building: have it move stuff automatically. One end is a cart input, linked to nearby stockpiles. The other end is output, linked to other stockpiles/inventories. When the cart moves by, it grabs from "input" stockpiles, and then at the other end of the tracks, outputs to "output" stockpiles. Maybe use "cart stations" as connection points between the cart and the stockpiles?
This would also open the door to other cool kinds of logistics - maybe you smelt things in one area, and then have a cart going over ground to your mechanics shop? Or a town could use it to distribute crushed coal to the townsfolks automatically.
S
Shoop de boop
I've had a similar thought to this as well.
It could be tracks that you place down made out of Iron and to "push" it to the top, you use calories in one go by interacting with the bottom and pushing a button on it, then it just moves to the top. To move it back down takes no calories (gravity) and then it moves itself all the way down to the bottom again. Potentially, maybe there could also be the option to grab hold of it and push it like a cart so that you can stop it midway if you wanted to.
If not a minecart, there definitely needs to be a mid-game improvement to mining/hauling rock. So far we have pickaxe > skid steer and Cart > (steam) trucks. It would be good to have a mid-tier mining and hauling mechanic in the game.
Der_Eisbear
Wouldnt a Minecart also need a 4:1 slope? While you save some materials since its not a 4:2 slope I think Minecarts would probably end up being more of a gimmick instead of being actually used. Except they make it have a higher inventory and a really high Weight Limit or something
Jan Melcher
Der_Eisbear: I would allow a steeper slope for minecarts with the reasoning that it's much easier to pull a heavy weight with a crank and maybe a ratchet than it is to pull a cart directly. So that's why I would allow a 100% slope for the minecarts.
You could even add a counterweight.
the whole idea is to make a smaller version of the wooden elevator, and have a viable alternative to stockpile chaining early in the game.
So, compared to slope + wooden cart:
- steeper slope (ideally 1:1 that fits more nicely with an initial staircase you dig out anyway)
- smaller inventory than Wooden Cart (maybe similar to small wooden cart?)
- slower than pulling a cart
- higher calorie consumption than pulling a cart
- available at a similar time, maybe a little bit later (late level of Basic Engineering)
Compared to steam elevator
- available earlier (no Mechanics or Smelting required, so you can use it pull the iron needed for mechanics/smelting)
- less digging required, fits more nicely with an initial staircase you dig out anyway
- higher calory consumption
- probably slower
- smaller inventory than e.g. a cart that you would put on the elevator
Compared with stockpile chaining (spacing out small stockpiles with tiny stockpiles in between so you can pull items from one to the other):
- ideally not that much more effort to set up than digging out for linked tiny/small sotckpiles
- obviously more calorie consumption
- can be slower than moving stuff between linked stockpiles, but there also is less clicking, so you can do without paying too much attention
--
all that said - I really like Jason's suggestion (separate comment here) for a small vertical mineshaft with a bucket. I think that would satisfy the conditions stated here quite comparably.
Jason
Minecarts are similar to wooden carts without the rails, but being able to build a small mineshaft with a bucket to hoist materials would be a good early version of the elevator. And fills in the gap that people currently resort to stockpile-chaining shenanigans for.
Jan Melcher
Jason: I like that idea. It wouldn't be as cool as minecarts, but probably easier to implement and serve the same purpose
Adam
This would be fun, I’d like an easier early game solution to mass excavation, even if it lowered resource gain while using