ARCHIVED: Spurious Contraptions

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KingArthur

Searching for the Holy Grail
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Hopefully, this link will provide some inspiration to unit makers and raise a few smiles. Post your pics and links here.

A Land Ship
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=75442&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1139090850

http://www.tin-soldier.com/Steamtk1.htm

Walkers
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/walker.JPG
http://historicalhobbies.com/DOGS/main/Gaslight/SteamSpider.htm

General Links:

(provided by Ozymandias)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/steam.html

http://historicalhobbies.com/DOGS/main/Gaslight/Gaslight.htm

(provided by pedrov)

http://www.voidgamers.com/channel/b.320.r.305.html

how about the electric man settler?...
http://www.bigredhair.com/robots/

and some pretty cool airships...
http://home.att.net/~dannysoar2/HarryGrantDart.htm

some of the airships are interesting...
http://www.visualparadox.com/scifi.htm

okay, probably extreme (definitely extreme), but perhaps an inspiration for land-based aircraft carriers...
http://www.dp9.com/Support/landship.htm

definitely worth navigating for whatever interest, the war stuff is pretty nice (like what appears to be a ferris-wheel style war machine... links at the bottom of the main page (e.g., Future War, ...
http://www.davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm
 
Here's some things I just googled and thought would make great units in the game: The powered dirigeable (probably pedal powered :lol:) and a Steampunk Commando, parachuting behind enemy lines from the aforementioned dirigeable.
 

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It does resemble the doom diver now you mention it, although I see this as a steam powered contraption that would jerkily flap the wings a bit for short periods before the fuel supply ran out - maybe good for jumping out a balloon to get a controlled descent.

I've seen some airship units but most are standard zeppelin type craft. There's Hikaro's great powered airships too but they are very advanced and I would put them in a late tech.

There's also the unit with a boat hung beneath a balloon that most resembles the pic (used in WH2, may even be your unit) but I think it's too fantasy looking or at least looks like "middle-ages" steampunk.
 
Not only do I love the idea of the Steampunk Commando, I surprisingly have some wing models that might be suitable, and which I never thought I'd have a use for:



I think the first would probably be best, with the addition of other Steampunkish gear. What do you think?

Also, I don't know if this character would fit in... possibly as a late-game unit, available with Valves?

 
That's Great Plotinus.

I picture the wings as having a rather stiff, mechanical movement - a little like a butterfly I suppose. I'm not sure if you can achieve that with wing set number 1? It looks more suitable for gliding rather than being 2 distinct wings that would articulate separately. Oh and no one has mentioned the rather big holes in those wings :LOL

The robot is a classic and Valves is a classic tech name. I'd definitely find a use for him.
 
The first set of wings do actually articulate well - it's not obvious in that image, but they flap and also the different segments in each wing slide over each other, allowing them to fold in and out. As for the holes - errr - nothing Steampunk would really work anyway! Although I should think it would be possible to create some webbing or thin material to fill the holes, perhaps, or to cover one side of the wings, so that the iron is simply the framework.

Glad you like Robbie. I was very pleased to find that model.

I'll add these units to the to-do list then, although there are some others already on it that must take priority...
 
The wings sound fine then, perhaps simple canvas looking covering or black leather could do for the holes - nothing synthetic though. I quite the like the sound of the sliding segments.

Thanks for adding units to your to do list, I appreciate it very much.

This sub-forum thingy seems to be taking off now and there was me getting worried for a while :)
 
Spring-heeled Jack - brilliant idea!

Little-known fact: Leibniz and von Helmont designed shoes with springs in the heels to help people run faster. A connection? Nice to think so...
Newton was an alchemist; perhaps Leibniz was also. And when Newton got the credit for calculus, he worked feverishly until he actually discovered the philosophers' stone, became immortal, and began taking his eternal revenge against all Englishmen. :hmm: And Moriarty was a mathematics professor ...
 
One of Leibniz' first jobs was working for a group of alchemists. I don't think he was ever really into it in the way that Newton was, though; indeed, his whole philosophy was based around the notion that everything is clear and easy to understand if you put your mind to it, while alchemy was all about mystique and ancient secrets. However, Leibniz was a cabbalist - that's where he got the idea of monads.
 
I was just riffing in an alternate-reality kind of way. I don't really believe Leibniz was Moriarty, although it is interesting to consider theodicy as a justification by a mind-warped mathematician for his immoral acts (cliology + social darwinism = best of all possible futures).
 
Ah, "cliology" is psychohistory, as in Asimov's Foundation? That could be a pretty good steampunk sort of idea too. I imagine that steampunk techs would have to include all sorts of daft Victorian ideas that in this scenario are actually true - crenology, mesmerism, fairies at the bottom of the garden (faerology?), etc.
 
Yes. Cliology is also understood to involve more direct societal manipulation than psychohistory, one effective tool of the Victorian Illuminati. Amongst the many tech icons I'm working on are some that lead through non-Euclidean maths combined with difference engine techs into time, aetheric (space) & dimensional manipulation & travel as well as Cliology.

Other ur-tech lines I'm working out icons for include Bertillonage and cogitative enhancement (via phrenology in part), a lot of the quack medicines such as violet ray therapy, and a series of developments based on Lamarckian evolution (Dr. Moreau will be happy).
 
Spring-heeled Jack - brilliant idea!

Little-known fact: Leibniz and von Helmont designed shoes with springs in the heels to help people run faster. A connection? Nice to think so...

I also think the German Army experimented with spring heels for WWII but abandoned it after so many broken ankles. :D

Newton was an alchemist; perhaps Leibniz was also. And when Newton got the credit for calculus, he worked feverishly until he actually discovered the philosophers' stone, became immortal, and began taking his eternal revenge against all Englishmen. :hmm: And Moriarty was a mathematics professor ...
Didn't Leibniz steal calculus from Newton?

Yes. Cliology is also understood to involve more direct societal manipulation than psychohistory, one effective tool of the Victorian Illuminati. Amongst the many tech icons I'm working on are some that lead through non-Euclidean maths combined with difference engine techs into time, aetheric (space) & dimensional manipulation & travel as well as Cliology.

Other ur-tech lines I'm working out icons for include Bertillonage and cogitative enhancement (via phrenology in part), a lot of the quack medicines such as violet ray therapy, and a series of developments based on Lamarckian evolution (Dr. Moreau will be happy).
That all sounds very interesting. The problem I am finding is fitting some of these things into Civ3 gameplay. I will post an era 1 tech tree. At the moment it seems a bit conventional to me so I'd like some input on it- can't break away from my scientific training.
 
Didn't Leibniz steal calculus from Newton?

Well, that was the verdict of the independent and impartial inquiry into the matter, conducted by the Royal Society (president: Sir I. Newton), chaired by England's leading mathematician (Sir I. Newton) and whose report was written by the foremost Natural Philosopher of the day (Sir I. Newton). In fact scholars now think that Newton invented it first (he called it "fluxions") but, as with most of his amazing discoveries of the 1660s, he never bothered to publish it; Leibniz invented it a few years later independently and published it. It is possible that Leibniz' thoughts along these lines were prompted by vague reports from his correspondents that Newton had done something terribly clever with curves, but he certainly wouldn't have had any more information than that and possibly not even that. It's Leibniz' version that's used today, not Newton's.

The irony is that Leibniz was branded a terrible plagiarist, at least in England where everyone hated him and worshipped his nemesis; but of all people, Leibniz would have been the first to give credit where due if he really had taken the idea from someone else. Leibniz was one of those philosophers who was always looking for points of agreement between himself and other thinkers, partly because he wanted to present his ideas as common sense, shared by many people, rather than radical and peculiar inventions of his own. (Also ironic, since he still has a reputation as a nutty metaphysician weirdly obsessed with monads.)

Anyway, this is going just a tad off-topic.
 
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