ARCHIVED: Spurious Contraptions

[jlvfr]

Anyone seen "Steamboy"? Manga meets steampunk.

 

[Balthasar]

Any of you read Anti-Ice?

I'd never heard of it until I saw your link, but it looks good. It's not too dissimilar in scope to the Lost Worlds scenario. I've been working on the backstory of LW and so far it's sorta like:

Spoiler :

On the eve of young Victoria's coronation, the League of Gentlemen was visited by a strange pair: a tall turbaned man of Indian descent who introduced himself as Nemo, a ship's captain, and a young french boy of about twelve years, who he called Jules. The boy, said Nemo, had been caught stowed away aboard the Coralie, a ship headed to India, telling a fantastic story - he'd been hiding from the master criminal Jean Diable whom he'd spotted boarding a ship to England. "How did he know it was Jean Diable?", asked Phineas Fogg. "I asked him that, of course." Nemo said, briskly; the boy had recognized the famous criminal from a drawing he'd seen in a magazine - the scar on his face had given him away.


Jean Diable a.k.a. John Devil

Moreover, Nemo continued, the boy, after hiding nearby, had heard some of Diable's conversation. He'd heard the man say "that he is coming to England to find a substance called Cavorite, and that once he finds it, he is going into space to find a crystal with which he intends to build a super weapon he called a Fulgerator." At that point, said Nemo, young Jules' hiding place was discovered and a chase ensued; he was almost caught, except that he was able to leap from the dock to the Coralie, which was just pulling out of the port. At this point, Nemo simply stopped talking and everyone just stared at him. "My God, he knows about Cavorite..," said Dorian Grey finally, almost whispering. "...And the Fulgerator," said Ida Lovelace, equally darkly. Fogg spoke directly to the boy in perfect french: "Do you have a family, son?" "Oui, monseur," replied the boy, "my family name is Verne. I am from Nantes." "Well my young Mr. Verne from Nantes," Fogg said, "you have been very helpful, and I will see that my friend Passpartout gets you safely home to your family." At this, the boy brightened visibly, but when he saw the look of concern on the faces around him, he became scared again. "Where would he find Cavorite?" Fogg mused aloud, in english. "There's some in the British Museum, but very little." said Ida. "There is a legend," said Allen Quartermaine, who had remained seated in shadow up to this point, "that a large amount of a substance that rose toward the sky during lightning storms could be found beneath the ancient city of Atlantis." "Cavorite!" said Dorian. "Apparently," agreed Fogg, "but how would he - or we - get to it?" "I might help you with that," said the Captain, whose face turned suddenly intense in the glow of the lamplight. "I have been working on this all of my life." Then he pulled a large parchment from a satchel, which was revealed, when he rolled it out on a table, to be a detailed drawing." "A submarine?!" cried Ida, who bent to examine the drawing. "This could get complicated" said Dorian. "Oh, you have no idea." chuckled Quartermaine, as he returned to his chair and lit his pipe, "You have no idea."

The problem, of course, is that I can't even begin to fit all that into a scenario description yet.

 

[KingArthur]

Balth - Never mind editing that for a scenario description you should write a book; it's bloody marvellous. I'd buy it!

P.S. Remember you can put pedia links in the scenario introduction that goes in one of the text files: labels or scripts. That should give you enough space to cover everything -don't edit it to fit as it'd be a shame to lose any of the detail.

Wyrm - I've added that book to my reading list

 

[Balthasar]

Balth - Never mind editing that for a scenario description you should write a book; it's bloody marvellous. I'd buy it!

P.S. Remember you can put pedia links in the scenario introduction that goes in one of the text files: labels or scripts. That should give you enough space to cover everything -don't edit it to fit as it'd be a shame to lose any of the detail.

Wyrm - I've added that book to my reading list

Perhaps you can help me with the linking part at some point KA. I've discovered that I'm not nearly as clever as some others at manipulating the biq to my tastes. In the meantime, I'll put the book idea on my ever-expanding pile of unwritten book ideas.

Jlvr - I've seen Steamboy. While I personally prefer 'heavy metal' style animation to manga (South Park did a wonderful take-off on that recently, I note in passing...) and Chuck Jones' animation to all others (and his collaboration with Theodore Geisel - Dr. Suess - was about as perfect as it got - but I'm digressing terribly), Steamboy was a good yarn and a very interesting movie visually..

 

[jlvfr]

Jlvr - I've seen Steamboy. While I personally prefer 'heavy metal' style animation to manga (South Park did a wonderful take-off on that recently, I note in passing...) and Chuck Jones' animation to all others (and his collaboration with Theodore Geisel - Dr. Suess - was about as perfect as it got - but I'm digressing terribly), Steamboy was a good yarn and a very interesting movie visually..

But Chuck Jones isn't animation, Chuck Jones is... Chuck Jones! All come bellow his high throne!

 

[KingArthur]

Perhaps you can help me with the linking part at some point KA.

No probs but it really is a small matter. You need to edit the script.txt file. The section to look for is labelled: #DAWN_OF_. To include a scenario specific entry you add a section called #DAWN_OF_SCENARIO like this:

#DAWN_OF_SCENARIO
#caption The Age of Steam
#xs 400
#x -5
#y -5
^Dear $PLAYER0, leader of the {$STRENGTHS4} $CIVNOUN2.
^It is the year $YEARTIME5. .....
^
^Before you start for the first time, check the $LINK<feature summary=GCON_Features> and $LINK<credits=GCON_Credits>!

---------------------------
The bits starting with $LINK are links to the civilopedia.txt file which you need to modify e.g.

#GCON_Features
Feature Summary
^
^

However, saying all that you may be able to include all your text within the initial DAWN_OF_SCENARIO section without the need for extras in the civilopedia. You can increase the size of this section by adjusting the number after line #xs 500

 

[Blue Monkey]

KingArthur - you really should consider writing a "how-to" on the pedia for the modiki.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Ad for Harness' Electric Corsets. Only 5s/6d post free!

 

[Blue Monkey]

Moderator Action: All the threads in the steampunk subforum are temporarily closed while we reorganize. Expect a reopening of a new, organized improved version soon.