Inspirations for CE?

Well, this needs to be divided into two categories, gameplay and setting I guess.

Let's go for setting first:

- The press release gives me kind of a China Mieville (Bas-Lag) vibe, with agents of the empire skulking around and weird entities intruding into your reality, also the far away colonies (still need to read The Scar :/).
- Lovecraft, just because. And obviously tons of squids.
- Obviously the Victorian Age itself, with all its laudanum and colonies

Now, Gameplay though we don't know much about that yet and what we know is mentioned in PCGamer:

- Dwarf Fortress obviously.
- Concerning settlement and colony builders, Anno obviously springs to life, especially the older titles.
- Some of the Sierra City Builders, like Pharaoh, Zeus etc... with their rampaging and sometimes helpful gods.
- Procedural generation? Well, everybody is talking about it, but I can't think of any good examples but Spore, which goes into another direction...

 

I'm wondering if a certain mod of Ruigi's has something to do with this game.

 

Procedural Generation I'd probably chalk up more to Dwarf Fortress than Spore, since uh, basically that's everything in dwarf fortress, up to and including the lovecraftian monsters. (which is also true of spore to be fair, but. I mean, we already have dwarf fortress as a VERY OBVIOUS inspiration.)

Which reminds me, will this game have procedurally generated lovecraftian monsters?

Honestly considering the company's name is Gaslamp Games I suspect the idea for a steampunk game proooooobably goes back a lot further.

 

pretty sure that odin was already in the pipeline before i released CK. It's possible that it helped with the storyline, which was probably based loosely around dwarves or something.

 

Oooooo

Animations are indeed a pain >.<

 

So does that mean we'll see cactus-men and giant spiders obsessed with scissors?

*EDIT*

Also, may we all be quick to remember that Dwarf Fortress players seriously considered how to capture, imprison, breed, and harvest mermaids for their bones. I will not be satisfied until CE offers me the opportunity to preform feats equally horrific and reprehensible.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25967.0

 

Dwarf fortress again, the whole roguelike genre, probably SimEarth did it too?

Unless you're talking about magical procedural extrusion of buildings, in which case you could refer to Triangulon's Treatise on Threedimensionality.

 

Honestly if you're talking about procedural landscapes, SimCity did it.

It's not really a new thing for strategy games.

 

Yeah, I was talking more of on-the-spot creating of stuff, not of randomly generating a world to play, everybody including Minecraft does that

 

Well, the second motto of the Dwarf Fortress community (after Loosing is ‼FUN‼) is Weaponize Everything, after all...
They weaponized the bones by selling them and buying weapons
Also, I want Necromancers. They are awesome in DF.
And I want an equal to terryfying biomes (in which, since the latest major update, evil mist makes everything it touches into mindless, indefeatable husks (Well, magmafying and then pouring water on them to obsidianise works on them, but it works on literarily everything...)
Ah, yes, even skins and hairs are raised

 

If you need a neat reference somewhere, this CAMEO FROM THE FUTURE has all sorts of implications for time travel.

 

Oh god... if Boatmurdered is a direct influence on the game, I weep.

With joy or trepidation I know not. But there is weeping being done.

 

Just make sure you cry near the tear collection troughs so they can be sent into our Tear Cistern which we will use to drown invaders.

 

I've been a fan of Lovecraft since I was a little kid and I first played the original Alone in the Dark on my 386/16mhz Packard Bell. I went straight to the bookstore and started getting all the Lovecraft I could get my hands on. I have quite a collection. And it's so great to see the influence in games made by my favorite studio(s). And Dwarf Fortress? Sold.

 

If I may make a suggestion: The Leviathan Series by Scott Westerfield. Definitely worth picking up if only for the beautiful illustrations by Keith Thompson. Basically WWI happens, and Germany and its allies have built massive landships and zepplins. Meanwhile, England and its allies have taken the teachings of Darwin and put them to use, creating genetically altered beasties as weapons of war. Most prominent is the Leviathan, a giant flying whale that is the flagship of Her Majesty's Aerial Fleet. I have an image somewhere...

 

Does that mean we're going to be able to create legendary bloodthristy pachyderms to slaughter ourselves our enemies?

For the benefit of those who didn't read Boatmurdered, here is a dwarf's explanation for when to use the doomsday levers:

 

May I suggest that you read discworld?

Building a big enough library could open a rift, like L-space, as everyone knows

 

Spoiler

Third stage guild navigator?

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Azathoth would be a good character archetype to consider. May not fit, but just based on what I'm seeing/reading - his ability to be an elder thingy while at the same time strolling around in a tophat mesmerizing people with electronic gadgets makes Tesla a great choice for consideration as a nemesis type character.

Sorry... I meant Azathoth. Did I say Tesla? Azathoth. David Bowie. Whatever.