Revisiting Shiveringhope: Goals and Reality

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by OddProphet, Aug 10, 2016.

  1. OddProphet

    OddProphet Member

    Today at work I began to browse through the weblog again to alleviate the tedium, and I happened across Gaslamp's end goal in the story of Shiveringhope. The story of the doomed colony prompted me to examine the state of the game as of Beta 53, and really consider how much material is left to add before we can recreate the colony's fate in-game.

    For those of you without the time or patience to wade through a four-year-old entry in the weblog, I will summarize:
    1. Shiveringhope, a colony in the "new-antipodean" style, was induced by the government to accept a massive experimental drill to plumb the loamy depths of the earth for the sake of Progress.
    2. After the initial Eldritch Disaster, an Eldritch Artifact was discovered. The Overseer decided to assign the Artifact to a Pipe Factory to increase output.
    3. The factory claimed minds and flesh, and gave mass quantities of Questionable Piping in exchange, which were taken by Pipe Cultists for purposes unknown.
    4. The emergency became too much for the colonists to handle alone, so they contacted the Empire to send them their Top Men, who in turn demolished the Pipe Factory. They were unable to destroy the Artifact despite their most vigorous Pronging, however.
    5. The Artifact claimed the mind and flesh of the Topmost Top Man, who in turn burned the entire colony to ashes as our brave Overseer floated away on an Emergency Airship to claim his awards, medals, and possibly another country house in the Home Counties to store his defective offspring.

    Most of this madness can actually be recreated using the structures in game. One could consider the entire story one event arc, in fact. We already have modules (which could be easily REDACTED), diplomatic issues (like accepting Experimental Equipment for prestige), and deep mines with, to quote the devs, "interesting things" in them.

    The things we are missing here are largely issues of scale. We have workshops, to be sure, but no real FACTORIES. Everything in these colonies are artisan-based, with no real opportunity for real soul-crushing CAPITALISM to flourish. Furthermore, failing a colony has (as of yet) no bearing on your next colonies, and as such the player has no reason to see a colony through to its bitter end other than personal amusement. I'm optimistic in spite of these missing features, as the game just needs more meat (and possibly some bugfixing in assorted glands) before it can really come alive!
     
  2. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    Honestly, it feels Shiveringhope would end because the bureaucrat-in-chief made a mistake with repair trunks.
     
    Samut and Bluebird like this.
  3. Puzzlemaker

    Puzzlemaker Member

    Personally I CAN'T WAIT for snoots. I hope the next big release has them.
     
    Unforked likes this.
  4. Unforked

    Unforked Member

    Yes! Been waiting so long for those snoots.
     
  5. Samut

    Samut Member

    Or everyone just stops cooking meals or anything else, and just stands around until they starve to death.
     
    DaCrAzYmOfO likes this.
  6. OddProphet

    OddProphet Member

    That's how most of my colonies end nowadays, regrettably. They forget repair trunks exist, then how to build things, then the starvation sets in.
     
    DaCrAzYmOfO likes this.
  7. DaCrAzYmOfO

    DaCrAzYmOfO Member

    I suggested a factory/snoot depot/stockpile hybrid in another thread... I would love to see it implemented but one can only wish lol
     
  8. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    There's a bunch of areas in which we're pretty close to getting the desired results (and hey, occult inspectors are now in and they will set fire to things.)

    W.r.t. cooking and/or forgetting things: I have never seen this locally, and nobody has *ever* been able to send me repro steps or a replay or a save that shows something other than a logistics issue where something is broken and we're not giving UI feedback - which is being worked on. So again, if you get that behaviour, tell me! I can fix it, but only if I can see it.
     
    DaCrAzYmOfO likes this.
  9. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    Also, there are some good names in this story that I should have put in the game - well, we'll fix that now.
     
  10. DaCrAzYmOfO

    DaCrAzYmOfO Member

    Sounds like something I'll have to check out in real life lol, its what I do for a living xD... not the set fire part but to prevent em bahaha, hopefully one day investigator :p
     
  11. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    (Got a save game, fixed one issue, and found a bunch of things that need to be fixed. Onwards.)