Solabusca on 3/11/2005 at 08:14
Quick question...
So there are collector towers scattered all around the City, right?
What're they collecting?
Seriously, real-world collector towers are related to solar energy - do these towers gather magical energy and convert it into light (the arc-spray effect)?
Thoughts on the matter?
.j.
jtr7 on 4/11/2005 at 06:46
Interesting. I never considered them collectors since the particle-spray comes from the three arms. I considered the "Glow Balls," as some devs. referred to them, closer to something like a plasma ball, but with the obvious differences.
There seems to be a source of free energy that the City engineers were able to harness. Mana?
Solabusca on 4/11/2005 at 10:20
Yeah, I'm firming up the idea that it's something akin to a solar collector - watch the spray direction - it cascades inwards from the four arms (there's a small end-piece on each) and into the 'glow-ball'.
I'd wager the glow is a tangential benefit of the process, and that there's a conduit that transfers the etheric energies to a turbine or somesuch to power an overall electricity/light array.
Or that's how things are taking shape in my mind...
.j.
str8g8 on 4/11/2005 at 11:56
Sola, where are the Collector Towers mentioned, I have a vague recollection of the term being used in passing ... what is the context?
Spiders on 4/11/2005 at 15:56
In DromEd, the name of the "collector tower" object is, in fact, CollectorTower. I assume that once DromEd-wranglers started using the object's "real" name, it was picked up by the general fan community.
Bronze Griffin on 4/11/2005 at 16:11
I've always liked the idea that they're collecting some form of magical energy, mainly because they work at all hours of the day.
Solabusca on 4/11/2005 at 17:48
The term is also used in game - in FRA, one of the logbooks lists the following:
Quote Posted by Watch Logbook
Criminal mischief
Gorn Avenue - criminal mischief ; 300 damage
Crippled Burrick Pub - criminal mischief, patron thrown through window , 500
Northcrest Road - criminal mischief to
collector tower , 250
Millans Drive - criminal mischief to street lamp, 25 damage
Bold mine.
.j.
TTK12G3 on 4/11/2005 at 20:27
FRA?:confused:
jtr7 on 4/11/2005 at 20:42
FRA = Framed!
Without access to the Thief files for confirmation...
I got the "glow-ball" term from searching for the sound-effect. There's another mention somewhere but with another variation, "glow (something else)." Is the light source itself called a glow-ball and the whole device a "collector tower?"
I can't remember for sure, but is there at least one collector mounted on a wall near the starting point in Shipping... and Receiving?
Since "collector tower" is found in-game, that makes it canon.
:thumb:
doctorfrog on 4/11/2005 at 21:26
When I first fired up the Thief demo so many years ago, I stared at the column for a few minutes before assuming that it sucked up moonbeams.
So, moonbeams. Moon powar.
[spoiler]I've also considered the collector to possibly be a transmitter of sorts. You'll notice that lights in Thief have little antennae. Also, I think there is a light in the Cragscleft mines that has fallen down. Though no wires connect it to anything, it still glows. I figure the Hammers have developed Tesla's dream of wireless electricity. Also, note that the Old Quarter has a bunch of short, stubby lights that are bolted to the ground. I take this to be the old-fashioned 'wired' electricity used before the newer, more convenient wireless type was developed.[/spoiler]
Either way, I also like to think of the machinery of the Hammers as being part of why the undead are so restless: this tapping into natural/magic potential excites the cells of the dead, bringing them to a hungry, frustrated life.
