Solabusca on 22/3/2009 at 03:26
Jason, you officially rock even harder than you did before.
.j.
jtr7 on 23/3/2009 at 02:20
:o :erm: :o :) :D
Coming from you, Sir, that really made my weekend. Thank you.
Knock on 23/3/2009 at 20:37
Here's my thoughts.
Power in the city is distributed via a handful of gigantic (In terms of power, not size) coils spread throughout the city. This power then spreads throughout the aether and is collected with the towers. The towers then distribute the power throughout their respective districts.
In certain districts, more power is required (The big metal doors in S&R, the heavy security in Fra) so more collector towers are needed. Other places which use lots of power (SF, Angelwatch) have their own methods for generating power. As for the Bafford's having four in a small area, perhaps his manor is located at a hub between districts or in a particularly densely populated part of town.
As for the structure of the collectors, maybe the four arms are in fact two crossing arms, in order to intercept longitudinal and lateral waves of Power traveling through the aether.
Just speculation of course, but it's speculation that works for me.
jtr7 on 23/3/2009 at 20:42
Something like that, yeah. I still have a preference for the Tesla technology, and his free energy concepts.
Iceblade on 17/5/2009 at 07:34
Well, it seems the biggest use for electricity is for generating light....but the Mechanists have more power expensive items like watchers and especially sentrys (very power expensive as noted in a Soulforge text).
Those collector towers could send and collect aetheral energy. One crosspiece collects and the other sends. As for their rarity, maybe there doesn't need to be as many. They power streetlights only for most all districts and whenever Mech stuff is anywhere, they're tied into those generators and steam systems we see all of the time.
Remember, also, that most places in the city don't require power as they still use torches. Speaking of which, how often do we electric lights in non-mech places: Gervasius (seems to be a pretty new place to begin with), the First Bank (well, they got quite an overall by the Mechs) and that is all that I can think of aside from the odd few lights in this manor or that. (or maybe it has been too long since I played the OMs)
As for those four near Baffords, that area is probably not one of the poor districts (a lot of old manors) and lies pretty centrally in the city. Apparently, having so many collectors in one spot is not that detrimental...in fact it maybe a good thing (1: that area is a particularly good spot for the aether or 2: its the city and heavily populated, so there weren't any better places to stick them or they were stuck near each other to maximize space.
Solabusca on 19/5/2009 at 20:14
Quote Posted by Iceblade
Well, it seems the biggest use for electricity is for generating light....but the Mechanists have more power expensive items like watchers and especially sentrys (very power expensive as noted in a Soulforge text).
I feel it a good time to point out that most Mechanist installations are connected by cables strung through manor houses.
Quote:
Those collector towers could send and collect aetheral energy. One crosspiece collects and the other sends. As for their rarity, maybe there doesn't need to be as many. They power streetlights only for most all districts and whenever Mech stuff is anywhere, they're tied into those generators and steam systems we see all of the time.
Again, I'd suggest that the Collector Tower is connected to the turbines we see around the cities - much like a solar collector tower uses the (heat) energy it collects to power a steam turbine, thus generating electricity.
I'm also a proponent of Tesla-like power transmission - I'm sure Jason can remind me where I posited that initially - I'm fair sure that the Collector towers only take in, and not transmit. For the record, a large number of exterior lights have a small-scale 'glowball' floating on top of them AND seem to have power transmitted to a reciever inside them using something other than power-line - see the downed lights in both Cragscleft AND the Old Quarter (Barricaded Area).
Quote:
Remember, also, that most places in the city don't require power as they still use torches. Speaking of which, how often do we electric lights in non-mech places: Gervasius (seems to be a pretty new place to begin with), the First Bank (well, they got quite an overall by the Mechs) and that is all that I can think of aside from the odd few lights in this manor or that. (or maybe it has been too long since I played the OMs)
A lot of streetlights seem to be either 'cabled' or 'transmitter-powered' variety. Inside the houses of the city, gaslight seems to be the norm - those using electric lights seem to be fed by cables (again, see above) EXCEPT for those places where it would be unfeasable - see Cragscleft. I'm willing to go out on a limb and suggest that when Tesla-style transmission of power became an option, older areas that were only using torchlight/gaslight as primary lighting were retrofitted with transmission-based electric streetlights (thus preventing the need for digging up vast swathes of the City's streets).
This is an off the top-of-the-head post; I'll probably come back at some point to further pick it apart.
Heh - you should SEE the notes I've written up on some of this.
.j.
Herr_Garrett on 20/5/2009 at 06:17
Cable-less transmission of energy is a bit contradictory, though, with the fact that Karras needed to set up his own signal towers. If the towers really have "etheric" connection to each other, then he easily could have just "hacked" the signal onto the etheric stream and that's all.
Oh course, that depends on how great was the range/coverage of these towers near the houses or mansions where Servants were placed.
Solabusca on 20/5/2009 at 07:01
Quote Posted by Herr_Garrett
Cable-less transmission of energy is a bit contradictory, though, with the fact that Karras needed to set up his own signal towers. If the towers really have "etheric" connection to each other, then he easily could have just "hacked" the signal onto the etheric stream and that's all.
Oh course, that depends on how great was the range/coverage of these towers near the houses or mansions where Servants were placed.
Cable-less transmission of power is an observed phenomenon in the games - again, the lights in Cragscleft exhibit this behaviour.
But given that the mechanists seem to utilize cables to transmit both electricity and to connect their Eyes to the central security offices and alarms, I'd suggest that it's far more secure to have a hard-cable in place vs. an etheric Tesla machine.
I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Karras requiring his own signal towers - I think we're talking about two different things. And that's presupposing that he'd be ABLE to 'hack his signal' into a power feed.
That's getting closer to the cyberpunk end of the spectrum, I'd say.
.j.
Herr_Garrett on 20/5/2009 at 11:16
Quote Posted by Solabusca
Cable-less transmission of power is an observed phenomenon in the games - again, the lights in Cragscleft exhibit this behaviour.
But given that the mechanists seem to utilize cables to transmit both electricity and to connect their Eyes to the central security offices and alarms, I'd suggest that it's far more secure to have a hard-cable in place vs. an etheric Tesla machine.
I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Karras requiring his own signal towers - I think we're talking about two different things. And that's presupposing that he'd be ABLE to 'hack his signal' into a power feed.
That's getting closer to the cyberpunk end of the spectrum, I'd say.
.j.
I'm not saying it wasn't present, merely that the fact that Karras needed his own signal towers implies that a) either the system was very unstable b)or very uncommon.
You see, energy, just as information, is transmitted in the form of waves (when using wireless transmission). That would enable Karras to weave into the general pattern of electricity the signals needed to control the Servants. It wasn't so, though - that's why it is a bit contradictory.
But then, again, such contradiction is that if Garrett can use healing potions, why didn't his eye grow back? :p:cheeky:
jtr7 on 12/7/2009 at 07:16
I FORGOT ONE! One on the top of St. Jenel's, the Observatory.
Inline Image:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i106/jtr7/ReturnToTheCathedral_CollectDist.gifI saw it in the 2D viewports and the map's object list, but instead of going straight to it (pressing F8 in DromEd), I flew around St. Jenel's and wondered why there was a Collector Tower embedded in the dark matter of DromEd's solid black space (facepalm). Eventually I found that it's only visible from within the Observatory, for whatever reason. Randy kept it blocked from the view from the grounds and surrounding buildings. Curiously, too, the Lunar Pool works on a Moonless night, and without the telescope's focus of the Moon's rays into the Pool, and it seems contrary to have a Collector Tower above the opened observatory roof. Hmmmm... Randy? :sly: How many of these are mistakes and how many are intended? The geeks will never know. :p
Inline Image:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/1623/stjenelsobservatory.jpgBrother Renault's initial observations were wrong, right? Yeah, that's it.
