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Originally posted by SquashMonster:
Steam suggestions 1-4
Yes, yes, and YES!!!
#1 was going to happen eventually.
#2 is obvious; it's the gear box of pipes.
#3 is necessary for the entire suggestion. One addition i'd make; let it burn wood (later on, anything made of wood; only specifically designated objects though) at a lower efficency, but produce ashes as a side effect. That way a boiler can function as a wood furnace that's soley dedicated to producing ashes, but with a bonus of producing
some steam at a higher initial construction cost. (the metal components)
#4 Ballanced soley by the fact that steam is finite. Obviously 3 tiles, with obvious steam input /power output /steam output squares, in that order.
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5 - optional: steam cannons. These require a steam pipe connected to them. They work exactly like a ballista, but vent unfocused steam and use rocks as their projectiles.
Certainly possible. To ballance the potential power of the weapon and make it even more difficult to construct, steam could be stored in metal barrels that slowly gather units of steam. This makes the weapon impossible to fire below a certain point, and dangerous to let sit for too long at certain points, as well as making it even more unique in that it's ability to do damage is dynamic.
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Ways to make steam
Both are very good, but here's a third way; creatures that emit or use heat as an attack. Obviously, imprisoned fire creatures and fire breathers could be used as a source of heat, and thus steam energy.
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Uses for [pipes]:
All of them good, however, you forgot to mention constructed walls with pipes inside of them, and steam-heated rooms and water-
cooled rooms (for those really hot biomes)
[EDIT - Additionally, as an added level of difficulty, pipes that have steam in them that are not heated at regular intervals (ie: with lava or fires) or insulated somehow (wooden /cloth /silk ... or asbestos LOL!) should have the steam condense back into water. That way, steam would need to be produced locally -- no steaming the goblin hordes from the comfort of 400 feet of solid stone.]
[ November 29, 2007: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]