alot of people are looking at it the wrong way..
technology is a building block with potential, not a ready made prepackaged object for sale at your local supermarket
its like the engineering as it is now.. you can do all kinds of things with it, as you put it together..
lets look at the electricity.. it could work like the magical levers/mechanisms.. connect one generator to another over vast distances without using mechanics.. but you would need to know a few things.. a) what electricity is b) how to make copper wires.. c) how to build a generator..
so it would have to be like artifacts but with prerequisites.. Zeburg Nourja was struck by lightning/hit with a mages lightning bolt, Zeburg Nourja has discovered the theory of electricity!
well.. doesnt do anything for you.. you dont have any copper wire, and you dont have any
so you discover a metalurgy method for making wire.. whats its use? decoration, possibly some other objects (making fine chains for instance, for jewelry).. so how do you get from a to b? well need to produce electricity first.. and this would be YOUR skill i think..
engineering should be a bit more complex than they are.. able to build a complex machine.. the first, most simple one.. would be a wind mill or gear assembly.. or pump.. you already have blueprints for those.. so you choose your components carefully and arrange them correctly.. a spool of wire, magenetite mechanism, any other mechanism, metal casing, rod(of any type, stone, wood, metal, bone) and boom.. you have a generator... but.. what does it do? without the theory of electricity, nothing, without magnetite and copper wire/gold wire/steel wire, not much really..
so with all the pieces put together.. you have yourself a generator.. which allows you to link one generator to another.. with a few spools of copper wire.. if it rains? well, power is disrupted, and might haev a chance to electrocute a dwarf if they go in the wrong place
so what else could be done with that magnetite mechanism in the box? well maybe a gear assembly that doesnt grind to a halt if too much power is drawn..
so it keeps spinning (and eating its power) allowin everything else to spin.. except things on the other side which take too much energy..
for one of my systems, I was using a pump that drew water to produce energy on a water wheel.. the starter for it was 4 windmills.. which wasnt enough to run the whole system unless the water wheels were going.. i had the water wheels connected with a gear assembly connected to a lever.. so once the water was going full blast, then i started it up.
what about that wire? make crafts and jewelry out of it.. to increase their value.. or a wire cage.. a chain link fence a grate.. whatever you wanted..
light bulb? woo... now were on to glass blowing and linking the generator up to light fixtures.. and remember, the generator has to stay dry!..
light bulb would be machine making with a clear glass bottle some wire and something to use as a filament.. (maybe some materials make better filaments than others?) rat tail.. greater cave spider silk.. iron wire.. you name it and one filament might produce more light than another.. while some would burn out and need to be replaced.. some might produce a different color of light..
anyhow, im sure you get the idea..
on another topic along those lines.. tanks.. people seem to forget the tank of the old days.. the rolling catapult.. mobile ballista.. chariots, to the more modern (yet still old) cannons.. or the chinese rockets..
now make one of those with metal armor.. and a coal fired power source to move it instead of drawn by animals..
(a side note btw.. we really need coal fired generators, as well as animal drawn generators.. for many ages, mills were run by animals at a turnstyle and what not.. would require the proper animals, such as horses, bovines, cammels, and what not..)
so a cart when you make it, you could choose its method of locomotion if you had discovered any other than being drawn by animals.. then maybe give it armor, instead of an open cart, top it with canvas to protect against the rain.. or wooden roof and sides.. or metal.. and its weight should determine how fast it can travel too and how much power it needs to move.. a tank.. would nto get very far afterall
-pictures a cart with a windmill on it to power it... so completely broken.. but so dwarf fotress-
-edit- oh yeah.. and btw.. on the choice between gunpowder powered cannons and gunpowder keg launching trebuchets... ill go for the trebuchet mmm.. asplosion.
[ May 18, 2008: Message edited by: Neskiairti ]