So I'm playing with some ideas for a tech tree. The question is, how far should gnomes be able to go with their technology?
What I'm thinking is that they shouldn't really be able to be 'dated' to any particular age of human history. There should be some schizo tech going on here. One logical thing to assume is that they should probably be far ahead with regards to any mining-related technology, and possibly a little behind with weaponry.
The major clincher here is electricity. Should they be able to produce electricity? What could it be used for without feeling too out-of-place (or more likely, just out of place enough)?
Experiments involving low current, high voltage electrostatic 'friction machines' (made of rapidly rotating glass and cloth) go back to the 1600s, and the first electricity-storing capacitors (made of glass jars and metal foil) were made around the 1700s. The relationship between electricity and magnetism was discovered in the 1800s, which was also when the first electric dynamos were invented. Even without a 'research' system (which I don't like very much), this progression could be more-or-less followed in a single gnome fortress: create an electrostatic generator using a powered workshop, use it to charge a capacitor, use the capacitor to create magnets in a forge or smelter, use the magnets to create a dynamo, create a generator using a dynamo, which can produce high-current electricity when powered by machinery. Or hand-cranked for hand-held electric or electromagnetic tools and weapons. Or used in an electrolytic cell that would allow them to extract aluminum from bauxite hundreds of years before anyone else figures it out and thereby become filthy rich?
Of course, maybe gnomes don't follow these rules. What if they discovered high-voltage electric power, but never developed alternating current? Maybe their connection to nature keeps them from making casual use of electric power, which is a highly wasteful energy source? Or perhaps they just prefer clockpunk because it looks cool?
Just throwing ideas around.