Clockwork Revolution (A New Game by InXile Entertainment)

[Mr Fish]

Too much dialed to 11, I get you. The visual designers thinking "Lets insert gear and clockwork wherever we can" rather than instead trying to go for a somewhat more grounded and what may sound weird to say 'realistic' steampunk setting where there are are complex mechanical machines similar in function to machines in our time, but no clockwork robots or cyborgs because the technology is simply not capable of that (you can perhaps improve difference engines but they will never equal let alone surpass a present day computer). And no 'Tesla tech' either, steam technology apparently being able to make direct energy weapons. And especially not a visual style that makes it look like some kind of Steampunk theme park.
I just recently watched Howl's moving castle. An example that I would bring up is that steam technology would not be able to make giant flying battleships or these small two seat flying "scooters".

Well, it's a fictional setting, so with Fallout for example they go SCIENCE! and the whole point of it is that the rules of the universe, of reality, is not the same as ours. Certain things 'bend' a bit further. The problem I have with any setting that does this is when it bends things to an absurd degree. What that absurd degree is is different for different people, obviously. I wouldn't have a problem with old WW2 fighter planes being steampunk but flying battleships is a step too far for me, the energy consumption of keeping that in the air is unfeasible with just boiling water.

 

[william dempsey]

Certain things 'bend' a bit further

Ooh matron.
Clockwork/Diesel, Steampunk is a romantic view of Victoriana, where the common man knew his place.
A thief could disable the gizmos of the rich with a well aimed water arrow and ' Just Stop Oil ' protesters ended Diesel mania.
The airships of the future are built with super strong, lightweight polymers and can deploy huge graphene sails if the batteries run out unexpectedly.

 

[laclongquan]

Steampunk too often go Goth and Victorian style, which is nice, I agree. But it often wander into bareboned industrial style.

But Steampunk could have gone quite well with cowboy western and lots of green.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Well, it's a fictional setting, so with Fallout for example they go SCIENCE! and the whole point of it is that the rules of the universe, of reality, is not the same as ours. Certain things 'bend' a bit further. The problem I have with any setting that does this is when it bends things to an absurd degree. What that absurd degree is is different for different people, obviously. I wouldn't have a problem with old WW2 fighter planes being steampunk but flying battleships is a step too far for me, the energy consumption of keeping that in the air is unfeasible with just boiling water.

Maybe a Steampunk setting in which the technology can not surpass its limits due to some new element like 'super coal' that produces more energy, or in which clockwork technology could potentially produce automatons close to robots but still hopelessly inferior to anything that uses transistors and later microchips. There is no point in developing 'mechanical men' as they can perform only a few actions and would need to be supervised constantly as its impossible to make a mechanical mind capable of assessing a situation and then undertake the appropriate action or response (not without making it so complex that it fills a room, and even then it is limited by what the technology can handle).
So basically the Steampunk society has never developed or completely given up on the idea of mechanical men to do the majority of labor and which automatons that were produced are dumber than a roomba. (despite what could be automated, machines could never truly replace humans or even surpass them)

Even the question if a steampunk plane is possible, as in being completely steam powered and not a compromise of steampunk/diesel punk. Zeppelins would probably considered more realizable. There is of course the question of lifting gas, there would probably be helium but because there is only a limited supply of it, hydrogen gas would most likely be used more though as it is very flammable it would probably also affect the popularity of zeppelins, trains and ships still being considered safer.

So a Steampunk world that in general does not look like a pretty Victorian or Gothic world where the technology could never hope to match what civilization would produce with the internal combustion engine, transistors, microchips, and nuclear technology. There is no such thing as mechanical men, energy weapons or electrical beam weapons (though I understand that if Victorians knew of lasers they could probably make device able to generate these). Air vehicles consisting of zeppelins unless a steam powered plane is possible, and no such thing as personal seaters or jetpacks.

Steampunk too often go Goth and Victorian style, which is nice, I agree. But it often wander into bareboned industrial style.

But Steampunk could have gone quite well with cowboy western and lots of green.

Haven't there been such games? I know some 'Weird Western' also feature steampunk elements like steam powered tanks.

 

[Mr Fish]

Maybe a Steampunk setting in which the technology can not surpass its limits due to some new element like 'super coal' that produces more energy, or in which clockwork technology could potentially produce automatons close to robots but still hopelessly inferior to anything that uses transistors and later microchips. There is no point in developing 'mechanical men' as they can perform only a few actions and would need to be supervised constantly as its impossible to make a mechanical mind capable of assessing a situation and then undertake the appropriate action or response (not without making it so complex that it fills a room, and even then it is limited by what the technology can handle).
So basically the Steampunk society has never developed or completely given up on the idea of mechanical men to do the majority of labor and which automatons that were produced are dumber than a roomba. (despite what could be automated, machines could never truly replace humans or even surpass them)

Even the question if a steampunk plane is possible, as in being completely steam powered and not a compromise of steampunk/diesel punk. Zeppelins would probably considered more realizable. There is of course the question of lifting gas, there would probably be helium but because there is only a limited supply of it, hydrogen gas would most likely be used more though as it is very flammable it would probably also affect the popularity of zeppelins, trains and ships still being considered safer.

So a Steampunk world that in general does not look like a pretty Victorian or Gothic world where the technology could never hope to match what civilization would produce with the internal combustion engine, transistors, microchips, and nuclear technology. There is no such thing as mechanical men, energy weapons or electrical beam weapons (though I understand that if Victorians knew of lasers they could probably make device able to generate these). Air vehicles consisting of zeppelins unless a steam powered plane is possible, and no such thing as personal seaters or jetpacks.



Haven't there been such games? I know some 'Weird Western' also feature steampunk elements like steam powered tanks.

Rule of cool overrides all that "thinking" of yours, just be excited about explosions and gears.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Rule of cool overrides all that "thinking" of yours, just be excited about explosions and gears.

I was just writing my thoughts of what some people would rather see instead with steampunk elements. I don't think anyone would ever use what I write here.

I am not interested in Clockwork Revolution. It has to do with how I feel at the moment, but I also think the game does not look that enticing and interesting. Just another standard multiplatform release that will come and go. I realize that since FNV I have not really being that interested in ARPGs. I am currently playing System Shock Remake after not playing it for a month and I am thinking of abandoning that game again and look for something that can hold my interest more if I don't turn to other things.
Again, if Inxile had announced a FNV style Wasteland game, I may have raised an eyebrow to show interest.

 

[Mr Fish]

I was just writing my thoughts of what some people would rather see instead with steampunk elements. I don't think anyone would ever use what I write here.

I am not interested in Clockwork Revolution. It has to do with how I feel at the moment, but I also think the game does not look that enticing and interesting. Just another standard multiplatform release that will come and go. I realize that since FNV I have not really being that interested in ARPGs. I am currently playing System Shock Remake after not playing it for a month and I am thinking of abandoning that game again and look for something that can hold my interest more if I don't turn to other things.
Again, if Inxile had announced a FNV style Wasteland game, I may have raised an eyebrow to show interest.

Maybe it's time to break away from RPG's for a while and try something else. How long ago since you played Dungeon Keeper?

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Maybe it's time to break away from RPG's for a while and try something else. How long ago since you played Dungeon Keeper?

That has been a very very long time ago. I am also considering giving Metroid Dread another spin. I had some complaints about the story but I liked the gameplay minus the overuse of EMMIs.
Maybe I should give RPGs and JRPGs a break as I have been trying out a lot of them these last couple of weeks. I have been trying out a lot of SNES JRPGs since fans made translations patches for them, games like Treasure Hunter G before I grew annoyed with the combat, Metal Max Returns, Metal Max 2 Reloaded on the DS. The last game I really got into was Live A Live remake and that was two months ago. It was not a very long game so that probably helped.

 

[Mr Fish]

That's why I cycle genres so once I get done with one thing I move on to the next so I don't burn out.

Also, another thing that has helped me immensely with games is that I don't play them silently. I listen to podcasts I got to go through at the same time if I can. There is a bunch of games that get kinda 'sloggy' or uneventful and the podcasts help during those times to just kinda keep the hands busy while focusing on the actual podcast instead. I played System Shock 1R pretty recently as well and while I did enjoy it a lot (apart from one stupid design decision that set me back a bit) I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much had I played it and it alone.

Probably kills the atmosphere in certain ways when you do that stuff but, man... Some games just have a lot of dull periods to them.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

That's why I cycle genres so once I get done with one thing I move on to the next so I don't burn out.

Also, another thing that has helped me immensely with games is that I don't play them silently. I listen to podcasts I got to go through at the same time if I can. There is a bunch of games that get kinda 'sloggy' or uneventful and the podcasts help during those times to just kinda keep the hands busy while focusing on the actual podcast instead. I played System Shock 1R pretty recently as well and while I did enjoy it a lot (apart from one stupid design decision that set me back a bit) I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much had I played it and it alone.

Probably kills the atmosphere in certain ways when you do that stuff but, man... Some games just have a lot of dull periods to them.

Maybe I should have done that after I finished Live A Live, switched to a different genre game. I enjoyed playing Live A Live as it didn't take too long to go through all the chapters except the final one which had a lot of grinding and equipment acquiring. I don't want to make this sound as a criticism but because its gameplay could be rather limited it was good that it was not too long.

Like you said, some games can get very 'sloggy'. There is stuff to do but it can't really completely hold my attention as it is a lot of rinse and repeat or I am stuck looking for a solution or a passage way and keep going through the same parts that I have already been before. Podcasts, or radio shows, or perhaps running a television episode on the background. I can't really tell you why playing System Shock 1 Remake sometimes feels like a chore. It is not that I want everything handed to me with a pointing arrow but the layout of the levels could be a confusing mess sometimes, also because of the art style that makes some things look interactive that are just scenery. I do think some of my patience has also worn away over the years.

I forgot to mention a couple of other games I also tried out but I will post that on the gaming megathread as we are already going off topic.

 

[Mr Fish]

Like you said, some games can get very 'sloggy'. There is stuff to do but it can't really completely hold my attention as it is a lot of rinse and repeat or I am stuck looking for a solution or a passage way and keep going through the same parts that I have already been before. Podcasts, or radio shows, or perhaps running a television episode on the background. I can't really tell you why playing System Shock 1 Remake sometimes feels like a chore. It is not that I want everything handed to me with a pointing arrow but the layout of the levels could be a confusing mess sometimes, also because of the art style that makes some things look interactive that are just scenery. I do think some of my patience has also worn away over the years.

No no you're not alone with that, I played SS1R as well and I got similar criticism of it. It's not just you. The layout of the levels could get really confusing and frustrating as it's just sci-fi "stuff" all over the place with no rhyme nor reason. I apprectiate that they wanted to be true to the original but man, they could at least have had more signs around that kinda goes [Cafeteria (arrow pointing to the right at a T setction)]. And yeah the art style is just neon shit all over the place. The reason for why I didn't pay attention to the number screens at the CPU's was because of that so I never scribbled down the numbers and had to backtrack a lot because of that. It's one of those cases of a remake, WARTS and all. (See, I emphasized WARTS because it is wart'y game design. (Be quiet, Graves))

I do think some of my patience has also worn away over the years.

You're not alone in that either tbh. I got a lot of entertainment to get to and I don't like games fucking me around unnecessarily. I'm not interested in sitting down an hour in front of a trial and error puzzle. I got a lot of stuff to do and while I am enjoying a game I also don't have any interest in it wasting my time so I will gladly look up that information if I can. I think part of the issue for me is that at this point I've played so many games over the decades that I've seen other games 'not' fucking me around and wasting my time. So I know that whatever I have to endure isn't necessary and it makes me impatient. I don't think it's on us to not be impatient though. I think it's on the developers to design their games better. In the case of SS1R it needed to distinguish between important things better, have a map where when we hover over a specific room it tells us what that room is and have signs that mark what rooms are and what's around the corners and the game could been insanely improved upon. We're not at fault for getting impatient. The devs are for not getting basic bitch design for navigation and juxtaposition of generic clutter and important plot points.

I forgot to mention a couple of other games I also tried out but I will post that on the gaming megathread as we are already going off topic.

Who's gonna stop us? A moderator?
Oh wait...


[edit]

Back on topic.


Steam Powered Giraffe is steampunk, shut up.
(just realized it may confuse some, Bunny, the singer, is MtF trans and IIRC this song was made during the transition so he didn't try singing as a she yet, so the voice is a bit jarring for the music video)