As we have discussed previously, the primary tool for augmenting a building’s function in game is a module. Modules include things like doors and windows, and come in two categories: required and optional. Required modules are those which are needed to get your building up and running at all – in the case of a workshop, this would include a workbench, a desk for your Artisan/Overseer to manage their paperwork with, and a door. In the case of a Lower Class House, you need one cot, and… well, again, a door. Doors are good things to put on buildings.
The Ghosts of Future Work haunt this carpentry shop. (& The aetherically-energized gaseous radon Glow-Long ™ Gas-Lamp is truly the finest lamp.)
Optional modules are those which upgrade the effectiveness of your building. For instance, a carpentry workshop can have a Power Saw installed. The power saw lets you perform certain tasks (such as making planks) faster, and you can have multiple power saws. You can also have multiple carpentry workbenches, and this might be a good idea as each person can only use one carpentry workbench at a time. If you have a particular desire for planks, which are Useful (for instance, for building more carpentry workbenches), you might want to spend some resources building power saws.
Mining hematite, beautiful hematite. Oh how your resulting products glimmer stalwartly in the rivets, drive-axles, and armoured plating of The Empire.
Until recently, the power saw was not particularly hard to come by. Finally, however, we have implemented module costs. Each module in a building is installed individually by labour teams after a building is complete, and each module has their own costs. This adds an additional wrinkle for a power saw: power saws require iron plates and a Bucket Of Cogs in order to become functional. (They also require a power source, in the form of a spring-loaded power coil (which must occasionally be recharged) or a dedicated mechanical power line. More on this later.)
The noble crucible glows in the romantic light of the setting sun. (This ought to be properly inside a workshop but I could not pass up the lovely backlighting.)
Now, we have a feedback loop. If you want to upgrade your carpentry workshop to a power saw, or multiple power saws, you need a metalsmith to lovingly hammer out those beautiful, beautiful cogs. Your metalsmith will require raw material to work with, which require mining, and a refinery to smelt the ores… and now, we have a city-building game.
Refining a mineral, using the same system of Semi-Realistic Metallurgy from Dredmor that you know and love, requires the application of Smelting Crucibles to convert Hematite (or whatever) into Iron (or whatever). Smelting crucibles can be left alone to cook a mineral, requiring the artisan workshop labourer to simply come by and remove the finished good from the machine once it’s done; therefore, simply having more of a required module (the smelting crucible) makes your refineries run faster. Crucibles, of course, require brick to make… and so, you have another exciting feedback loop. Ah, life is good.
The miracle of industry: How a bucket of cogs is born.
As part of this work, you can now also decorate buildings! This is good. Things that can be attached to buildings include lamps, paintings, rugs, unnecessary piping, barometers, and maybe even the occasional cog [No. -Daniel]. Some buildings, such as the barbershop, have their own decorative elements – barber poles, for instance, are optional, but will fill citizens with Civic Pride and Leeches. Obviously these things also need to be manufactured, but decor will make you feel better and your subjects happier – so go make some rugs for the Empire today!
It’s so encoggled I’m gonna die!
We must keep a constant supply of Leyden jars flowing into our modulery.
Odes? Hmm…
Hematite! Oh, hematite!
You’re the only ore that’s right.
For the glory of Empire,
we shall smelt you in the fire.
Praise Hematite, the ore of kings!
From heart of earth it sings and brings
Through strength of limb and rage of fire
All the things that we desire.
The hematite ore is a joy to behold!
This noblest of crucibles shall fill the mould.
May pipes fill with steam and enshroud us in smog
So that we may witness the birth of a cog!
Hematite! Ore of blood.
We shall free your inner spirit
That you might bless the empire
With your gleaming might.
O rugged source of Iron Bits
We seek you in the ground;
I dug within my neighbor’s yard
but sadly none was found.
With pick in hand, and spade, and torch
We dig through dirt and stone
O hematite, you canny rock
Wherefore do you call home?
The furnaces and kilns do call
For you to get their fill
We cannot stop, your glimmer calls
We must go deeper, still.
Your stony speech, your hidden flesh
That rings in ev’ry bell,
We thirst for you, we yearn for you
Our lust burns hot as hell.
The stone, it calls
We must dig more
where oh where are you
please end this strife
we want to stop
our fingers bleed for you
O black and shiny Hematite
You glimmer warmly in the light.
When rays from miners’ errant lamps
Strike true upon your ore’s expanse.
We’ll pull you firm from ‘neath the earth
Who knew you lay below this turf?
Now hurry thee to smelter’s hands
And be forged to cogs, springs, pots, and pans.
I gave my love a broach
Hematite, of course, sir.
She’s pure, above reproach
Like the stone, of course, sir.
Lustrous, utile, docile,
Strong as iron, of course, sir
Always kind, ne’r hostile,
A ideal wife, of course, sir.
Oh Hematite!
a sonnet by Chervil J. Gobsprocket
The ochre dusk that coats the painter’s brush,
The rouge that dusts my lover’s cheeks at night,
The ore that keeps our cogg’ly coffers flush,
We offer praise to you, oh hematite!
Extracted from the darkest depths of earth
Your humble bulk exudes gentility.
When magnified, we see the honest worth
Of rhombehedral crystallinity.
Specularite, your steely mottled grey.
Kidney ore, your reddish, rusty hue.
There’s volumes filled with words I’d love to say
On maghemite’s sly ferrimagnetitude.
Oh hematite! We offer adulation!
You miracle of ferrous oxidation!
Oye mates, can you tell us more in the next blogs about imperial social establishments like pubs, police stations, churches, barracks, markets, hospitals?
Not a chance, you puny mite,
blog-posts and comments forevermore,
with praise and homage to hematite
will haunt you. And perhaps bore …
Hah! It sure escalated quickly, actually, well beyond my expectations 😀
There’s so many splendid poems
by them I’ve got truly shaken
The mineral poetry
seems to finally have awaken
So following your incentive
Fans have shown their rhymes perfection
Now we’re waiting for David
To cite from his ode collection 🙂
Hidden deep in the earth below,
An ore lies waiting, black as a crow.
Though it may not be appealing,
And worth but a dime,
It’s value is priceless if given some time.
Oh mighty hematite,
In our crucibles shine bright!
May the product of this labour,
Turn our engines all night.
Oh grandiose hematite,
Form our cogs and our pipes,
Grant us power,
Grant us might,
And in our rivals: instill fright.
A rock, hematite
Used to make so many things
No bricks, can’t smelt it
Something magical happened here.
This hematite! We hold it dear.
Now we really need that beer…
“It’s true what they say. Geologists are the sexiest men alive.”
“Have you ever had breakfast with a geologist, Stan? It’s pretty great.”