Weird things that should be in CE

Well, of course!
But given the context of this game, a toaster that learns how to feel love would only be permissable if it included disasterous results.
Maybe if it tried to kiss everyone.

 

Seconding usage of Escher geometries in some way.
As for difference engine, read this. Seriously.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/—And_He_Built_a_Crooked_House

 

That's great too

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract

 

Building a big enough library would open a rift, similar to L-space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_dimensions_of_the_Discworld#L-space

 

There will have to be some version of a Lamarchand configuration. (I mean, how else would Diggles get there, amirite?)

 

You should be able to build a daguerreotype factory, so you can introduce quality photography to your colony. Then, once you have your analytical engines up and running you can tie two daguerreotypes together through it and build a basilisk gun, so that when the eldritch horrors invade you'll have your own SCORPION STARE ready for them.

No, really, that all makes sense, you just need to read more Charles Stross...

 

Horses. Evil Macabre horses. "Woe to those who behold the pale horse."
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ept-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454


Edit: don't forget to read the stack overflow blog thingy.

 

The Bristol Tramp

tl;dr: a steam powered triplane intended for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. It didn't work.

And while on the subject, the Caproni Noviplano deserves a look too

 

Diggzilla, Nosedriller of Buildings

 

Pirate Trains ala Railsea. Bonus points for giant moles and mole hunting trains. (you guys ARE China Mieville fans, right?)

 

I think GLG should find some way to incorporate the Wilhelm Scream into CE.

 

I would really like a lot of society and thus game play to revolve around the religion. Eg. perhaps every colony's life revolves around a giant clock which is built in part from a shard or piece of the great clock back in the empire..there is a sacred order that takes care of the clock. Keeping this clock running is important..very important.

Ofcourse you could foraske the religion; your people could have varying degrees of faith in the sacred cog(hmm don't remember what term the dev's are using..it is way cooler)

somehow you can use this all to your advantage or a lightening strike, attack, etc could cause a "tantrum spiral" type scenario.

 

I'd like pagan conversions. People in yellow jumpsuits would walk around your empire, and try to talk people into joining their pagan religion. If people join the religion, work in factories is much slower, because before workers start to work, they will bless each and every single cog in the whole factory, due to their pagan religion.

 

Wolololo

 

Well i think that precisely what the obleskians or [insert occult cultist's cult] factions are supposed to do, aren't they ?

Then the paranormal investigators arrive

(Nobody expects the in.. ...vestigation)

 

Whenever weird supernatural ailments pop up quack doctors should turn up soon afterward selling ineffective patent medicines that supposedly cure them but in reality make things much worse; For example, during a zombie infestation, somebody could start selling "Foree's Zombie Preventative", a syrup which claims to prevent the user from being turned into a zombie but in fact has no other effect than to turn the user into a werewolf (who can then be freely turned into a zombie-werewolf if bitten by one of the zombies).

Also, it would be funny if you could continue running your colony even after it has been completely overrun and you have no human colonists left, except now instead of an imperial colony its a colony of space demons, or pod people, or zombies ("No more room in Hell? Why not move to Shiveringhope?...")

 

A clockwork-driven virtual reality device. Imagine Oculus Rift with gears and pistons. Oh, the reality effect will be achieved by a subset of Reverse Phrenology, with pistons hammering gently on the right parts of the brain and some clockworks hooked up to your eyes. It's all totally safe, those myriads of little pistons would never use too much force on your head. Never.

 

If they add daguerreotype photography, they should play on the old myth/fear that went around back then that photography steals a piece of your soul or mirrors the soul or netherworld. Possibly having a chance of causing something horrible if someone takes a picture of a paranormal object? That or making a neighboring native tribal empire feel uncomfortable or turn hostile if someone tries to photograph them.