I found this list of engine types in the wiki:
Bio (Animals)
sail (Sail)
steam (Steam)
diesel (Diesel)
electric (Electric)
hydrogene (Hydrogen)
fuel_cell (Fuel cell)
battery (Battery)
I know a few are special ... steam always produces smoke when running, diesel only when accelerating. Are there more special things? Need batteries to be recharged or have they range limits? Can sail be used on land?
But actually I wanted to ask for good engine types for pak48.Excentrique. All the types are translatable, i.e. I can use any sort of text in the display for these, I think.
So I could say instead of "hydrogene" -> "cold fusion", and "diesel" -> "ion drive" ...
But I don't think those words really fir the theme. Do you have suggestions for interesting vehicle types in pak48.Excentrique? Thanks in advance :)
"Can sail be used on land?"
looking forward to see your prairie ships, if that works ;)
a good propulsion type would be stubbornness, a talent that carried many people, projects and ideas quite far.
update:
i thought again about this, and think abstract concepts might fit your pak concept quite well. You could have "ignorance" as motive concept for very slow but powerful vehicles, transporting bulk. "Stubborness" for vehicles optimized for long ways. "Euphemisms" for the steam type, causing a lot of white smoke.
Steam could be used by musical instruments producing clouds of notes...
Great ideas, thanks Sdog and Fabio! I'll try to write more again once I have time. Just wanted to post a quick thanks :)
After thinking a bit about the suggestion, I think I want to have positive motions for the drives - enthusiasm, persistence - maybe also desire, harmony or such. Will need to think some more about it.
Edit @Fabio: The idea of the music notes as steam is much to my liking. I want to use it, but must paint the notes first.
Thanks again to both of you for the help with ideas :)
Electric trains, of course, would hum. Will the pak have sounds? And -- can each locomotive unit (first, second, third, fourth) have a different sound -- so that a four-unit train would be a chord?
there is the seimens singing motor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSVW_4KiM30 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSVW_4KiM30)
for engine type, how about something like "peristaltic capacitor", "perpetual motion" or "Penrose drive"?
pure coincidence that they all start with P.
Just to remember that those strings can be translated in the pakset translation file, so you can create your own type.
If any don't fit the theme so good. Like change 'steam' to 'musical felling'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope_(music)
Quote from: wlindley on January 18, 2012, 12:35:40 AM
Will the pak have sounds? And -- can each locomotive unit (first, second, third, fourth) have a different sound -- so that a four-unit train would be a chord?
I think I can say a hesitant "yes" to the question if the pak will have sounds. It will take a while to get it's own distinct sounds. I'm not very good at sound engineering.
Also, I don't know if multi-headed trains can have multiple sounds. But it should be fairly easy to find out. It's an interesting idea for sure.
I'll reply to the other suggestions once I have had some more time to think about them. But thanks already, many good ideas here :)