More mundane uses for clockwork

[Luke_ksmith]

I’m sure there’s tons more uses for clockwork than I can think of, but here are some that interest me.

Actual clocks that tell time of day(these should be, in my opinion quite large, I.E mechanical clocks in the 1400s). in order for them to have a use I think the clock in the character menu should be replaced with a more vague description, I.E early morning, mid morning late morning, around noon so on and so forth. 

In the same vane some sort of clockwork astrological model that would tell you the year, the month, and day would be cool, again replacing the calendar in the character menu with something more vague such as early spring, mid spring, late spring, etc etc.

Hourglasses, and maybe some sort of device that when attached to the hourglass (such as when the sand all hits the bottom it hits a small pressure plate) that when activated rings a bell or something so that you know the times up. 
 

Make temporal storms have some sort of real world indicator instead of being a written warning

i.e Dave appearing like a day before the storm hits, then make it so players have no way to gauge the strength of the storm, and then add some sort of contraption that allows players to know the strength of the storm. This should be both able to be placed  in the world and looked at and also used while in the inventory.

not clockwork at all but sort of relevant to the them of altering character menu: 

mercury thermometers that tell you exact temperature, with the temperature in the menu again being replaced with something more vague. 

[Rainbow Fresh]

2 hours ago, Luke_ksmith said:

Actual clocks that tell time of day

Oh yes please. Actual in-game clocks (even if they don't work but are just an item you need to tell the time precisely) are a thing I've wanted for a long time. Same with thermometer and something to tell rift activity. It's weird to me that an "uncompromising" wilderness survival game in which you can turn off the map entirely is just telling you this information in a menu. Of course there also needs to be a difficulty setting (as with the map) to disable it because not having access to any sort of valuable information like that is a hard handicap that some player won't find all too enjoyable but the mechanics should be there. We have lots of unused metals in the game, I'm sure a thermometer isn't too realistically impossible. We have a "Clockmaker" class so surely that guy would know how to make a working mechanical clock. Finally another use besides Locust taming for this guy. And the rift activity device should be some sort of early (cause knowing rift activity is kinda more important than knowing the exact time or temperature) Jonas tech contraption that's easy enough to make. Maybe with a later-game more expensive variant predicting what it will change to next for better trip planning.

I also really like the idea of abstracting information instead of just removing it like the map, which I was originally expecting. But yeah, why wouldn't you be able to tell "Morning, Day, Evening, Night" or "Hot, Warm, Comfortable, Cold, Freezing"? On top of, of course, the already present visual cues. You'll be able to tell Fall and Winter, generally cold areas and high rift activity.

2 hours ago, Luke_ksmith said:

In the same vane some sort of clockwork astrological model that would tell you the year, the month, and day would be cool

It would be weird for me to say "Clock, yes. Calendar absolutely not" but at the same time I feel like it would be reasonable for the Seraph to just count the days. What hour, minute and second it is takes a precise device to measure, but counting sunrises based on the calendar that the Seraph already knows because it was invented before the collapse is reasonable enough that it doesn't necessarily require making complex machinery to consider. Then again, the remaining question would be how we'd know after waking up on what day we wake up. Would be funny if we just had our own time measuring system of "Day 1 Month 1 after waking" and the game counts from there, no matter if you start in January, Summer or Winter.

2 hours ago, Luke_ksmith said:

Make temporal storms have some sort of real world indicator instead of being a written warning

I am very well aware mods aren't just gonna be integrated into the base game but this is what Temporal Symphony is for and I absolutely, 100%, want to see Temporal Symphony in the game as the way how temporal storms work.

2 hours ago, Luke_ksmith said:

then make it so players have no way to gauge the strength of the storm, and then add some sort of contraption that allows players to know the strength of the storm.

I feel like knowing how strong a storm is going to be is so meaningless with how storms in general are currently that nobody would bother spending precious resources on such a machine. That and, going with aforementioned Temporal Symphony, the way storms are announced there already has a subtle, miss-able tell of how strong the storm is going to be which seems reasonable and balanced to me even without needing a machine.

[Cedric the Silent]

I would like for the ability for clockmakers to construct three types of clocks due to their trait, first one being a pocket watch that can let the player tell time in the moment if they have the normal base game character inventory menu time telling disabled until they get said pocket watch and place it inside a special pocket under the clothing category in their character inventory menu section, the watch can only be crafted by clockmakers but other classes get a chance to find one in ruins or buy one from traders. Second clock I would like is a grandfather clock for my living space that I build or can again buy one or find an old aged one in ruins. Third clock would be more give us mechanical components that allow us to make a working clock tower in game. I know there is a mod called Decoclocks revival that has some aspects of this but I think it would fit well in base game.

I'm all for giving options for replacing character inventory menu's omniscience with in game items instead but of course keep it as optional for the players who like things more casual, I recently tried no map runs using the frontier's map mod and I got to say I personal enjoyed it because it forced me to be more thoughtful of my surroundings and creating landmarks that are visible from a distance. It also helped that I'm using real smoke mod because I could see the smoke coming from my chimney from a distance if I left something cooking.

Speaking of mods I recently saw one that lets you craft a little wall calendar and it seems you use chalk on it to mark the days.

Edited Monday at 09:07 AM by Cedric the Silent
Grammar error fix

[DarkGold]

I like the idea of having clocks and thermometers in game, but as a player, I need the information a clock and a thermometer provide very early in the game (to know when and where to plant things). I imagine a clock would need at least bronze technology to make, and mercury was apparently historically extracted from cinnabar. I have yet to find cinnabar in my game, despite actively looking for it, and I have long since made steel. I think not having this information available to the player early in the game could be detrimental to the farming experience, and it seems like it would be difficult to acquire it early due to the technology and resources required.

Relying on traders to get these tools sooner would not be reliable under the current trader system, as players would need to find the correct trader, which might take some time, and when found, they may not have the tools in stock. Changing the way trader stock works could help solve this, but unless Treasure Hunters stocked these tools (doesn't seem likely, seems more likely a different trader would have them), the first issue of finding the trader in a timely manner would still be a challenge.

If the easiest way to get the tools early game is to trade for them, it would disincentivize crafting them too, so making them very accessible via trader, in order to solve their early game accessibility, doesn't seem like a good solution for the game overall. I'm not sure how the game could both balance having this information available to the player when they need it in the early game, and still have these tools be useful.

[Luke_ksmith]

2 hours ago, DarkGold said:

I like the idea of having clocks and thermometers in game, but as a player, I need the information a clock and a thermometer provide very early in the game (to know when and where to plant things). I imagine a clock would need at least bronze technology to make, and mercury was apparently historically extracted from cinnabar.  
 

I definitely agree that the thermometer should be attainable in bronze or even copper age. as for the other ones that was my idea wirh having the vague descriptions, you’d still be able to know roughly what time it is what month, what temperature, etc etc. the clock and thermometer and such are more for late game when you reallly want to get into specifics