Annotated 48-3
Script by me, edits by Flo. I mentioned elsewhere that Taro’s intelligence sometimes seemed to vary at different parts of the story, and this was my best attempt to reconcile that. He only applies himself when applying himself directly gratifies his ego. The original hammertank was essentially his co-invention, but now that he’s emperor, he’ll get the same amount of credit for the Ultimate Engine whether he works hard on it or not, so why work hard? Hard work is for stupid losers.
FB:
“Knock, knock!”
“Sundar, they can hear you.”
“Knock, KNOCK!”
(sigh) “Who’s there?”
“Mango!”
“Mango who?”
“Man, defending this country is bullshit now that everybody’s takin’ orders from Taro, so let’s just get out of here, bro! GO, MAN, GO!”
“You can’t just put the name part at the end of a knock-knock joke like that.”
“Hey, ek-SCUUUUSE MEEEE, but I’m pretty sure the punchline is ALWAYS s’posed to go at the end of a joke! Man, maybe I shoulda been the designer in the family.”
“Micholuszek and Franzington ran off to sound the alarm, by the way.”
“Shit, let’s bolt.”
The power source kinda resembles a human heart. I assume this is intentonial. Good design choice!
In-ten-ti-o-nal, Cog blimey!
I feel what it really needs is a small thermal exhaust port
Just below the main port.
“Hard work is for stupid losers.” That attitude sounds familiar for some reason.
Geeky question time: How much magic should a gnome mechanologist need to know -or understand- in order to create an arcanotech device like a Hammertank?
The magic can simply be limited to running a turbine that turns all of the gears in a machine, so the rest can just be standard mechanology.
My take would be that Arcanotech is not actually “mechanic + magic”, but rather a discipline of its own.
Mages shape the magic with their thoughts or words or will or whatever, arcanotechs shape it with craft.