Something I've always thought could really add something:
Remember the airship in Voltaic? Well, a while ago I proposed to Cyan this very concept.
Around the area surrounding the main D'ni Cavern, how about implementing some of these airships. There are two designs I like, the one from Voltaic and an alternate design that might have been used.
Imagine that within close proximity to the Cavern, the adjoining caverns are not parallel to the city, but surrounding it in 3 dimensions - a literal labyrinth of habitable caves and caverns that are not constrained by surface space. Think of it like being in outer space. There is no up or down, or a straight path. Like the innards of a bee hive, the Caverns are carved to and fro in the vicinity of the D'ni kingdom. To access these caverns, the D'ni have designed the airship - a ship able to follow a cable path between destinations, yet able to drift at will under the control of a driver. The airships are perfect for linking these caverns and caves together, especially when the ceiling of one merely holds passage to the floor of another, and this can happen in diagonals. These caverns and caves are also of such size that each is like a miniature D'ni to itself, holding villages and industrial complexes. In such a subterranean space, the definitions of direction and space fall to meaninglessness for an explorer from the surface.
And I guess now is the time to bring out the big guns:
The steam beast concept:
A while ago, I envisioned a version of Descent that fulfilled artistically much of what Josh Staub had told me regarding D'ni design - classical beauty melded with the machine. While visiting New York City, I visited Lincoln Center where I spotted a couple of art deco iron statues of large, bulbous people. The look of these statues was such that they had a certain majesty, yet were strange enough and just slightly grotesque enough to infer a sense of witty form - that which I mean were artistically provocative and displayed a creative and thoughtful understanding and approach to form (the elements of all design).
Looking at these I got a flash of creativity for a style that I saw fit for D'ni. Large, monstrous metallic beasts that blended majesty and beauty with the force and might of the machine, all the while holding a style that was distinctly alien from anything surface related.
I came up with this (pardon the messiness):
The Steam Beast: An enormous furnace at the far end of the largest Cavern before the city. The beast is carved onto the wall, and stretching to the near ceiling of the Cavern. A person is but a small speck at the base of this enormity. The cavern in question is a large industrial complex housing D'ni factories and other various plants across its floor. The floor of the cavern however is not level, but is mired in pockets and platforms, all facets of the industrial area. One must follow "the path to D'ni" to arrive at the end of this cavern. Massive columns stretch up across the expanse, supporting the ceiling, arranged in equi-distance uniformity across the floor(If you guys have seen the first LotR movie, imagine the cavern similarly to the Dwarven cavern - the one with the big tree door and the spells).
The beast is at the far left end, away from the exit. Surrounding it is a complex of machines and walls. On one wall, a device can be used to activate the machine. When a switch is flipped, a large mechanical moan - a siren of sorts echoes across the cavern, and directly following this, a swarm of bats erupt out of the mouth of the beast, after which steam is released in gusts from both the mouth and the eye slits.
Below, a large basin of lava surrounds the base of the bulbous contraption. The beast serves as a main furnace for powering the adjoining D'ni caverns and their various complexes.
Similarly, smaller versions of beasts are used throughout this area for individual homes, various plants, and even for powering airships from docking stations:
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Yali/Mys ... to_007.jpg
by Paradox » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:59 pm 
