Quote Originally Posted by eee View Post
I wonder what the story of the big machine is. Why would the Heterodynes build such a thing - it looks like a generator of some kind - and then brick it up? Some sort of secret weapon?

I also wonder what der Kestel's problem is. Moloch has repaired the water wheel and now apparently the coal gas lines: Just how much power does it need to stabilize itself and reactivate its memory circuits? It's not as if it's having to devote effort to fighting, any more. Of course it might be pouring all the power it's getting into reconnaissance to see what's coming, and running city systems so the Mechanicsburgers can build up defenses: But still, it seems like a very massive energy sink.
The way I see it is, the castle was at its last few flickers before the wheel got fixed. Now it has power coming in, but its not an infinite amount coming in every second. Its basically enough to keep its very least amount running, with maybe a trickle left over to add to the reserves. If it tries to activate a big weapon, it will drain all power and shut down. That coal gas line is probably the only reason it was able to set off the torchmen. As a math formula I will try to explain it.

The castle keeping its mental functions and voice running requires 10 units of power per second

The dyne wheel provides 12 units of power per second

The lava canons require 400 units of power per second

The castle is currently at less than 100 units of power remaining as of the wheel activating.

Much like one of those rts wargames like warcraft 3, you start off with little resources, and it would be stupid to spend them all at once on a single big unit, which leaves you incapable of building up defenses, or gathering in more resources. You have to bide your time, work on increasing the flow of resources, and THEN you can start spending it carefully on the big ticket items. Thats what the castle is doing right now. It is getting the minions to repair as much as possible, because much like the coal lines, there may be other sources of energy out there it can tap into, and as it regains control over more and more of itself, there is more it might be capable of doing.