If Maxwell didn't make the clockworks then who did?

[Gashzer]

6 minutes ago, BalkanCockroach said:

Cmon that's a strech an you know it. Also if it was his builders he would say my builders instead of the builders. And we know the ancients are the ones that made the gears.

Well there are more quotes to suggest maxwell built the clockworks instead of the ancients. And to be technical since maxwell isnt on the throne anymore they wouldnt be his builders now lol 

The "gears" in the picture Variant posted could be the tech in the archives as opposed to the clockwork gears. The clockworks seem like vastly inferior technology compared with true ancient tech that we find in the archives.

Edit: The shadow aligned ancients almost seem to move away from technology into more nightmare fuelled magic dr strange stuff. Whereas the lunar aligned ancients were the tony starks of their time lol

[BalkanCockroach]

2 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Well there are more quotes to suggest maxwell built the clockworks instead of the ancients. And to be technical since maxwell isnt on the throne anymore they wouldnt be his builders now lol 

The "gears" in the picture Variant posted could be the tech in the archives as opposed to the clockwork gears. The clockworks seem like vastly inferior technology compared with true ancient tech that we find in the archives.

Agree to disagree

[-Variant]

3 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

Could we get a source for this? 

[Guille6785]

Just now, -Variant said:

Could we get a source for this? 

say the magic word

[-Variant]

1 minute ago, Guille6785 said:

say the magic word

Pretty please.

[Guille6785]

1 minute ago, -Variant said:

Pretty please.

I found this alongside other previously unseen concept art inside the DVD of an obscure physical release of the game, when I get around to it I'll document everything I found in one place

[-Variant]

6 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

I found this alongside other previously unseen concept art inside the DVD of an obscure physical release of the game, when I get around to it I'll document everything I found in one place

Well now I'm super curious. This seems really pristine. What sort of physical release?

[Guille6785]

1 minute ago, -Variant said:

Well now I'm super curious. This seems really pristine. What sort of physical release?

a DRM-free retail release of the game that was only available in germany (and also the only physical release of the original Don't Starve that wasn't a console version)

[-Variant]

26 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

Oh this is absolutely sick!! I've never seen this before, it's crazy seeing the unused Snowman there.
I'd love to see what all's included in there. Could move to another thread to not derail this, maybe.

[Paxtonnnn]

1 hour ago, Guille6785 said:

a DRM-free retail release of the game that was only available in germany (and also the only physical release of the original Don't Starve that wasn't a console version)

54 minutes ago, -Variant said:

Could move to another thread to not derail this, maybe.

I'd also love this discussion to be its own thread, I'm very interested in this

[BalkanCockroach]

48 minutes ago, Paxtonnnn said:

I'd also love this discussion to be its own thread, I'm very interested in this

Is this stuff even in the wiki?

[Paxtonnnn]

34 minutes ago, BalkanCockroach said:

Is this stuff even in the wiki?

Not sure, but I'd never seen that concept art before and it isn't on the Zeb section of the Unimplemented Creatures page

[Frashaw27]

I think a very easy explanation is that he's just dissing himself. He's the one who built them and so when he talks about builders, he's just saying that he left it abandoned.

This would also help explain the fountain of knowledge discrepancy as he misinterpreted the original design/purpose of one of the toilet bulbs and so decided to instead use it for whatever the bulbs on the bishop's head does. This is also supported by the fact with the Ancient Sentrypede works so much differently then how the clockworks do, working off an energy base and be sustainably rebuilt instead of the mechanical base that the clockworks use. If also is surprising how the clockworks don't show up in the achieves, as most of the established things that were dedicated to the ancients before the infestation post departure, the chairs, the thulecite statues, the thulecite walls randomly blocking things, etc. to the things that exist in the ruins. Besides ancient psuedo science stations, which could be explained by needing the power of the source of the nightmare cycle to properly function, almost all the significant features of the ruins appear there, but the clockworks don't. As established Maxwell's utter befuddlement of the archive's existence, he didn't know about it so he couldn't place the pieces there like he could the ruins. So it is pretty suspicious how the only non explainable thing to appear frequently in the ruins but not the archives are tables are the clockworks. They would certainly have some use there as well if they were left there, while the rook might've been too destructive, both the knight and the bishop would've worked wonders as guards if the power went off (which it did), so there's abstance, lorewise, seems intentional to me as they would logically make sense to exist there, but they didn't.

Under this theory, machine rubble piles could've been made from clockworks simply dying is a similar space from cave it debris. If you want to make more logical leaps that are more neat then a proper lore analysis, the dust moths could've existed and piled up the clockworks, explaining why some other random junk like ruins gems are procured from the piles, because Maxwell isn't suprised from the sight of the dust moths, but is about their hidy holes. But again, that's just some wild speculation with no logical basis.

[GelatinousCube]

11 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

Gok looks awesome!

I'd LOVE if that snowman could be added one day as an evil mob during Winters Feast!! 
Maybe if you try to do the whole sleep in darkness near a decorated tree to receive presents thing before 4 days have passed (Greedy!) then a few of these guys have randomly spawned nearby to punish you!

[Retepeter]

The ancients did it maybe even before they split between "moon" and shadows. That would explain why there's clockworks on the surface and the ruins, Maxwell inherited them and used them as pets. He mentions that the yellow knowledge is used for the bishops implying that the lunar ancients and the shadow ancients worked together.

[Gashzer]

2 hours ago, Retepeter said:

The ancients did it maybe even before they split between "moon" and shadows. That would explain why there's clockworks on the surface and the ruins, Maxwell inherited them and used them as pets. He mentions that the yellow knowledge is used for the bishops implying that the lunar ancients and the shadow ancients worked together.

But the clockworks look like human technology inventions based on the knowledge Maxwell received when he took the throne. The clockwork technology resemble maxwells door that maxwell got wilson to build. Its like a blend of alchemy/magic and science.

[Retepeter]

1 hour ago, Gashzer said:

But the clockworks look like human technology inventions based on the knowledge Maxwell received when he took the throne. The clockwork technology resemble maxwells door that maxwell got wilson to build. Its like a blend of alchemy/magic and science.

Maxwell didn't even know about the archives, how could he have built the bishops?

[Gashzer]

4 hours ago, Retepeter said:

Maxwell didn't even know about the archives, how could he have built the bishops?

Maxwell didnt know but he still got some ancient knowledge that was used to create some archive tech from somewhere hence why there is that quote that he misinterpreted the design of the fountain of knowledge. 

Maxwell took the design of the fountain of knowledge which he didnt fully understand and used shadow magic (purple gem) that he does have more understanding of due to the codex umbra, to fill in the blanks and make something new (bishop).

 

[BalkanCockroach]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:49 PM, Guille6785 said:

So while we are waiting for this and the other obscure copy stuff to be it's own thread, should we make a thread for this concept art itself?

[The Letter W]

21 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

a DRM-free retail release of the game that was only available in germany (and also the only physical release of the original Don't Starve that wasn't a console version)

On 10/3/2023 at 10:49 AM, Guille6785 said:

These are so intriguing! I do like how the fourth creature is just... Crab. These kinda interesting sounding names and then... Crab. It does line up with the unused(? they didn't add it in ever right?) Pawn too... I wonder if there were plans to have a parallel organic/mechanical biome or something. Any other mysterious arts on that DVD?

Also WX clubbing a Gobbler with a hammer is certainly an image.

[BalkanCockroach]

4 minutes ago, The Letter W said:

These are so intriguing! I do like how the fourth creature is just... Crab. These kinda interesting sounding names and then... Crab. It does line up with the unused(? they didn't add it in ever right?) Pawn too... I wonder if there were plans to have a parallel organic/mechanical biome or something. Any other mysterious arts on that DVD?

Also WX clubbing a Gobbler with a hammer is certainly an image.

Im holding onto hope that we'll get a savanna like solo DS dlc. Slim chance but i do think we'll get another one at some point. And if they do they can implement rho so that we know what AG was before it was corrupted by fuel. Maybe zebs and goks with that too.

[Guille6785]

3 hours ago, BalkanCockroach said:

 And if they do they can implement rho so that we know what AG was before it was corrupted by fuel.

my headcanon is that AG didn't actually look different but he was originally way smaller instead (normal rook size) before the nightmare fuel made him grow in size

3 hours ago, The Letter W said:

Any other mysterious arts on that DVD?

There's quite a bit more concept art that hasn't been documented anywhere, but rather than post them one by one I'd rather document them all in one place

[Notecja]

I think it could be truth somewhere between... Like Maxwell apparently was first on nightmare throne? Like totally first? Not like lore is specially consistent, but once there was that theory that Ancients were Maxwell creation as well... In that case he could even leave them a order to build something. Or just Maxwell is insane, with holes in memory and likes to talk dramatically when is about to die. Or it would mean that nightmare throne was after ancients and some sort of diesaster happened between that left nothing and dust. 

[BalkanCockroach]

4 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

my headcanon is that AG didn't actually look different but he was originally way smaller instead (normal rook size) before the nightmare fuel made him grow in size

There's quite a bit more concept art that hasn't been documented anywhere, but rather than post them one by one I'd rather document them all in one place

That's probably the case.

[maradyne]

There is the factor that original Ancients and modern Ancients had some design differences (statues most notably), and I assume the discrepancies are actually just up to those differences in art direction and writing over time. Like...looking at it objectively, some of the in-game info conflicts other in-game info.

But as for headcanon...
I'd assumed since the Archive bishop-related quote was introduced that Maxwell had made all of the clockworks (from parts of ruined Ancient machinery), then when he was done, dumped them into the caves before plugging them (per his quote on sinkholes).
There's a slight hiccup in that per the damaged rook 'builder' quote...
Either we can chalk that up to a general observation rather than him commenting on the specific machine he'd abandoned, or the rooks are an Ancient design...
In which case, Maxwell made a lot of Bishops, proportionally. And honestly, it could make sense if he only made the Bishops; they do have purple gems shoved into them. We know Max was playing with those, and how well they work with the Fuel.

...I'm not sure how I feel about Ancients being the creators of Knights, though. Seems a little silly. I'd chalk that design up to Maxwell too just because of preference.
The accordion part could've come from the air-blowing part of ancient metal-processing machines or something.