Artificers are mad scientists.
From a game-design standpoint, I have to tread carefully here. One, I have to make sure that the creation of Salvage Tech devices isn't over-balancing to the game world. So, the challenge is to remain faithful to my original idea, while at the same time not mirroring the Deadlands stuff, and preventing the whole thing from turning the game into a subterranean arms race. In short, a real pain in the ass. I think that the best way to handle creation in the game is to provide a list of example inventions to pick from if you're stumped for ideas, and then provide guidelines for assigning values to inventions developed entirely by the players.