Skyline

* See also Skyhook
* See also Floatyshit(tm)
* See also Derp_Transportation_in_Columbia and Faux-Economy
* See also Concept_Ideas
* See also Funky_Columbia_Machinery
* See also Real Transport of Those Times
Something that would have been Great IF it had remained what was seen early in Promotional Videos of the Game. But THEN It was largely rendered Pathetic - A mere mechanism for Arena Battles, and Cutscene use.
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Infinite BS, Why you Have the "Skyline" 'Tracks' Up In The Sky ... :
Cuz 'Sky' ... 'Line' ??? 
For the ORIGINAL Skyline - IN The Very Interesting Trailer/Presentation which SHOWED WHAT WE NEVER GOT - Its use was like the Player is FLYING around a huge city. ( Appropriate for a FLYING CITY, No ? ) It looked real good. That original game Skyline would have been mor Open World and traversing most of Columbia.
But they CUT IT - AS THEY COULD NOT ACTUALLY MAKE IT WORK FOR THE GAME. (( IT was Fraudulently shown in the Game's Promotional Trailers - Shown WHEN Kenny & Co already KNEW it Would NOT be in the game )). 
Perhaps the Problem was : The Game's Developers had already created the Skyline Assets and some of its interactions. But Player Movement was now constrained. They were left with forcing its use in-game to be very limited. SO, The PRODUCTION game's "Skylines" became absurdly small traversals ( The Player Usable sections largely relegated to them running in Loops within the games 'battle arena' scenarios - going nowhere else ). More of it was disconnected/isolated/disjoint bits here and there - Used for some Cutscene-like level transition events, and a few minor blockage puzzles. The Rest was mere terrain Props. 
THE Game's hamstrung/dumbed-down Skylines are mostly seen as Some Pretty Track with 'Boxcars Moving' - way up high, at a distance. To work, the track would HAVE to come down to the 'Ground' to be easily accessible for their actual use - for Shipping Freight around the City or Moving People. BUT If it was better illustrated, more logical/realistic, the Players might then ask : "Why can't I use this thing ?". 
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Unfortunately (for the Players) "The Skyline" IDEA in Infinite BS had degenerated, illogically becoming lame and ineffective - In the end NOT much of a plausible Citywide Transportation System - another victim of the gamemakers' Worldbuilding limitations. 
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Why It Was NOT Done Better ( That BIG SYSTEM ) ??? :
Limitations : Beside the Game Engine 's small Level Size ... A more extensive system ( the originally envisioned game element ) you might actually have to show larger numbers of NPCs actually doing things, rather than them stand around like mannequins when you went past them close up. There would need to be many more interactive NPCs in A HUGE LEVEL when you moved through the CityScape terrain quickly. SO they had to limit the 'levels', as the old game engine could NOT handle any more, and the whole Player-Usable citywide system evaporated. That Skyline is up there mostly kept 'Out Of Reach' ( Being Inaccessible/Unusable ), allowing ALL those 'pretty' split-off 'distant' city sections - Which NOW did NOT need to be detailed --- as the Player could NEVER reach them.
A proper 'era' Columbia would have had useful/systematic Railroad/Trolley tracks well-connecting the pieces of 'Floaty' Columbia ( within a less fustercluck-glombed-together mess ) ???? Have Nice Useful Trains instead ? The gamemakers didn't even show the Skyline used like such a logical thing - all now caricature Supposedly now a "Skyhook Passenger Falling Death" for an ad hoc otherwise absent, Passenger transport.. Typical NPCs are too stupid to get out of way of moving trains on the ground - requiring scripting far better NPC AI - particularly for Combat. Any ground Tracks also would be useable paths, and would confound the attempts at Path Blockage used in the game. 
ALSO : Such Movable game terrain/content ( effectively what any Trains would be - Getting ON a Train ... ) would be problematic for the game engine, and would require very clever Rendering and AI Programming. 'Game' Vehicles (mobiles on the ground) like Real Trains also requires more Game Engine processing by the programmed game simulation. More Complexities would have to be accommodated ( the NPCs now needing to handle non-static terrain/objects -- Not just as a shifting platform, but also as 'cover' for shooting/sighting. ). Extended Tracks on the ground would problematically become automatic walk-paths to get places contrary to the games linear plot - REQUIRING constantly blocking them - clumsily repeated, that would get stupid. REAL Train Tracks are also quite FLAT, which did not apparently match the artistly impressive ( but unneeded ) split levels of Columbia's Floating Cityscape. 
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In the End, The game's Facilitations Simply did NOT match the Potential for the Game Setting.
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What was Wrong With the Skyhooks/Skylines ?? :
An original concept "Hook" actually made sense. SO that was probably why it wasn't in the game.
The originally seen ( in promotional materials ) 'rails' looked like they had moving chains running in a 'C' channel, which when hooked to would provide the movement (though at a fixed speed and direction - Though the other rail might operated at a second transition speed or in the opposite direction ( acting like a 'cable' in a cable car mechanisms of that period ).
Rails have to be held in place by structure, and with fairly closely spaced support ( being as thin as they are shown ), which they don't have. Magic ...
One direction or two ?? Switches then are required for 'Trains to 'pass' each other in opposite direction ( OR two one-way tracks are needed unless the route is a small enough circle/circuit ). Setoff tracks are needed for unloading spots ( so as not to block/delay other moving traffic ).
With a Single direction it wouldn't allow as much/easy game Player direction switching. You might have to 'hop-on' to the chain going the opposite direction, and THAT would be at a fixed speed. Possibly releasing the chain to accelerate down with gravity might be possibly, but then that hook is no longer on the chain and the channel isn't the right shape for the Players to stay ON the rail.
The stupid hook wheel on the Infinite BS-used game Skyhook is shear idiocy - Even for Bad Fantasy :
* Chop your own fingers off when the wheel hook's grabbing 'teeth' are extended and rotate. (pix)
* The wheel's hooks jam against the things frame when it supposedly grabs a 'Rail' - and thus it CANNOT possibly turn for that "motorized drive" movement.
* The wheel-plus-teeth weapon mechanism turns the wrong direction to move forward ( if it was meant to ), and then disengages the rail if you reverse the rotation direction. ( If you disengage to change direction - as the game allows you - you would then fall to your death ).
* If the mechanism somehow wraps around the rail, it will suddenly jerk to a stop when hitting one of those few rail supports when it gets reached ( blocked by the fastening of rail to its support ). (( The whole idea is really a disjoint mess created by sloppy/lazy gamemakers. ))
* The Skyhook strap (shown) does NOT act to support the user's weight when you hang on this thing ( It would be like an arm slipping out of a shirt sleeve ). That strap only seems to function when the thing is used as a weapon.
* The fancy maneuvers the game allows ( jumping and catching on the rail ) would be pulling limb bones out of sockets for your wrist/elbow/shoulder, and the wrenching/twisting muscles - both will make it unusable for a human. (( Plasmids/Tonics to enable Ape Strength might have been logical. NO ? --- OOPS, but Elizabeth uses it too ...... ))
* Such maneuvers assume you have the skills of an expert trapeze artist/acrobat ( when Booker is a an ordinary worn out 'rummy' drunk). No safety nets here, which most expert trapeze artist/acrobats refuse to work without.
* What Powers this thing ( If it TURNS AS IS SHOWN WHEN IT IS USED AS A WEAPON ) ?? What motor, What fuel, when is a spring wound ? - If this thing ( built by teenagers allegedly ) is supposed to ALSO be Quantumz-powered -- HEY, just give us a Fargen Flying Suit and a real Chainsaw, and be done with all this stupid shitToo much "stupid shit" in this game seems designed by a 4-year-old ... .
* That additional magical JUMP Quantumz Magnetic feature ( hardly even used in the game ) ... ANY magnet that strong would pull every other metal thing to it ( but never enemy guns apparently - an obvious use for it you would think ). LOGIC : Just have a fricken APE-JUMP Vigor - seriously that's all you needed.
* Those contrived Roller Coaster dips/curves being perfect to shake up any cargo. BUT it sure makes for some game-required Exciting 'Ride' ( Real transport systems are designed to Move Stuff - NOT to be exciting and dangerous and inefficient ).
* Going in a Circle on those game levels really doesn't get you anywhere. The game's Skyline implementation shrank to be more and more feeble, until what was left was just logically pointless (( But Levine & Co were trapped by their own Hype and limitations when they just couldn't deliver on what they originally showed it as )).
* By extension, the DLC Burial AT Sea regurgitated "Pneumo Lines", and correspondingly they were just as illogical and had additional issues.
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This Part of that Strange 'Skyhook' thing. OK, maybe it could 'grab' a cable. But it seems to wrap all way around the 'rail'. So it is problematic IF that Cable or Rail or Pipe has to be fastened to something to be supported (even if Floaty). Thus you CANNOT really slide along past any such external rail fastening.
Maybe in the MMORPG this could be employed ontop of a Splicer 'beanie hat' (turned sideways) replacing the usual propeller --- AS IT HAS NO OTHER POSSIBLE USE.
Stupid things like this showing basic lack of understanding, and degenerates/doesn't speak well for any other aspect of this game - for Infinite BS OR itsDLC bastard stepchild BaSx
Maybe if that Skyhook 'weapon' SHOT these things - like a Flying Buzzsaw ??? ( Sticking into walls, shredding flesh at a distance, etc... ) There : Something so retarded being made at least into a fun game mechanism.
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What Should The FIXED Infinite BS Skyline/Skyhook Actually Be ? :
* Flat Tracks across the city, except for 'grade' ramps between elevation levels ( the rollercoaster-like stupidity should be minimized/eliminated as much as possible ).
* Transiting between chunks of the City ( or with a better designed city - traversing around One BIG Chunk ). Criss-crossing routes, with transfer stations.
* Passenger traffic, as well as freight ( the original concept stuff showed passenger stations ). This would eliminate alot of those the weird gondola things. A unified Transit System.
* Properly supported/braced 'rails'. Lots of supports ( and thus points to use Skyhook without suicidal jumpings ).
* The Skyhook - Return to the chain drive system simple 'hook' ( latching onto the metered speed of a rail chain ). Attached only when it is within 'arms reach'.
* Switches to different routes, set-off 'sidings', frequent station stops.
* Double hangers for all 'cars' to stop the forward/back rocking. Couplers linking between cars ( like real railroad cars have ).
* Game activity with the trains often as 'vehicles' ( sometimes hopping aboard like a Hobo ).
* IDEA - Skyline route into a Tear ( The city has to get its raw materials from somewhere - DOESN'T IT ? )
* Ditch the Magnetic jumping weirdness ( just have things the Player climbs up ).
* Skyhook has a body harness (early concept) to actually sufficiently support a human's weight ( without requiring apelike strength to hang there one-handed for more than a few seconds ).
* You can still swing the Skyhook like a club and break bones -- No need for gratuitous flesh/bone shredding stuff.
* No Regurgitation of this open-air thing for Rapture ( the original Pneumo was just fine ).
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The extraneous sharp curves and sudden steep drops of this fantasy system are patently absurd to ANYONE who knows a thing about transportation systems. This lunacy looks like it was designed for loopy game camera angles ( apparently leftover from that early E3 Game Conference vid shown versions where you freely traversed a Large cityscape - Where the PLAYER USABLE third dimension would add alot of interest ).
Anyone real world who designed/proposed/built such a messed up (terrible) system would be considered demented/insane and have been beaten with rods by all the other engineers. The miscreant perpetrator would have to Resign in Disgrace, or kill themselves. A Real system has to WORK. Anything else is a waste of time and a travesty.
THIS thing is a symptom of lazy gamemakers trying to create a player-pandering game instead of a semi-realistic Epic cityscape/game-setting ( which ACTUALLY takes real gamemaking skill/knowledge/imagination/effort to have it represent something realistic -- Instead of having the Player traipse through a lazy-arsed Candyland ). In Infinite BS, it doesn't feel Real, it is MORE just a dim game Prop.
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Suspension bridges are 'suspended'. Quantum Whatzits apparently provided this for the Skylines ( magically stay/float in place, including when Columbia moves ? When city chunks wobble about in the wind ? ) 
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So there's a motor in these things? ( Where ? Oh that's right, to tear a head bloodily off, it HAD to have one -- My Bad. ) Originally the thing was a 'Hook', but this is what happens when you just keep lumping ideas onto of other ideas ( " Hey, doing *THIS* would be neat too !!!!" ... I wonder if it can also be used as a bottle opener ... ). Amazing all what those quantumz can do.
Ooh sparks !!! WHY ?
No sane engineer would build a cargo transport like that. So that 'Skyline' system must've originally been built as Entertainment ( a Sky-Rollercoaster ) for the Columbian Exposition ( woulda been a big hit ).
It is also dubious whether any sane person would ride on it with a 'Skyhook', putting that advertised/sold 'SkyHook' product into the "Stupid Stuff there for the Game" category.
===== ( Dont Worry, They managed to make it even Stupider in Burial at Sea with their 'Pneumo lines' and 'Airgrabber' ). =====
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Fun for a Rollercoaster, stupid for a 'Freight' Transport System. Too bad it degenerated into those pathetic local loops ( the original 'Trailer' version might've been something worthwhile ).
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Imagine having all you weight on this joint as you hold onto a 'skyline' while 'whipping about' along it. Your shoulder joint really wasn't designed for that. Imagine the force of the jerk upon it when 'catching' a skyline while falling. ( Even more interesting things would happen to your spine. )
Imagine Booker, the chronic drunkard, doing any such thing. Writer-tards who come up with such idiotic things should be sentenced to hang by one arm for only an hour to learn reality and their own ignorance they push at the Players.
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( Concept Art from artist who at least tried to have it make some sense )
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Concept Skyhook BEFORE that stupid idea of turning it into a blood splattering buzzsaw. Evolution of the Skyhook which would have fit the originally-conceived mechanism -- One with some kind of Chain Drive running inside the C-Rails ( the large version teeth/hook attached between the Chains Links to pull the User along ... ).
 
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Called a "Monorail", but this type actually had 2 Rails at the top to keep the cars upright. Perhaps would be more plausible with Columbia being 'one big chunk''one big chunk' - Columbia could have been a 'City on a Hill' (biblical reference ...) instead of a bunch of separate floating pieces ( AND most of them 'bobbing up and down' in a vomit-inducing way ).
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Looking at the design. Only four fingers keep this thing from slipping off your arm when hanging from a 'Skyline'. Imagine hanging on a pullup bar with just one arm and NO Thumb on your hand -- How long could you hang like that ( and doing that without being swung about, which would put even MORE stress on your hold/grip ? )
It is such a great way to dislocate your knuckles, maybe tear the digits end off completely, if sufficient force is applied ???
( Or even if this device is fastened better to other parts of your arm, you could still dislocate any/all joints involved when doing those jumps (and such) seen in the game. )
Oh, maybe you can have a sufficient grip for use while tearing/ripping through a Skull -- after all, that is the primary reason for having this ridiculous thing in the game : A face-chewing/neck-tearing/brain-digging/blood-spewing chainsaw action weapon. ( Seriously, you can do a whole variety of interesting things with a simple meat-hook, or even our good ole Monkey Wrench. )
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Those 'hooks' swing out when this thing rotates ( to be able to grab the rail/whatever, I assume ). Unfortunately the grip and positioning of the fingers is within the hooks wheel's swinging arc ( and BTW so is the rest of this 'mechanism', so that the rotation will get stopped rather fast as it Jams solid against itself ).
This object/scheme was not very well thought out. The original single hook (seen above) was much better ( fitting into some kind of moving chain within the Skyline rails ).
Imagine Booker has this heavy thing to hold, so he has his arm hanging down by his leg. Suddenly he twitches/spasms the wrong way - pulling the trigger -- and it starts chewing through his leg !!! - and gripping so well, the powerful motor starts working its way upwards !!!
That would be a FUNNY scene for the MMORPG, where all these stupid things would be ridiculed in the most amusing way possible.
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Return to the vision from those early Trailers of the Skyline : The tracks going everywhere in a big cityscape. Multiplayering in 3 dimensions. Rapture Reborn need not be the only game created with the Game production system I've described. Sharing Asset resources is the strength of that proposed system, as well as vastly improved methods of creating/modifying the game Assets.
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THE Problem with THIS 2 point railing : The 'vehicle' "DODGES" from side to side without the 3 point triangle stability of support. The movements inherent in this 'Skyline' transport ( Forward & Back, Up & Down, Side-to-Side ) is far more than on railroad tracks. This illustrated mechanism would quickly Torque itself off a rail ( and then soon the other ) sending it plunging to destruction.
Ski lifts and other such wire suspension transport mechanisms either hang from a SINGLE POINT, or if very large have a whole complex lot of wheels ( and STILL made to hang on a single support ).
"DONT EVER LET AN 'ARTIST' DESIGN SOMETHING YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON" - Samuel Clemens, paraphrasing Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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PutToShame.jpg|YOU MEAN WE COULDA HAD THIS !!!
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SEE ALSO Infinite_Gratuitous_Violence ( the real reason for the skyline/skyhook )
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Game Skyline/Skyhook Evolution :
Seen in the Early version of the 2010 gameplay presentation. ( Most of what was shown was susequently eliminated/modified ).
That Skyline looks like it has a moving chain within the 'rails' - You hooked onto that ( with an actual HOOK ) and that chain moved you along at a fixed speed. ( Reasonably plausible, though hooking onto it while falling from above is quite dubious ). 
The Skyhook was changed later to a odd rotary 3 hook thing ( I guess that being more conducive to bloody/neck-cutting melee attacks ) now with reversible direction and an unworkable mechanism -- If its rotation is supposed to move you then the hooks would jam/disengage, and ( the way it is designed ) move you the opposite direction indicated or chop your fingers off - It is too much Fuster-cluck 'artistic license' BS. 
It might as well have been a Harry Potter wand --- OR BETTER be replaced with Quantum Powered Wings ( unlikely as that would give the Player far too much freedom and too much work for the game maker to create that ). 
Having all those rollercoater-like Skyline 'rails' float in the air was assume to be due to the quantum physics Floatyshit(tm)
It is too bad they couldn't actually make the game anything like what was shown in that trailer, but to make o many unique scene animations if used/available throughout a 8 hour game was an impossibility ( and thus dumbed-down to virtually nothing interactive and a bunch of cutscenes - and thus make that early trailer a lie/cheat/bait-n-switch phony )
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We missed out on some fun gruesome 'atmosphere' for the 'real' Columbia ( Things going on out of sight of the 'ordinary' public - or Teenage Founders keeping the 'Helots' scared ... )
Having a Nazi-esque Organized EXECUTION scene of a bunch of Vox (rebel scum) - lined up (tied) and being 'Skyhooked' in the back of their head, and them falling off the edge to plunge to splat on the ground (at 700 mph) - leaving only a mysterious unidentifiable anonymous mess. No mass graves needed for Columbia and those disappearances of any/all Comstock detractors would be a worry to anyone else doing "Wrong Thinking' in the population.
THAT scene seen by Elizabeth and Booker, peeking around a corner and then skedaddling in fear ( Booker later comments : "If that's what they do to ordinary criminals, then WHAT are they going to do to US ?!!" )
An ironic Poster on a nearby wall reads : "The Policemen Is Your Friend"
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Some of the Concept Artists actually proposed mechanism which were mechanically plausible. Unfortunately, things like this didn't match the Storyboards the gamemakers got all wet about. I suppose this things First 'Strike' was it didn't serve as the Wrench equivalent needed for the bloody 'Execution Moves' they wanted for the game. 
Here you have an actual way to fasten the it all to the user (Player), and to support the hanging body WITHOUT breaking various joints. Here you also have a proper Weapon Mount for some of the enormous/heavy weapons the Player was shown to use (ie- Gatling gun).
Second Strike : Lots of new/special animations sequences being required. 
 
Third strike : Restriction of Player motion ( to shoot while moving ) which might have been OK in the BIG SKYLINE idea they abandoned.
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Somehow Elizabeth Knows how to do this - hanging out in the air with a potential 10000+ foot drop. Shut-in Girl simply starts flyin' the Skylines ... ((( Funny Idea : Elizabeth uses the Skyhook to kill Daisy Fitzroy ... )))
This lame-game (via gamemakers) presents the idea that the Skyhooks were commercially made objects. Seriously ? When the logical no vehicular passenger system is ever shown ( implied - but was cut from game ?? ).
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== The "Air Grabber" Takes the Stupidity Even Further ==
== Burial at Sea DLC Perversion Pneumo Lines and Air Grabber ==
Air Grabber ... Seriously ?  :
A Fontaine Automatic Enema would have been far funnier and more logical.
Take the amount of BS in Infinite and square it.   The whole essence of the BaS DLC was a sellout ( commitment for "Season Passes" already sold, which HAD to be completed before the company folded ).
"Thus the sewage backed up and flowed down from the Sky and poisoned Andy Ryan's City and the Stupid-Meter now reads on '12'."  ( Hmmm, just doesn't work as a haiku, maybe set to Bongo Drums ? )
Simplest Canon-wise is to deny this atrocity ever happened, and decide that 'Canon' is NOT to be decided by Sell-outs creating sequels.
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And REMEMBER : Please don't Mock ( as in simply answer them back ) the Fanbois with Logic, Fact and Reason.  They "hate" that most of all.
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A moving chain/whatever ( or fantasy bypass of reality ) which the Player latched onto ON the Skyline in Columbia is at least semi-plausible --- Apart from the wrenching of joints out of their sockets, and the unsupported 'skylines' largely going in Circles ( and NOT across the city ).
NOW we have the previously small (9 inch wide) Pneumo Tubes wxpanded and turned into some kind of different mechanism large enough for a person to travel in/on (??) -- By HOOKING ONTO something (cable/chain whatever) ??? NOTE - REAL "Pneumo" systems work via Air Pressure and require a well fitted 'capsule' ( like all those things we saw in Air-Tite Archives in Minerva's Den ) moving inside (within) the tubes. They (the 'tubes') also are usually located INSIDE, and go-thru walls. You would think the gamewriters/designers could come up with something else to take the place for a Melee Weapon (( And the jumping 100 feet in Infinite BS 'magnetically' was also Pixie Dust/HarryPotter idiocy. This now is Rapture, not that Fever Dream Hallucination which Booker had from some bad patent toothache medicine. ))
BTW, if its now run on a chain-drive mechanism ( for its linear movement which CANNOT be 'pneumatic ), IT IS NOT 'Pneumo' any more ( Ignoring how its skyline equivalent ever could actually work in Columbia either. -- Sorry the 'quantum' BS don't cut it there either. )
Now if this ( the robo-weirdness 'Pneumo Line' ) is supposed to be some local system ( in hoity-toity stores ) to take stuff TO the Jet Postal Pneumo, then it defeats the whole 'convenience' thing of the original pneumo mail system had - Kiosks where you need them. It would be an overcomplication - but then : Dont let logic or reason get in the way of 'the plot'. ( Or apparently for already paid-for, contract obligation, nonsensical DLC game mechanics. )
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Idea - Don't pervert the Pneumo/Jet Postal, but make use of the air vents the Little Sisters use ( that would ALSO help explain how THEY (LS) used them to travel when they are miles long -- Like HAVING some moving system inside to clean/maintain them or somesuch ). There's also more of them about than the Pneumo system we've previously seen. ( Unfortunately you can't shoot at things or jump down to eviscerate an opponent within this, except by popping out at the ends. )
Heh, lets see Booker having to crawl out of a one of the Dalek shaped Pneumo Kiosks --- that ought to be good fun. The Little Sister Vents might be a little more dignified.
Seriously, it took me 2 minutes of thought to come up with all of that ...
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Air-Grabber To Sconce-Hooks Jumps - Another Hackneyed Regurgitation :
SO you Leaping 30 feet into the air to engage the rollercoaster 'Pneumo Lines' ... (( SORRY, This is Rapture - So there's no fantasy Quantum BS here to claim to justify that magic crap - so plain ole fantasy crap instead )).
Why need the Air-Grabber at all ??? 
I understand that they wanted to reuse the Skyline/Skyhook game mechanics and the programming/scripting/assets they already paid for in 'Infinite', but at least they could have been a little smarter/more-creative about it. ( A Tonic maybe ?? You know like those other TONICS used in Rapture ??? A Leg Strength thing ?? But only safely to 'hook' one of those 'Sconces' ... )
Have the 'Pneumo Lines' dip down near the ground at designated loading points (It IS supposed to be for transport in-store for stuff isn't it ???? - Not those huge sorta-trains in Columbia. Customers/employees are supposed to load store goods onto these things ( for transport to where ??? ). You could have got on at certain well designated loading points, but (as the Player) can jump off anywhere it is open.
Ditch the stupid backstoryline about kids making Air-Grabber (( I found insultingly retarded and it smacks of desperation in trying to copy BioShock things )) These 'sorta' Pneumo tubes/lines don't go anywhere to warrant 'joy riding' -- AND at least show the mechanism disappearing thru doors into some wall marked 'Shipping Department', instead of it being the same nonsensical big rollercoaster loops, going no place.
SO, They NEEDED An 'Execution' element in the DLC ? Just bring back THE WRENCH. That would be semi-intelligently 'Nostalgic', No? (( But that was TOO GOOD an idea for these writers, I Guess )) 
If THEY 'had to have it', they coulda somehow had the 'Air-Grabber' mechanism at least be the same thing/parts as those Pneumo robotic whatevers ( the TV set with robot arms on the 'track' SEEN BELOW ). Those, they showed us operating on Market Street, and which were meant to introduce us to this new DLC's bizarroland Pneumo Lines. They SHOULD at least had shown that 'Pneumo Line' emerging up on High Street within the hugified mall space. 
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The Air Grabber Components (A Fetchit Mission they Cut ?) Were To Be :
WHAT ? No sooper-science component ?? ( Put together by Teenagers for joyriding ? ) At least in Columbia they had the magic quantum-whatzits to possibly say it gave this sad Sky-hook-clone its Magic abilities ( But no Blue Orb - *sniff* ). Jumping 40 feet to a magically magnetic 'Freight Hook' ? - YOU Coulda just used a Plasmid for that - You fricken writer-tards. SO, now the Player is Riding these 'Pneumo-Lines' ? AND Those TV set thingees that are supposed to move along the lines coulda been used much more creatively ( Mobile Turrets - a random factor in EVERY battler arena ... *OOPs* NO HACKING ? ). 
This all just taints the memory of the real BioShock Rapture, which at least pretended to adhere to the normal World's physics and the non-magical. 
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 'Freight Hooks' Used With 'Air Grabber' In Rapture Is Buried In Crap ?? :
This isn't Quantum Magic-Land Columbia here in Rapture. What justifies leaping 30+ feet ( Do you get a Brute Strength Tonic (legs only) to make you able to do such things ? This wasn't mentioned in the things instructional pamphlet. )
At least with Indiana Jones (and his Whip) there is a smidgen of a possibility for this kind of thing actually working. Seriously, a Vacuum Cleaner ?? THAT'S THE BEST THEY COULD THINK OF ??? (( They 'WENT FULL IDIOTZ' on this thing. ))
The "Pneumo Lines" (DLC used to create/represent a Rapture-type 'Skyline') and the retroactively added 'Floating' buildings ( that 'particle-lifted' Lunette Hook crap was bad enough ), but this is simply Infinte BS poisoning OUR Rapture Universe.
ALL VERY SAD.
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WOW, THIS THING MAKES SOME SENSE - SO IT HAS TO GO ... :
Back when this one concept artist actually had a 'SKY HOOK' instead of a head shredding buzz-hook the whole concept mutated into. 
Hook engaged the moving chain ( you can see in the trailers ) to drag the player around the track.
Little idler wheel to hold the hook into the chain loops - WOW someone who had an ounce of knowledge about how real mechanical things have to work !!!! (( Sorely missing later, and often ))
Some of the Jumps & Catch-onto-rail-below ( which Booker is shown to do in the Trailer ) would still dislocate/destroy various joints in his hand/arm/shoulder.
NOTE- You could still brain somebody with this thing quite nicely, and even swing it faster to catch them before they ducked. Definitely concealable ( Apparently unimportant in the actual published game ).
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 "SO many good ideas, but general incompetence makes them even more disappointing." - E Witney 
Levine & Co already KNEW they could not deliver the game shown by them at E3, so it was actually a fraud perpetrated by them ( and it DOESN'T matter that such frauds are frequent in the computer game industry ).
It is funny how many of the concept artist the game studio had employed generated concept pictures of game props which were far more plausible AND of sounder engineering than the later 'artist' generated crap/gorp which was later put in the game.
Mantra of the Hack Gamemaker : "CASH Trumps Art" ...
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COLUMBIA REAL GAME IMAGINATION : 
They could have innovated a bit, and had whole SHOPS and VENDORS moved on that Skyline ( MODERN convenience for the people of Columbia ... ) That Floating City Block that comes by 3 times a day ( with a schedule, Heh ) was cute, but not something a business could operate with (( "The ignorant writers strike again" -- 'Looks Good' translates for them to 'DERRRRP!' ))
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Original Skyline (Trailers Showing what Never Happened For Game) :
Looks like the 'rails' have a slot in the underside which should ( like the long ago original Sky-lines ) have a moving chain in it, that the boxcars hooked into to move them ( the original Skyhook looked like a "Hook" then also ).  Of course you couldn't change speed or direction like they have you able to do in the final game mechanics, but you did actually go somewhere on those original Skylines instead of in circles like the delivered game. 
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Can't open end doors if these Boxcars are on the Track with an adjacent car.
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Semaphore Track Signals ??? 
The Skyline has no locomotives which are indicated in-game. Real semaphore signals are MEANT to be seen by a loco engineer from the train to tell/signal them about track conditions ahead. This Skyline is some more automatic system - something rife with catastrophic possibilities when there are things moving out of an operators view.
What matter it is a 'puppet show' prop, retained because of the skull-rendering melee weapon required for 'Execution Moves' to pander to the more pseudo-bloodthirsty of the game's Player demographics.
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As one commentator said - The whole place just looks like a prop.
Derpy Transportation ( especially the 'Skyline' ) in something that was SUPPOSED TO BE and operating city.
All that vertical-ness ... Were they trying for a Coney Island style or some 'Pandora' look ?   FAIL.
DO a Gunfight Battle in the middle of the Disneyland 'Electrical Parade', NOW THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEAT ... ( music amd flashing lights and the parade on the Skyline ... )
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I simply can't see things like this being built by Government Engineers. This was possibly the result of Columbia itself being Merged several times, and then being to much of a twisty mess to straighten out.
And it is not just the Skylines. The Whole Place looks too warped to have been originally intended like that.
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Here is a Real Skyway/Skyline ( called a Tramway in real life ).
Kinda hard to have gunbattles on it or for the Vox to getaway after their Terrorist Acts.
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Seriously, Hanging By One Hand Was Derpland Stuff.
Skyhook Likewise ... ( Gimme Bee Apparitions Shooting Out Of Hands Any Day )
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But it wouldn't be exciting - More like riding a bus around.
:::Cannibal Bus Conductors ... 
:::Hacking the AutoDriver ... 
:::Tokens - YOU NEED TO FIND TOKENS !!!!!!!! 
:::If the Speed Drops It Will Explode ...
:::'Back of the Bus' For YOU.
:::Vending Machines IN THE CAR
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