I don't remember anything about lack of water.  For example, nothing about bathing as a signifier of social class.  So I guess it's possible that the spire is pretty efficient at just recycling the waste.  The waste gets the water drawn out and recirculated and the solid matter gets sterilized and used as fertilizer (vatsand).  There appears to be enough available electrical power and, presumably, previously available biological knowledge to set up such a reclamation system.  How much it runs without intervention and how muc hthe spires inhabitants maintain it isn't mentioned anywhere. 

That would explain where (most) of the water comes from and where (most) of the poop goes.  Both very important things to cove when any large population gets discussed.

Of course, without rain, I'd guess that street cleaning / garbage removal / etc has got to be a pretty big deal.  No mention of how lower class sections of the Habble constantly smell of poop, rotting garbage, etc.  One good outbreak of Cholera or something and you can't just wait for the rain to come and clean things up a bit.  You have to go and scrub all that down by hand.

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Of course, if the Predator is self aware, what about the spires themselves?  Do they live in the self aware colony?

You still need some sort nutrient solution do grow things, but yes, I agree it is within steampunk.

Or you could attach a fish tank to your hydroponics plumbing and let the fish poop do the job.  It's not perfect, and you are still left with the problem of taking care of the fish, but you can eat the fish every now and then too.

It may be possible to extract various elements from the oceans using the apparently endless electricity provided by power crystals.  Assuming there are oceans, and you can safely hover an airship over them for long periods of time.

I suppose it's also possible to work mines, use power crystals to smelt the ore, and then ship the refined metal to the spire in airships.  Not sure how safe mining would be, but I'd guess that the mining tunnels wouldn't be so bad to keep secure.

They reel them out, but how much they can reel is limited by the ship size.  Ill have to check but i think they mentioned how the Iscica (sp?) had more reels than them as well, being substantially larger than the other vessels.

I was under the impression that the Itasca had more webbing to put out just like they had more guns.  It's more about how much storage space, 'accounted for' damage resistance, etc that comes from being a both larger and a dedicated warship.

Im still combing it for more references about the direction of the motive force, but Im still thinking the crystals only go up and down, which is why the dives are still the best tactic for speed. 

Ships has several crystals:

Core crystal / power crystal: most expensive / irreplaceable
Provides main electrical power to energize webbing, power shroud, power main lift crystals
Larger ships (especially warships) may have multiple power crystals.

(Main) lift crystals
Provide the main lifting force that holds airships up.  Must be firmly anchored (in the center of the ship?) because the crystal just lifts itself.  If the anchorage fails, the lift crystal keeps going up, the ship, not so much.

Larger ship may have more than one lift crystal?

Trim crystals

Used to maintain level (side to side) and trim (up and down) level of the ship.  They also provide 'lift' but are much weaker, smaller, and cheaper than the ships main lift crystals.  Ship requires several of them (eight, at least?)

Ship can be maneuvered by changing power to the lift crystals, but is rather exacting and wallowing.  Main airship maneuvers are managed with rudder/winglets, but those require airflow.

Dives are fast because you can just turn off your lift crystal and do them.  No need to worry about how much webbing your can power, or whatever.

It described the shroud as extending out in a radius from the hull, but I dont know if it was literally spherical (emitted in radius from central Core Crystal) or a field that matched the ship shape so some extent.  For that matter I need to find a reference to whether it was a direct function of the Core Crystal or if it had additional systems.

The shroud was a field of energy generated by a ship’s crystal power core. When a cannon blast struck the shroud, it illuminated like a hazy, spherical cloud flickering with lightning, absorbing the incoming fire and dispersing its energy safely before it could strike the ship. Shrouds were a strain upon a ship’s core, a tremendous demand upon the core’s energy reserve. One did not simply sail along with the ship’s shroud raised and in place.

That being said, a firefighting foam or powder or even tanks of inert gas certainly wouldnt be out of the question for their tech level. 

Had thought that compressed gas would be beyond them, but:

“What kind of altitude could she take us to, chief?”
Journeyman scratched his ear with one broken-nailed finger. “Seven, maybe eight miles? Way higher’n we could breathe without tanks, anyway

Excellent observations.  From an Electrical Engineering PoV, it implies a voltage gradient in the air that the "webbing" has to be charged to generate force against, however, the force is transferred at the crystals judging by the mount observation. 

I had thought that the webbing gets an induced "current" that then gets channeled to and harnessed by the crystals to drive the ships.

It looks like the webbing needs to be electrically charged to interact with the winds in the ether.  The crystals provide the electrical power to do this.  In addition, the webbing is a specific thing that interacts with the curents/winds in the ether.  A 'regular' object charged with electricity doesn't seem to have any problems with wanting to move around.

I believe the +1 or +2 bonus is not based on how easy the item (potentially) is to reach, but instead how obviously the item and the power go together.

For example, if I have a glowing sword that can cut through anything, it's seems pretty obvious that the glowing sword and the ability to cut through anything probably go together.  So if you took my sword away, most people would expect me to also loose the cut through anything power.

However, 'just a necklace' doesn't seem to be directly related to being a better shapeshifter.  If you think it should have the +2 bonus, you should think of a way to make the fact that it grants you power more obvious.

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As for modular powers, if he already paid the -2 refresh surcharge once for modular powers, then there's no need to make him pay again for the item of power to enlarge his modular power pool.

So, for example, if his character sheet could look like:

Echoes of the beast -1
5 points of modular abilities -7

item of power
(somehow obvious necklace) +2
3 more points of modular abilities -3

total cost -9

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If you have modular abilities power, any of the (strength, speed, toughness (which includes recovery powers)) powers are supposed to be available to you, plus whatever creature features or other powers the GM will let you get away with.

Probably, your catch for any toughness powers you get via modular abilities should be fixed when you buy modular abilities, so you can't just shape shift to something with a different catch.

I think you can already do what you want just by using the 'I happen to have the right kind of potion...' (roll lore) rule, as long as you have potion slots open.

So, for example: You need to life something heavy

In the game fiction layer, it looks like:
"Life force belt buckle activate! strength of a bear!" and you lift the thing.

In the rule layer:
(rolls lore) I happen to have a might replacement potion available.  I use it and replace my might roll with the potions power.

So, the "I just happen to have a potion for that..." rule can also be used to represent someone who carries several enchanted objects.  How many potion slots you have and how good you are at not screwing up lore rolls represents how much they change the story.

While I think the 'city sheets' are an ok tool to help the GM keep track of things, I think that they fall short of giving players who are just sitting down for the game an idea of how these things effect the setting and tone of the game.

Here's an example stolen from After Sundown
A Life in Horror: The Good and The Bad
“Interesting fact: The Final Girl trope emerged shortly after young women became a major component of horror movie attendees.”

Life for the common man in After Sundown is actually pretty horrible, and extremely dangerous. Life in After Sundown is life in a horror movie. Or rather, it is a world not unlike Earth would be if all the horror movies were real in different places and at different times. This means that body counts are extremely high, and it is very difficult to get help. This is good news if you happen to be the Bogie Man, but really bad for anyone looking for a life of vaguely normal properties. Here are some important things to remember:

The Police are no help at all.
Heavily infiltrated by cultists and secret societies, the police in After Sundown are astoundingly ineffective. Sure they will occasionally bring down a killer, but the vast majority of crimes go unsolved. Many crimes don't even get investigated, especially if something supernatural is afoot.

Telecommunications are Shoddy.
Sat Phones aren't generally available in the realm of horror. Cellphone coverage cuts out constantly at inopportune moments. Most people still have landlines, but regular telecommunication wires go down frequently and are out for days at a time. The inability to get a call out of a building or town isn't unusual, that kind of thing happens a lot in After Sundown.

People Don't Travel Much.
It's not weird for people to not know what goes on in the next town over in After Sundown. Things are just more dangerous, and people keep to themselves more.

Keep this in mind when you're planning your nights in the realm of horror. Life is less connected to other life in the realm of horror and it is much easier for dangerous elements to thrive in such an environment.

That being said, it is important to remember that most horror movies begin with people thinking things are pretty normal, and end with something of a return to normalcy as well (or do they?) So it's not like Jason is running around the streets murdering people left and right. Indeed, while the death rate from serial and mass murder is large enough in the realm of horror to compete with traffic accidents or opiate abuse, the fact is that you're still more likely to die from cancer. Supernatural creatures remain hidden and the president of the United States is openly a mundane human. A vampire can't just flash their fangs to get free entry to a movie theater, and indeed they could be in a lot of trouble if they flash their fangs in a public space of any kind.

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So notice how the aspects would be The Police are no help at all, People Don't Travel Much, and Telecommunications are Shoddy, but it's really the write up that ties them all together and tells you what they mean.

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It can really help to have a half page or one page writeup.

Also, what do you think Molly Carpenter was doing magically/mechanically speaking when she violated the 4th Law if it wasn't some repeated use of a subtle, but harmful, Evocation?

On the order of power 4-9 thaumaturgy.

Evocation really isn't useful for that sort of subtle work.  A bit like asking how much surgery you can do in 30 seconds with an axe.

That's also one of the notable abilities of sponsored magic, the ability to do some aspects of thaumaturgy at evocation speeds and methods.