Windmills don't turn?

[TomBomb]

Hi all, I searched and didn't see any recent threads on this, but my nice new large windmills don't seem to consistently catch the wind. Is that normal? I was expecting them to be a bit more consistent source of power. I've got them high on a hill but that doesn't seem to help.

[di eshor ribly]

Height doesn't matter, wind is variable and inconsistent. Gravity batteries tied in to the power grid system are the stopgap tool for having power during wind droughts (or regular droughts if you use water wheels). The only* consistent, constant energy source in the game is the Irontooth engine. Beaver wheels are excluded because beavers need to eat and sleep some time.

*Building your own custom mechanical water pump - water wheel system for infinite power is a thing, and works mostly constantly once you get it set up... but it takes a lot of effort and resources to put together. Long droughts are still an issue if the system runs out of enough water to power it.

[jonnin]

batteries solved most of this. If you have good batteries (high up, large capacity), they will charge up a lot at night in the wind that is normally wasted, and play out during the day when the wind slacks.

the large WM catches wind the small one does not. Replace all small with large and try to avoid making many small ones early game.

some places seem to be better than others, and there is a wind vane you can try to study the pattern with. I am not sure what makes good/bad spots. Maybe its just hopeless RNG.

the windmill trades consistency for low profile.

you can use it to your advantage. This basically auto-pauses the buildings tied to it to prevent overproduction without hands-on management, so one section with no battery can actually be more useful than you maybe realized, if you find that you pause some things (eg paper mill) frequently.

[TomBomb]

Thanks, I guess I thought height made a difference, maybe that was with an older version. It started to pick up more after I posted this. Definitely generates a ton of power... when it works.

[Obz3hL33t]

"... the large WM catches wind the small one does not."

Whoa ... it looked like a ripoff in the research panel. I didn't know it had a lower minimum wind threshold for generation. That's a pretty big deal on my map.

About the Battery: does height and run length make a difference, or just run length? The in-game help says height matters, while the Wiki says run length, so to cover all bases I hung mine off the side of the highest cliff with some stilt feet so the run length is I think 4 units. But do 4 units high up provide more storage than 4 units at sea level?

[jonnin]

its how far the weight can move, whatever words you want to put there. I forget the max, 32k or or something like that. Its a fair bit per. Lofting on a cliff works. Every 'level' adds more capacity until maxed out.

[Obz3hL33t]

Makes sense. The beavs finally built it. It winds down like one of those gravity-powered grandfather clocks. Looks cool.

[Grubs]

Originally posted by jonnin:

some places seem to be better than others, and there is a wind vane you can try to study the pattern with. I am not sure what makes good/bad spots. Maybe its just hopeless RNG.

In my experience, wind is the same across the entire map.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZTqi6RmGkU

When the wind changes, every windmill changes with it.

[Obz3hL33t]

Battery + cliff + nights off = done and sawdusted. I can always add more windmills.