What's the point of water mills?

[Intrspace]

They seem pretty pointless, considering how little power they provide (1100W?).

[desrtfox071]

Alternative energy source that doesn't depend on wind or sunlight.

Seems obvious.

[Marva]

It's extremely consistent, and you can place multiple along a river. Easy power.

[Triel]

ecological!

[Phat Chow]

One tech gets you power for a grow light and temperature control. Can save your life it will.

[grapplehoeker]

I love them and I choose maps with a river specifically for them.

[Sepherix]

It's free energy. No catch, no variable. Stable production. You can have a ton on a river that quickly will handle what energy you might be missing during the night without your solars and wind turbines that oh so happen to never produce anything except excess.

[Caduryn]

The better Question is: What is the Point of this Topic. ^^

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Ive used watermills twice or so you have to somehow defend them too I dont see any point doing that I can just research solor panel and wall them tbh or better I can use a wood-fired generator. If you can afford the wood on watermill you should be able to afford the required wood, needed for the generator imo
eh variety i guess they are pretty useless

[Marva]

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

Ive used water mills twice or so you have to somehow defend them too I dont see any point doing that I can just research solor panel and wall them tbh or better I can use a wood-fired generator. If you can afford the wood on windmill you should be able to afford the required wood, needed for the generator imo
eh variety i guess they are pretty useless

Generators require a consistent wood source. Water mills only require a one-time setup. As far as defense goes, that's something for you to figure out. The benefit is plainly obvious. A consistent, free, power source with terrain restrictions. Make it work.

[MortVent]

Waterwheels are not hard to defend... wall all along both sides of the river with a couple bridges for your people to use. Several turrets along the way and done.

And if you know what you are doing you can block off the water ways.. if there are overhanging mountain roofs (eliminate the support and rocks fall creation barriers across the water)

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

Ive used water mills twice or so you have to somehow defend them too I dont see any point doing that I can just research solor panel and wall them tbh or better I can use a wood-fired generator. If you can afford the wood on windmill you should be able to afford the required wood, needed for the generator imo
eh variety i guess they are pretty useless

You can wall a watermill too and the open end is in deep water which is just as useful as a wall.

As for a generator, that requires a pawn to feed it fuel, permanently. Fair enough, if you have plenty of wood, but that's not my concern. I don't want to waste manpower though on energy provision and a water mill requires no further attention once built.
That makes it a more useful alternative than a generator.

All this fuss, is of little import though. Use whatever power source or combination of sources as you wish.

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Waterwheels are not hard to defend... wall all along both sides of the river with a couple bridges for your people to use. Several turrets along the way and done.

And if you know what you are doing you can block off the water ways.. if there are overhanging mountain roofs (eliminate the support and rocks fall creation barriers across the water)

yes they are harder to defend than a normal power generator since you waste time building a big enough bridge and wall on top of that

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Manpower? lol. You guys are talking as if it needs care every hour. I would rather waste my time filling wood every few days than wasting my early/mid game walling up a windmill which is a lot of manpower considering a lot of you guys are concerned about it though noone bothers to mention about the difficulty of making a proper safe walled up windmill box and when you compare the time it takes you to build a bridge vs hauling wood to the wood to the generator... idk you guys seem pretty biased instead of thinking which one is more efficient here

[MortVent]

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

Originally posted by MortVent:

Waterwheels are not hard to defend... wall all along both sides of the river with a couple bridges for your people to use. Several turrets along the way and done.

And if you know what you are doing you can block off the water ways.. if there are overhanging mountain roofs (eliminate the support and rocks fall creation barriers across the water)

yes they are harder to defend than a normal power generator since you waste time building a big enough bridge and wall on top of that

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Manpower? lol. You guys are talking as if it needs care every hour. I would rather waste my time filling wood every few days than wasting my early/mid game walling up a windmill which is a lot of manpower considering a lot of you guys are concerned about it though noone bothers to mention about the difficulty of making a proper safe walled up windmill box and when you compare the time it takes you to build a bridge vs hauling wood to the wood to the generator... idk you guys seem pretty biased instead of thinking which one is more efficient here

Unless you stop to consider you're already building the walls anyway for your base's defense. Already building the bridges to cross the river effectively..

Vs having to farm wood constantly to feed the chemfuel refinery and generators...

A one block bridge with a wall on the ends of the box.. with your base built up along the river is hardly excessive labor..

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

yes they are harder to defend than a normal power generator since you waste time building a big enough bridge and wall on top of that

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Manpower? lol. You guys are talking as if it needs care every hour. I would rather waste my time filling wood every few days than wasting my early/mid game walling up a windmill which is a lot of manpower considering a lot of you guys are concerned about it though noone bothers to mention about the difficulty of making a proper safe walled up windmill box and when you compare the time it takes you to build a bridge vs hauling wood to the wood to the generator... idk you guys seem pretty biased instead of thinking which one is more efficient here

Bridge? You build a bridge?
If you have to wall it up, all you need is a simple wall on 3 sides, which is nothing in terms of work and then it's done, forever. It doesn't really need defending in any case, since they're rarely targeted. But, if that's a problem, then my turrets have that covered too lol.
For example, walled in solar plants, watermills, geothermal plant and yes, there's a wood fuelled generator too...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1559672909
but I don't use it because I don't need to waste manpower on fuelling it when clearly I have plenty of free energy that requires no manpower.

oh cool early game.

Originally posted by MortVent:

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

yes they are harder to defend than a normal power generator since you waste time building a big enough bridge and wall on top of that

-

Manpower? lol. You guys are talking as if it needs care every hour. I would rather waste my time filling wood every few days than wasting my early/mid game walling up a windmill which is a lot of manpower considering a lot of you guys are concerned about it though noone bothers to mention about the difficulty of making a proper safe walled up windmill box and when you compare the time it takes you to build a bridge vs hauling wood to the wood to the generator... idk you guys seem pretty biased instead of thinking which one is more efficient here

Unless you stop to consider you're already building the walls anyway for your base's defense. Already building the bridges to cross the river effectively..

Vs having to farm wood constantly to feed the chemfuel refinery and generators...

A one block bridge with a wall on the ends of the box.. with your base built up along the river is hardly excessive labor..

75 wood every 3 day, its slavery!

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anyway I dont think you guys understand the problem with watermill and I dont care how you guys play so lets agree to disagree

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by 8faiNt:

anyway I dont think you guys understand the problem with windmills and I dont care how you guys play so lets agree to disagree

I've used them in more than 100 colonies. I think I understand everything about them, but whatever you say matey ;)

while im talking about early/mid game labor You're showing me your pre-late colony so I dont think you understand it

also

280 Wood at the start for watermill vs 75 wood every 3 days for wood generator.

Do I have to also highlight that you need to research for watermill? Also, you can guess it.. Mooreee Manpower in order to research the thing.

and of course watermill takes more space and protection unlike wood generator Im susp. of what you consider efficiency in this game.

avrg tree in this game yields to 27 Wood it will take only 3 Trees to get 75 Wood I guess you could cut down a tree every rimworld day? huh.

75 Wood every 3 days? Its slavery.. like i said.

so, whatever you say matey?