Anyone else find mills not worth it?

[Moisn Dragovich]

So I got mills and started converting from 6 mortars to about 8 watermills and started having flour issues, converting back to mortars instantly fixed the issue. I think part of it was the distance difference, but also an issue with AI inventory space and priority. I kept having an issue of old people who could only carry 2 grain dropping off but then someone else having to bring the last one and start milling then having the same issue come up again where a single flour would be dropped on the ground. This leads to an issue where something that should grind flour with 1/3 of the labor ends up taking longer and more labor than just mortars.

Again, it might partially be an issue with travel time but even so, mortars provide the same grain to flour conversion without needing to worry about the placement of granaries near water or issues with AI priorities. Mills should probably have a better reason to use them outside of just a better on paper labor conversion.

[pdoan8]

I will keep using mortar in the area far from watermill.

[buds]

I just wanted it because it looks nice and if I have grains near rivers (rivers are more realistic to place it). But as pdoan8 said I use almost all mortars nearby granaries which are nearby grain fields and I have no issues with flour.

But my game doesn’t rely on bread so mortars or hydropower’s are just for emergencies or if my meats (majority), legumes and fish are not stable yet. Grains are mostly used after straw are depleted. It seems like mortars are also favorable to the villagers but distances equates too.

It’s the same as oven, I only make 1 oven abd the rest are all hearths fir bread production.

Mathematically hydropower and ovens are productive than mortars & hearths respectively but space and distances are imo bigger factors to consider.

[Mk Z]

i agree mills are useless in the current form
i think they should work automatically and continuously, without the human supervision. villagers just bring in the grain and take out the flour. a mechanic similar to that of the drying rack, but grain uints are processed not simultaneously but consequentially.

[Tribe11]

I wouldn't call them useless, if your settlement is close to water you can free up a little space inside your walls by using them instead of mortars, and production does seem to be quicker. But I usually keep the flour production limit to 20 units until I get a population of 100+, as raw grain takes longer to decay than flour and bread, and high flour production increases the workload unnecessarily. But it's always good to have production capacity in case your food starts to drop off.

[threethreethree]

...(rivers are more realistic to place it)...

It can be put in a lake and work? I assumed it needed a river. I have no rivers where I'm at so I never bothered with it.

[Tribe11]

Lol, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I have placed them on a lake, and they do work. For some reason, it seems that on river maps, there are lakes, but if you're on a lake map, there are no rivers. So on half the maps, it would just be a pointless waste of KP to get hydropower unless they worked on lakes, which is why they do? I guess?