Base layout ?

[Krougal]

I've come up empty on searches and even watching vids. Sure, people build some nice elaborate buildings but I am just looking for a functional base design for when a single 7x7 room and a cellar starts getting cramped. I'm also struggling with mechanical power, which I figure the base needs to be anchored around since moving a windmill is labor intensive. I have read all the readable tutorials and posts I could find, as well as watched several videos. I am finding everything comes to a halt all too often.

Rotor is at 170 elevation. Full 5 sails. I've got the angled off the rotor feeding a large gear. At the bottom another large gear. Angled feeding quern on 1 side, pulverizer on the other. Everything has a transmission and clutch. For the helve hammer I have tried putting the angled gear on the bottom of the large for more torc (but then it is way too slow) and well as on the level with the faster devices(which means definitely can't run others at the same time) . I've also tried with and without giving the quern it's own large for more speed. Nothing seems to work consistently well. Sometimes I can run more than 1 device, sometimes not. Sometimes not even 1. Obviously I am not talking about periods of no wind, at least if the HUD is accurate. I am using https://mods.vintagestory.at/pelaguswinds which I am assuming is still going to report correctly (I know sometimes mods have their own systems that ignore the vanilla) and not do anything crazy with the wind or really do anything other than normalize it like it says on the tin.

Do we really need to spam windmills? I am not looking to make some massive industrial factory, just a dependable and efficient setup. Is it best to put each thing on it's own mill?

[Thorfinn]

[EDIT]

Re: "base" design, you be you. If you want multiple buildings, or a tower with multiple floors, or just adding on as you need more space, whatevs. The only real constant is you will probably want something that counts as a cellar. I rarely build more than 2 rooms -- a cellar and an ante-chamber where I can pour ingots.

Edited October 10, 2024 by Thorfinn

[Krougal]

Yeah, if I can only run 1 machine at a time, so be it. SP it isn't like there is a need to rush or mass produce anything. The main thing is not having to do it by hand.

As far as the base, the main thing that gives me pause with "over-building" is spawn-proofing. In Minecraft you spam torches and are done with it, but as we all know here we need a roof and we need to replace them regularly. And them lasting 3 days is bullshit, seems more like 1 and a half. Fat seems far too precious to waste spamming oil lamps excessively *at least before automation, this is even not shying away from regularly hunting big game) and making a lot of plates for lamps or holders before the helve hammer is pain and suffering.

Otherwise, yeah, I get it, most of this community is about building for aesthetics. I suppose if I get bored in winter or when I get to steel I will probably start chiseling too. Right now I'm just looking for efficient. 

 

[Andael]

I find plenty of sconces in underground ruins. However, you might be thinking of lighting a larger base than I am.

Base layout... it seems in every game I build into the environment. Never the same twice. In this case, I started in a tunnel: walled off the two openings, added doors. Over time fixed things up.

Main room functions as the kitchen, still kept most of the natural sandstone and granite cave walls. Bedroom in an alcove. A slightly lower area for crafting: crucible and clay. Front porch has crates of stone, barrels for compost, and some garden tools leaning. Blue clay shingles extend from the natural cave opening.

I have a small cellar (3x2) of ashlar blocks beside the kitchen area -- convenient to access for cooking, or for grabbing a meal from a crock. A tunnel runs through the mountain ridge I'm built into... which passes through a larger 7x7 room for tanning, brining, fruit juice, and distilling. This room formed as a side-effect of mining out granite blocks. Deeper along the tunnel I have a "temporal storm arena" with weapons, armor, and spawn-prevention except inside a fenced pit. Other side of the tunnel (south facing) exits into a greenhouse which I open during the summer for rainfall. A pigfarm is also  nearby.

A ladder goes up from the main room to the mechanized forge. Powered Quern, Helve Hammer, and Pulverizer. An iron anvil for smithing. From this raised forge, the windmill tower extends a bit higher. Elevation of the upper sails is only about 160 (I favor a reasonable aesthetic). I have two sails up there, plus one rigged directly into the forge's large-gear. The forge area is built into a natural ledge of the mountain slope -- basically I dug upward from my home until I emerged, then leveled it off, walled it up and added the shingled roof to match the roof down below. Having the forge area raised means I can barely hear the machinery working from the main room, plus the mechanical losses are less.

Overall look from outside is kind of like some mountain monastery integrated into the rock.

I get drifters moaning outside -- often get rifts up on the mountain slope above me, with drifters raining down. Annoying. I only get drifters inside in the prepared arena pit. Though during a storm I need to be in there to avoid getting ganked by something spawning behind me (twice I've had a corrupt do that in my kitchen -- I mean, spawning on my pie table!? Jerk).

 

[Krougal]

@Andael Thanks for sharing! Those are some good ideas. I find the tanning tends to take up most of a room too.

I actually put my fruit press in the cellar, it helps when you are multi-tasking household chores and forget you had a bucket waiting.

I really need a daily routine list, maybe only do some things on certain days. Mid-late game and I am finding I have trouble getting out of the house some days.

Also, been thinking since it's just Valheim that I think has conditioned me to consider smoke inhalation a thing, but there is no reason to not put your cooking pot in the cellar is there? Once again, I tend to forget I have stuff on the stove. 

Livestock is another pain point for me. I see you need to keep your chickens at least 11 blocks away and only check on their feed once in a while, at least until gen3. Then there are the sheep and pigs, which I have put in 1 pen, and seems ok, except it gets crazy when there are piglets. I even butchered the boar and sow, but as soon as a piglet grows up, he becomes protective too. Then I seem to have a problem with bears either climbing the fence or spawning in there and first thing they like to eat is the pregnant ewe, which pisses me off to no end. Should I just keep animals in a room too?

Edited October 11, 2024 by Krougal

[Maelstrom]

Smoke isn't a think in VS.  Well, it's just a visual thing indicating something is on fire, but otherwise smoke is meaningless.

For livestock management I segregate the offspring from the parents as soon as I can so that killing the parents is easier.  I make two pens of equal size separated by a multi-block gate.  put an upper slab in the fence line, leaving the lower half of the block empty (for kiddos to run through).  Be sure to use wood as sheep will climb the stone and escape the pen.  place a gate on either side of the slab to prevent offspring from running back to parents and maturing in the wrong pen.

[Apocalypse_Andy]

Yes, you really do need to run multiple windmills to get a useful power setup.  You could mod it will Millwright, it uses more materials for for bigger sails.  I do find it a bit more powerful by default then vanilla so I edit the .json to make them comparable. I usually run 2-3 helve hammers on a single anvil though.  There is no need to build the windmill that high, modded or not.  You are better off spending your time finding more flax than getting more resources for more axles.  You don't need to use the large gear if you only have one windmill.  It's a resource saver when you are just starting out, and you are probably already aware of this, but you can string the helve hammer, polarizer and quern off of the same gear.  I remember reading that the more parts you add to the system, the more it slows it down.  Height does still make up for a bit for this, but not enough to run one sail.  Good day.