water/rain changes, pooling, flooding and drought that would also make waterwheels balanced and logical to have in the game

[Parco]

I've already enjoyed a few hundreds of hours in this game and also included various mods to my playthroughs to get the gameplay more how i like it, something i have wanted to see in the game is waterwheels and I do see its already been suggested and even a mod for it, but the problem with waterwheels is that it quickly will be a constant source of consistant power with how water mechanics currently work, which would make it way too superior to windmills to the point of invalidating it(unless power is very nerfed for waterwheels which wouldnt be realistic) as windmills aren't always a consistent source of power due to weather and rather expencive to build, so my idea is to make waterwheels also depend on the weather(and thus also affected by biome) with some changes in water mechanics that i think shouldnt impact performance too much.

So my idea for how water mechanics could be changed to:

• water blocks drain itself if its flowing
  • 1 full water source is 10 liters(since bucket creates a full water source block)
    • maybe uses 1 minute irl to drain 1 litre from the source block
  • a flowing watersource will check its area for water around itself and above itself in a cone shaped detection range in order to consume them to add to itself for increased flow timer
    •  water contained/encased in hard solid matter wont be drained. soil, gravel, sand and other blocks such as cracked stone blocks wont trap water 
  • a full water source block that isnt flowing still gonna give a bucket of water without draining the waterblock
• rain create a invisible layer ontop of blocks 
  • these water layers quickly dissapears once rain stops
  • isnt targetable by player(maybe only in creative mode with a special item equipped)
  • nearby flowing waterblocks absorbs these water layers and adds extra time to its longlivity
  • during rain in an area the game runs a quick check layer by layer(from below to top) to see which water layer is the best potential to become a source block, which is most heavily decided by its proximity to water it can flow to
    • water layers that are trapped by blocks become a pool and become a type 2 watersource(more on that later)
      • water blocked by non solid blocks such as sand will drain on its own relatively quickly
• Type 1 and type 2 water source blocks
  • type 1 is standard water source blocks that never fully dissapears
    • it can still shrink in size and thus give less water in the bucket at each click and provide less moisture to nearby farmland during droughts/hot weather
    • can overflow during rain and flood nearby land, potentially destroying crops if proper drainage isnt considered
  • type 2 acts mostly like type 1 with some key differences
    • can evapurate fully when exposed to direct sun
    • bucket/containers will drain its water content
• flooding
  • if a full non flowing water source block recieves more water than its max (except from buckets) then a new type 2 water block spawns ontop of it
    • first the invisible water layer, if no absorbing blocks are nearby it'll become a visible layer of water
  • during heavy/prolonged rainfall ponds and lakes can become multiple blocks higher
    • this gives players opportunity to make dams and have a more prolonged and controlled waterwheels usage
  • destroys most vegetation it submerges
    • submerged farmland regain its nutrients faster
  • soft blocks(sand, soil and gravel) will become muddy whith prolonged exposure to full waterblocks
    • muddy blocks exposed to flowing water over prolonged time lose its muddy version
• Droughts
  • water will evaporate when directly exposed by sunlight
  • during extra warm temperatures all water will evaporate
    • only type 1 water sources will keep its lowest layer of water
      • this cant be collected by player without also removing the water source block
        • it then become invisible similar to rain layer water
          • its purpose to stay as type 1 is to collect rain water layers around it, i think this would be better for performance as then the world has to deal with less water blocks to calculate for
    • almost no moisture given to farmland
    • shallow ponds and lakes will become inhabitable for water creatures and theyll die
  • tossing hot object into water also drains the waterblock
  • here a potential to implement salt farming if the water is salt water

potentially, could make type 1 drainable/removable by buckets and other containers, then one couldnt have permanent sources in base for farming, leather crafting and such, then one would need to make water channels to transporting water if one want a more permanent access to water in base, which also opens up potential for implementing metalic plumbing and sewage/drainage systems to be needed for more complex bases. if one make a good dam and connect pipes(which would be expencive material vise) in order to get consistent access to water inside a base.

I do see one potential issue with this, and that is caves gonna end up having lots more water in them and some even permanent because of the lack of sunlight, but with cracked rocks i imagine thats gonna limit this issue as that will cause it to drain, but at same time gonna be somewhat realistic cavediving. Mining also gonna get a new challenge, floodings gonna make using older mines a bit more challenge so one has to think more ahead of how one constructs a mine. But again on a positive note, this would make it possible to make wells/underground water reservoire for more long term water storage. If thirst is ever introduced to the game then conserving water gonna be a key to survival, but i think if a thirst mechanic were to be added with how water currently works then it would feel like its just in a way as a gimming mechanic as water is plentiful almost anywhere

I did have some more points but forgot them, but i think i have explained my idea well enough to be understood, with this kind of water system then would potentially only need subtle changes to world generation in order to promote flow of water to certain areas, but i think should be quite workable even with how it currently is and dont think itll be too hard on performance, since the rain layers are basically invisible snow layers and will converge to/be deleted by much fewer water blocks.