Temporal gears mechanical power?

[Trex_Crazy]

So the description on the gears says they turn with a constant level of inertia even when resisted. Which to my understanding it means that even if something will block it from moving (like a heavy stone gear that is theoretically too large and too heavy for the tiny gear to move) it would move at its constant rotational speed, and in turn move the larger stone gear, anyway. Thus meaning you could theoretically, with several temporal gears and many regular gears to make a gearbox/mechanical power generator that would require no resource upkeep? (ie wind, water, steam, etc.)

Or are the "raw" temp temporal gears you get from enemies and loot in a constant state of dimensional flux that they would simply pass through the other gear's teeth, slip, change its own dimensions size, etc. 

Whereas the other gears you see in use (Like the "large temporal gear") have been "refined" and/or stabilized this losing their temporal instability and being able to be used for machines but also losing the constant spinning property?

Edited May 18 by Trex_Crazy

[LadyWYT]

Temporal gears are an esoteric item that have yet to be explained, if they even are fully explained.

9 hours ago, Trex_Crazy said:

So the description on the gears says they turn with a constant level of inertia even when resisted. Which to my understanding it means that even if something will block it from moving (like a heavy stone gear that is theoretically too large and too heavy for the tiny gear to move) it would move at its constant rotational speed, and in turn move the larger stone gear, anyway. Thus meaning you could theoretically, with several temporal gears and many regular gears to make a gearbox/mechanical power generator that would require no resource upkeep? (ie wind, water, steam, etc.)

In theory I suppose you could, but that would be OP from a gameplay standpoint. 

From a practical lore standpoint, I've always chalked it up to the gears will prefer to spin slowly on their own, if they can, but it doesn't take much to actually stop them from doing so. Hence why they can be tied onto ropes and stop spinning, or why you don't find machines with lots of little gears powering everything in perpetuity rather than being powered by more traditional methods. The main advantage to using them in machines, I'm guessing, is that they're more resistant to wearing out, so they need a lot less maintenance and can handle more rigorous work than gears of lesser materials. The main disadvantage to using them, aside from unknown side effects, is that they're probably difficult to actually make, so using them everywhere on a machine might make that machine very efficient, but prohibitively expensive to actually build.

[Maelstrom]

On 5/18/2026 at 12:19 PM, LadyWYT said:

The main disadvantage to using them, aside from unknown side effects, is that they're probably difficult to actually make

Most likely need to have a good supply of prime materia on hand to infuse into a mundane gear.

[cjameshuff]

"Turn with a constant level of inertia" doesn't really mean anything...normal gears have a constant amount of inertia, and it doesn't depend on whether or how fast they're turning. Perhaps momentum is meant, but that's just the product of inertia and rotation rate, and since inertia is constant, that's just an indirect way of saying "at a constant rotation rate".

As a power source, that would mean they could supply theoretically infinite power, but the constant rotation rate means that as power output increases, so would force on the teeth mating with the gear and on the axles. Realistically, at some point, non-temporal gear teeth would shear and axles would bend/break, and the small size of the temporal gears would limit the useful power they supply. You could make a power supply that requires steel and high-precision tools (files and a lathe, maybe? Chisels quenched to a certain hardness? Case hardened gears?) and which puts out a strictly limited amount of power, breaking if overloaded...an expensive, late-game, limited but portable power source.