Are windmills underpowered?

[sly800]

Hey guys, I started playing VS with a couple of friends some weeks ago and it has been an amazing experience, the game in very fun! We set up a water wheel early in the game as soon as we got iron and it has helped us a lot, it can easily power four querns to get us flour, lime etc or between 3-5 helve hammers with decent speed for or iron ingot/plate needs so we were very excited to set up a windmill closer to home (water wheel is a bit far away) in our second year since in the first one we coudn't get enough flax fiber. I built a tower going to 170 y since I read that's the height you get max wind speed bonus and we built two rotors with max sails (I made sure they were not interfering with each other) but the results were kind of disappointing. We can barely operate four querns at the same time and even just one helve hammer works super slow. Also lots of the time the windmills simply stop working because there is no wind. Idk if we screwed up the gears (my friend made a very simple design because we coudn't find many good tutorials) or if this is how it's supposed to work but I find it weird that the windmill is performing so poorly compared to the water wheel since it's way harder to set up. Would love to hear your opinions about the windmill and advice on how to make it work better if possible because I'm finding it pretty underwhelming right now taking in consideration how much time it takes to set up.

[williams_482]

A single windmill, assuming the maximum five sails, is definitely inferior to a waterwheel. Prior to 1.22 it was easy to combine four windmills in close proximity to get a large amount of power, but that became more difficult to do without very goofy aesthetics due to the new turbulence mechanic. Large windmills (the ones that require iron components) are supposed to make up for this, but in practice they are quite inefficient relative to spending the same amount of flax on regular windmills. 

The rough pros and cons for watermills vs windmills are as follows:

Watermills:

- more powerful

- constant power regardless of conditions

- no flax required

Windmills:

- can be built anywhere (although higher is better up to y170 and some regions seem to get more wind than others)

- no iron required

I think the general idea is for windmills to be a relatively inexpensive power source for smaller scale stuff wherever your starting base happens to be, while your primary industrial workshop (and probably your primary base) should be set up somewhere with at least one rapids source for water power. A waterwheel powered up-geared triple helve setup will be plenty for your smithing needs, and milling/pulverizing can be powered adequately by another water wheel if you're lucky or a couple widely spaced windmills if you aren't. 

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the game and forums! 

The main advantage of windmills is that they can output more power than a watermill, to an extent, and can be built anywhere. The main disadvantage is...if the wind isn't strong enough, you're not going to get much out of it. Watermills require you to build in a specific location and might be a little slower, but they provide constant power.

16 minutes ago, sly800 said:

We can barely operate four querns at the same time and even just one helve hammer works super slow. Also lots of the time the windmills simply stop working because there is no wind. Idk if we screwed up the gears (my friend made a very simple design because we coudn't find many good tutorials) or if this is how it's supposed to work but I find it weird that the windmill is performing so poorly compared to the water wheel since it's way harder to set up. Would love to hear your opinions about the windmill and advice on how to make it work better if possible because I'm finding it pretty underwhelming right now taking in consideration how much time it takes to set up.

I recommend double-checking your setup; there's probably something wrong with how everything is linked together. A single full windmill should be able to operate a helve hammer or turn a quern without any issues, as long as the wind is blowing. However, if the gears aren't set up correctly then it's very possible that the power being generated isn't actually making it to the machines. It's also possible that the gears could be set up correctly, but you might be trying to run everything at once and not be meeting the power requirements. Helve hammers take a lot of power; querns not so much, but four of them is still a pretty good load. If you don't have switches to shut off the power to the machines, you might want to try investing in some so that only the machines currently being used will receive the power.

[sly800]

16 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

A single windmill, assuming the maximum five sails, is definitely inferior to a waterwheel. Prior to 1.22 it was easy to combine four windmills in close proximity to get a large amount of power, but that became more difficult to do without very goofy aesthetics due to the new turbulence mechanic. Large windmills (the ones that require iron components) are supposed to make up for this, but in practice they are quite inefficient relative to spending the same amount of flax on regular windmills. 

The rough pros and cons for watermills vs windmills are as follows:

Watermills:

- more powerful

- constant power regardless of conditions

- no flax required

Windmills:

- can be built anywhere (although higher is better up to y170 and some regions seem to get more wind than others)

- no iron required

I think the general idea is for windmills to be a relatively inexpensive power source for smaller scale stuff wherever your starting base happens to be, while your primary industrial workshop (and probably your primary base) should be set up somewhere with at least one rapids source for water power. A waterwheel powered up-geared triple helve setup will be plenty for your smithing needs, and milling/pulverizing can be powered adequately by another water wheel if you're lucky or a couple widely spaced windmills if you aren't. 

Oh that's a bummer  I really like the aesthetics of a windmill and it woud be really useful to have it closer to home. The water wheel is not very far and we build a road connecting it to our main base but it's far enough to be kind of annoying when we need to make multiple travels or if we forget to bring something and only realize when getting there, but guess we will stick to it. We set up the gears so we can turn different appliances on and off according to our needs so it already have most of our needs met. Hope they make large windmills better in future updates so it becomes a viable alternative to water wheels. Thanks for the reply!

[sly800]

20 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the game and forums! 

The main advantage of windmills is that they can output more power than a watermill, to an extent, and can be built anywhere. The main disadvantage is...if the wind isn't strong enough, you're not going to get much out of it. Watermills require you to build in a specific location and might be a little slower, but they provide constant power.

I recommend double-checking your setup; there's probably something wrong with how everything is linked together. A single full windmill should be able to operate a helve hammer or turn a quern without any issues, as long as the wind is blowing. However, if the gears aren't set up correctly then it's very possible that the power being generated isn't actually making it to the machines. It's also possible that the gears could be set up correctly, but you might be trying to run everything at once and not be meeting the power requirements. Helve hammers take a lot of power; querns not so much, but four of them is still a pretty good load. If you don't have switches to shut off the power to the machines, you might want to try investing in some so that only the machines currently being used will receive the power.

We are already using switches (we set up in a way we can turn on the querns independently from the helve hammer and we can choose between turning 2 or 4 querns at the same time) but next time we play I'll double check if we're maybe losing power somewhere. But even ignoring the lack of power the amount of times we just don't get any wind is kind of frustrating, I wish that wind speed was more consistent when you build in higher altitudes. Thanks for the reply!

[coolAlias]

I've gotten good use out of both windmill types, but only once I maxed out the sails on the smaller one and got to 4-5 or more on the larger.

Of course, they still require wind, so output is variable, but as long as there is at least 50% wind I've had plenty of power for my needs, enough so that I haven't even started to use rapids despite having already made a water wheel and hooked it up to a helve hammer (which goes really fast) - I simply haven't felt the need to move over there yet.

Also, I'm only using it to run a single quern, helve hammer, or other mechanism at once, which is plenty for myself in single player, so YMMV.

[ArgentLuna]

Windmills are fine, you are wanting too much from what you have is all. 

[CastIronFabric]

There is a thread title something similar to this:

'Are waterwheels overpowered?'

Windmills have been in the game for 6 years while the latest changes to mechanical power have been in the game for I think 6 months.

Although you can not run 4 windmills (standard size) next to each other anymore, I have found the single 5 sail windmill to be the same usefulness as it has been for at least as long as I have been playing for a 1 1/2 years.

 

[Oktin]

For past years we had windmills, they were good for one person, maybe two if wind blows steadily
However it falls very fast in less windy environments and outright fails with more people in the settlement
From that point there were two ways: build more or upgrade to eventually quadmill so it can keep up with work piled up after breaks in power
But even then if both cases are true it won't be enough anyway - no point for those flax fields, trips for resin and saving fat if whole server has to grind in the workshop anyway

Now it's 1.22, water wheels came out and they're perfect! They actully help people lesser the amount of work they have to come through to equip the whole server!
The big windmill however... it's only job is to look nice on those absurdly high towers... well, maybe they're good in singleplayer - I don't play it much so I cannot say if that's true or not

[Chuckerton]

I honestly feel like waterwheels are just too OP in comparison to windmills. I got lucky with two rapids near enough to use them both and i can gear up a single helvehammer twice and its ridiculously fast (i know eventually theyll catch fire when they add that). Even with one wheel it was really fast. I dont think windmills are bad, i just think the niche they would be good for doesnt really exist right now. I think they would be best as a backup mechanical power system for when your main "on demand" power generation is unavailable. I keep hoping for livestock driven mechanical power, so you can lead an ox or something to a thing that it can walk around to generate mechanical power, maybe at the cost of food. Then windmills would find a good spot as the "auxiliary power" option when the animals are too tired, for power setups that arent near rapids, instead of the ONLY power setup that isnt near rapids.

In the meantime, i just say explore until you find a rapids in a pretty area and setup there, but still make a windmill for things that arent "on demand", so grinding a chest of grain into flour or pulverizing stuff. Then you can save your waterwheel for helvehammers and grindstones. 

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Chuckerton said:

I honestly feel like waterwheels are just too OP in comparison to windmills. I got lucky with two rapids near enough to use them both and i can gear up a single helvehammer twice and its ridiculously fast (i know eventually theyll catch fire when they add that).

Maybe rapids spawn too frequently and need to be a more rare occurrence? That way watermills still remain strong, but are highly situational, lending more use to windmills and other power sources. Although that being said...I've found myself relying more heavily on windmills despite the frequency of rapids, since I don't always want to settle near rapids.

Personally, I find windmills a little less awkward to work with. Watermills are very handy, but it's possible to misplace the block or mess up the water flow. It's also a little awkward trying to deal with a lateral connection for multiple machines rather than connect a vertical shaft to a large gear and run everything off that.

[Chrondeath]

I lean towards "windmills are underpowered" over "watermills are overpowered", based on how the whole gear-ratio upgearing/downgearing mechanic feels....not usable with reasonably-constructed windmills.  At least for helvehammers, though I'm not sure why it feels to me like helvehammers are the only device that matters.  And then the latest patch (1) introduced the overheating mechanic, implying that they really do expect you to be overclocking things, and (2) made it even harder to get windmills to the point where they can overclock a helvehammer.

Though I also don't know if it's that interesting for the watermills to be able to just speed up immediately with no effort....not sure what I'm thinking would be more interesting.  Smaller gear ratios so the windmill can get there more plausibly?

[BurgerDaddy]

Gonna throw some reality at the conversation… not that reality and video game logic need to be one and the same… leads to bad gameplay often as not when that happens… but… we can take inspiration from real life at times and use it to design fun systems.

 

According to my quite limited knowledge of these things, a waterwheel that is high powered enough to run an 1800s era machine shop requires a significant pressure head, (or a lot of fast moving water and a LARGE wheel). The example I’m thinking of is at a historical site I used to do some volunteer work for. (Knights Foundry, Sutter Creek California.) They had pipes in the river with about a 400ft elevation change, which ended in a fire hose like nozzle aimed at the water wheel, which then powered an entire shop. This wheel is about 5ft diameter and made almost entirely cast iron parts, the inertia it carries when moving is insane. I know this is drifting a bit from the original topic, but I thought it would be neat if there was some system like this as a requirement instead of, or in addition to rapids. Crafting a bunch of pipes of some sort would become part of the task of creating the system of reliable power that a water wheel can deliver. Maybe an idea better suited for a mod, or some future time when rivers and elevation changes of flowing water have been more sorted out. Just sharing cause I think it’s cool stuff. 

[CastIronFabric]

10 hours ago, Chrondeath said:

I lean towards "windmills are underpowered" over "watermills are overpowered", based on how the whole gear-ratio upgearing/downgearing mechanic feels....not usable with reasonably-constructed windmills.  At least for helvehammers, though I'm not sure why it feels to me like helvehammers are the only device that matters.  And then the latest patch (1) introduced the overheating mechanic, implying that they really do expect you to be overclocking things, and (2) made it even harder to get windmills to the point where they can overclock a helvehammer.

Though I also don't know if it's that interesting for the watermills to be able to just speed up immediately with no effort....not sure what I'm thinking would be more interesting.  Smaller gear ratios so the windmill can get there more plausibly?

maybe to be more precise you mean you think high geared multiple windmills schemes is under powered. 

I get that, I typically do not do that and I think (although not sure) a standard single 5 sail windmill geared to 1:1 is exactly as it was before.

So maybe the best way to say it is, gearing and running multiple windmills has been nerfed. Yup, I think everyone can agree on that framing.

Edited June 21 by CastIronFabric

[Chrondeath]

4 hours ago, CastIronFabric said:

maybe to be more precise you mean you think high geared multiple windmills schemes is under powered. 

I get that, I typically do not do that and I think (although not sure) a standard single 5 sail windmill geared to 1:1 is exactly as it was before.

So maybe the best way to say it is, gearing and running multiple windmills has been nerfed. Yup, I think everyone can agree on that framing.

I'm not sure that's what I'm saying:

1. There is a mechanic to change gear ratios with a large gear to speed things up

2. They expect this mechanic to be used (apparently up to three times?!?) as evidenced by adding the overheating mechanic

3. A reasonably constructed watermill can make use of a large-gear-speedup

4. A reasonably constructed windmill *cannot* make use of a large-gear-speedup (at least, not for a helvehammer)

(Yes, it used to be possible for an *unreasonably* constructed windmill to produce enough power for a large-gear-speedup, and they nerfed that, but even if they hadn't, I would still say that windmills were underpowered *because* they require unreasonable construction to get there.)

[CastIronFabric]

59 minutes ago, Chrondeath said:

I'm not sure that's what I'm saying:

1. There is a mechanic to change gear ratios with a large gear to speed things up

2. They expect this mechanic to be used (apparently up to three times?!?) as evidenced by adding the overheating mechanic

3. A reasonably constructed watermill can make use of a large-gear-speedup

4. A reasonably constructed windmill *cannot* make use of a large-gear-speedup (at least, not for a helvehammer)

(Yes, it used to be possible for an *unreasonably* constructed windmill to produce enough power for a large-gear-speedup, and they nerfed that, but even if they hadn't, I would still say that windmills were underpowered *because* they require unreasonable construction to get there.)

I was just getting into semantics, not really important. For me 'windmill gearing has been nerfed' is easier for me to understand than 'windmills are unpowered' but I get it either way.

I think the reason my understanding goes as it does is because windmills have been around for 6 years and only in the past 6 months have they changed. So a statement regarding a change rather than a statement of 'state of existence' makes more sense to me, but I got your point.

Edited June 21 by CastIronFabric

[sly800]

On 6/20/2026 at 10:15 PM, Chrondeath said:

I lean towards "windmills are underpowered" over "watermills are overpowered", based on how the whole gear-ratio upgearing/downgearing mechanic feels....not usable with reasonably-constructed windmills.

Yeah I also lean more toward this idea of windmills being underpowered. Maybe waterwheels are a bit overpowered, but a feel like a heavy nerf would leave us to choose between two mediocre options instead of weighting the pros and cons of two viable options. Most people in this thread seem to agree that windmill is an earlier game option to waterwheels, and that may be true if you're talking about a single or double sail windmill, but full sail windmill (or even multiple windmills) require so much resources that I just can't see that as an early game option. Just thinking about the time it takes to grow the amount of flax to get 4 windmills with full sails really makes me think it should be at least competitive with waterwheels if not better. Idk if I play the game different than most people but by the time I have that much fiber I'm already way into the iron age with iron to spare

[CastIronFabric]

1 hour ago, sly800 said:

Yeah I also lean more toward this idea of windmills being underpowered. Maybe waterwheels are a bit overpowered, but a feel like a heavy nerf would leave us to choose between two mediocre options instead of weighting the pros and cons of two viable options. Most people in this thread seem to agree that windmill is an earlier game option to waterwheels, and that may be true if you're talking about a single or double sail windmill, but full sail windmill (or even multiple windmills) require so much resources that I just can't see that as an early game option. Just thinking about the time it takes to grow the amount of flax to get 4 windmills with full sails really makes me think it should be at least competitive with waterwheels if not better. Idk if I play the game different than most people but by the time I have that much fiber I'm already way into the iron age with iron to spare

I think this context when people say 'early game' what they really mean is 'first possible option' when it come to mechanical power. The iron requirements for both a large windmill and a waterwheel I think would be painful to do without the basic windmill. 

Just to be clear.