Alternative, smaller scale windmill option.

[Thalius]

I came across a photo of some very old windmills, the design of which has apparently been in use for nearly 1000 years in Iran. 

Made entirely of natural materials such as wood, straw, and clay, and used for grinding grain into flour, I immediately pictured them fitting right into the VS world and wanted to mention them here.

I suggest a new windmill model be added- one that cannot be made too large or provide too much power, and is best suited for running a single quern. 

It would serve as a simpler windmill option one might place somewhere above a room that functions as a mill, and only provides enough power to dependably grind grain on a small scale, or possibly run a single helve hammer at a more measured pace- one or the other at a time, not both.

 

Humbly offered for consideration...
~TH~

[Hal13]

actually these CAN be scaled up (or down) similar to the ones we already have in the game, depending on the materials used and the length of that axle, similar windmills are used today to generate electricity. problem is you need to somehow direct the wind through them, in the picture that's what the curved walls are for (todays equivalent instead curve the sails to get the same effect).

And they don't have to be above the quern either, nor do they need to be vertical. Theoretically the windmill would have to check for placed blocks around it in the correct shape (at least if implemented like the ones you've shown), but theoretically it would make a difference if one builds the windmills we have in the game facing the direction of the wind or not... one could just slate the sails a bit to accomodate for that. either like these:

https://www.naturalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2018/08/Vertical-Wind-Turbine.jpg

https://amc.stust.edu.tw/Sysid/amc_en/01.png

(This one should be buildable with the sails we have in game already)

 

or like this:

https://i0.wp.com/www.german-way.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/715px-Moderne-Weihnachtspyramide-Krippe.jpg?resize=715%2C1023&ssl=1

(This one could additionally even be powered by making a fire under it, ignore the christmas decoration i only needed something to show the principle)

Edited November 24, 2021 by Hal13

[allstreets]

I'd love a small scale windmill option, and the design of these looks very interesting! I wouldn't mind the current windmill size too much if it wasn't the biggest thing in the game, especially with full set of sails...as it is it feels almost inappropriately advanced to have on my little farms just so I can pulverize alum for dying clothes.

I believe Tyron mentioned adding in some wind direction randomization in 1.16, but it'd be interesting to have some more geography-specific wind directionality that influenced windmill building as well.

Edited November 24, 2021 by allstreets

[Thalius]

@Hal13 Thanks for sharing all of that info.  I do not know much about these windmills; just thought they looked interesting, and they sparked a few thoughts leading to the suggestion I offered.

 

I would not want a new windmill type that replaced the current ones we have.  My suggestion would be to add a simpler, small scale windmill of a different aesthetic design for us to play around with.

[Hal13]

14 hours ago, Thalius said:

I do not know much about these windmills

me neither i only knew them because of Future without people (or whatever the english title is) where they've shown a huge billboardlike digital ad (not sure if that was in NY or Tokyo) that possibly will be the last electrical device which will turn off, because it's powered by some vertical shaft wind turbines integrated into the frame.

14 hours ago, Thalius said:

I would not want a new windmill type that replaced the current ones we have.

Adding options doesn't mean getting rid of others the vertical shaft windmill definitely would be more expensive to expand than the one we already have, but depending on type wouldn't care much about wind direction, it's possible that it generates a little less power and that the power gained by expanding it would decrease. That would give both a nice big niche, the ones we have already would be depending on wind direction (though theoretically the German christmas pyramid shows it could be used vertically and firepowered not only on a horizontal axle and wind powered, i mean sure hot air floating up is kinda wind and would even generate wind in a horizontal direction additionally) relatively cheap to expand and generating a bit more mechanical power, the vertical shaft ones would kinda generate power no matter where the wind blows, but to get the same output as the directional one you might need more material and place to build it.

Depending on what type got implemented the same models (with different textures and recipes) could be used for watermills, killing 2 birds with 1 stone...

[TooSalty123]

I think this and maybe some kind of waterwheel would add a lot of aesthetic variety since sometimes regular windmills can look a little out of place in builds.