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[Alrenous]

Vertical Axis Windmills

You can go pretty crazy with windmill design.

Modern version.

[Yarn]

Horizontal windmills major advantage over vertical is that it can catch the wind going in any direction.

Its major disadvantage that it needs to be manually started each time you want it to catch the wind well. Vertical windmills are self starting.

I'm not actually sure horizontal windmills would work for the same reason that a water wheel doesn't work when fully submerged in water; the current hits both sides.

They do look cool though.

the right side of my crappy drawing has less drag than the left side, that's how horizontal windmills would work.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

The sails on a horizontal windmill like the one in AoM are slanted in such a way they will spin no matter what, as the wind is directed up or down from the sails, as opposed to being flat like a water wheel underwater, where it would cancel itself out.

Essentially it works a bit like a screw.

[Lalandrathon]

However horizontal windmills are less efficient than vertical ones which is why they don't see a lot of use.

[Peewee]

... much like how windmills are less efficient than water wheels, which is why they don't see a lot of use (except in some low-water conditions).

[bamorrow]

Currently the wind only comes from one direction, and the usual animation of the windmill reflects the wind direction.  I believe the animation in the beginning reflects the fact that should the time come when changing wind patterns can happen on your map, the windmill will use that initial rotation to reset in the new direction of the wind.

If someone nailed this earlier, sorry I missed it as I skimmed past most of the snarkiness.