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[Hans Lemurson]

Millstones require a more complicated setup than Querns, since they are mechanically powered, but does this power actually get you anything?  Milling at a millstone seems to take just as long as a quern.  Maybe my millers just suck.  Has anybody done any research on this?

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I myself have now done research on this.  I will try to keep this first post updated with the latest results.
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January 2023
In v50.05, a Dwarf at a Millstone is about 10x faster than at a Quern.

[delphonso]

Not that I know of, but it seems easy enough to test.

[Schmaven]

Not that I know of, but it seems easy enough to test.

I reckon you could get a single mill plant task to be undertaken at each, then follow the dwarf, pause the game, and advance 1 tic at a time and count how many key presses it takes them to finish.  Finding dwarves of equal skill may be tricky, but should be possible.

Legend has it mills are faster, but I've yet to confirm that.

[delphonso]

I may give this a shot if no one else does - after my succession fort obligations. If they are the same speed, dwarves may also gain some benefit in mood from using a millstone, or some other benefit that goes unnoticed.

[mightymushroom]

The wiki says milling jobs involve the strength, agility, endurance, and kinesthetic sense attributes, so try to control for that in the tests.

One would expect fitness to make little difference when using millstones, but this is Dwarf Fortress and these things show up in odd places.

[Hans Lemurson]

Hmm...testing the advantages of mechanical power will be a lot easier to perform if I don't do it in a windless desert.

[Hans Lemurson]

Ok, actual testing done now:

For Mill Plants to make flour, the Millstone is about 2-3 times faster than the Quern.  It's very obvious to see.
For Mash plants into slurry there is no difference.  This was what first raised my suspicions.
For Mill Seeds/Nuts into Paste, the Millstone seems slightly faster. When the millstone-worker started second, he would finish first, but they both took a similar amount of time.  Maybe 20-30% quicker? Tough to say for sure.

Everybody was a novice miller or novice paper-maker.  I didn't really control for physical attributes, but it didn't seem to make much difference in the few tests I did.

[delphonso]

Hmm...testing the advantages of mechanical power will be a lot easier to perform if I don't do it in a windless desert.

Classic DF play.

An interesting find. You may consider bug reporting that, as that seems...unintended.

[Blue_Dwarf]

I didn't really control for physical attributes, but it didn't seem to make much difference in the few tests I did.

You can simply reload the save and swap them to see if the result is the same.

[Quietust]

One other difference that I recall from older versions (i.e. 40d) is that continuous quern operation would cause a dwarf to become Tired and then Exhausted (just like when operating a screw pump) but that a Millstone would not. I'm not sure if that's still a thing today, but it ought to be.

[PatrikLundell]

Hmm...testing the advantages of mechanical power will be a lot easier to perform if I don't do it in a windless desert.

Classic DF play.

An interesting find. You may consider bug reporting that, as that seems...unintended.

What's there to report? The available wind is dependent on the latitude, resulting in full, limited, and no power produced, with no variation over time and no dependence on weather. It's been that way for many years, and is probably documented on the wiki.

[Hans Lemurson]

Hmm...testing the advantages of mechanical power will be a lot easier to perform if I don't do it in a windless desert.

Classic DF play.

An interesting find. You may consider bug reporting that, as that seems...unintended.

What's there to report? The available wind is dependent on the latitude, resulting in full, limited, and no power produced, with no variation over time and no dependence on weather. It's been that way for many years, and is probably documented on the wiki.

I think what he was referring to was the (possible) bug that mechanical power has no effect on pulp-making.

One other difference that I recall from older versions (i.e. 40d) is that continuous quern operation would cause a dwarf to become Tired and then Exhausted (just like when operating a screw pump) but that a Millstone would not. I'm not sure if that's still a thing today, but it ought to be.

  Maybe I should test that too.  Check to see how long it takes for a single dedicated quern-user to get tired, and see if that happens with millstones.  I wonder if quern-usage enhances strength...

[delphonso]

I think what he was referring to was the (possible) bug that mechanical power has no effect on pulp-making.

Yeah, that was my intention. I see how it is poorly laid out, though, Patrik.

[Hans Lemurson]

15 months later...

Experiments in v50.05
I decided to do some tests again because I noticed that my Quern was milling Dimple Dye really slowly.  Like really slow.
I timed a milling job and it took over 10 days to complete.  Another job done by a very weak dwarf took about 12 days to complete.

For comparison, using a Millstone, a dwarf could grind up blue mushroom powder in just 1 day!

Powered Millstones are even better than when I tested them before.
I have not yet compared other milling jobs like Paste and Slurry.

I also decided to check out stat increases, and my weak dwarf, Feb, after spending 12 days at the Quern, had her strength increase from 867 to 873.  About 1 point every 2 days.  Didn't check other stats.

[feorh]

1 tic at a time

How do I do that in steam?