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[Paul]

I've seen all the mention of people building these big elaborate waterwheel based generators powered by screw pumps and breaking all the laws of physics. I've tried a few over time, but never really got into them. My favorite power generators have always been windmills, and the first thing I did when windmills came out was to design a complex compact windmill tower design. I have noticed a distinct lack of this construction in other fortresses, though. The largest windmill complex I've noticed is just a single level wad of windmills spanning a huge area.

So my question is, does anyone else build such ridiculous windmill towers as I? Or am I alone in my fondness for huge wind machines?

As an example of what I'm talking about, I uploaded a map to the DF map archive. I usually build one such generator (or more often the 25 windmill variety, it's just easier to make and usually 321 is adequate power) on every fort I make as my generator of choice.

One advantage is they require no fluid manipulation, and I don't believe they cause any lag - except maybe video lag if you're watching them.

So, does anyone else do this sort of thing?

[Rhenaya]

talking of breaking law of physics... then its no good idea to build a "windmill tower" downside

i really love surface castles, on first place because i can draft my entire dwarvenkind into masonary if they have no other jobs to do and on second to get rid of stones without dumping them.
so i often use windmill towers too. not everytime, because i always play with atleast a brook on the map and build a generator station on it (with no entrances and only from below accessable, but sometimes with catapult towers on it ^^).

i really like windmills, but sometimes they are not really reasonable (no wind or only 20 power per mill)

[Paul]

Haha, I know the underground windmill breaks physics too. I usually build mine above ground, actually. I just assembled it underground as a quicker exercise to make the example. Plus it's kind of funny to see a huge wind machine several levels underground, and I couldn't resist using such a ridiculous thing as an example.

[Moon Label]

So my question is, does anyone else build such ridiculous windmill towers as I? Or am I alone in my fondness for huge wind machines?

I usually don't use waterwheels because the most geographically secure site (where I place my fortress in the beginning) is usually far away from the low-laying rivers and brooks.

But I don't make giant towers, though.

[Hypcso]

An interesting idea, although that seems like an overabundance of power, and somewhat of a mess to distribute properly. I've got a few just plain 2 windmill " boxes " set up to power the pumps to my aqueduct at the moment, and i've noticed that with the gearboxes hooked up to a lever and set to " off " my windmills spontaneously deconstructed. It was rather weird. Have you ever had something like that happen?

[motorbitch]

underground wind mills wuld not necessarily brake physics.
when there is a vent , tunnels can generate quilte strong air steams. especially, if the air is getting heated (from magma, exemplarly).
of cause, such a air tunnel wuld need a intake, a heating area, and a quite high chimney.

[Duke 2.0]

 With the limited things we can do with power, I never really use power much. Once I made a building including my entire milling operations next to a river with waterwheels, but that's it.

[Captain Xenon]

hmm, interesting.. so basicly this is about building a pattern of windmills at different heights, so you can pack them closer together, spaced for the most compact solution...   yeah, that looks like a nice idea. i did notice they were a number of shafts there open to sky, does each windmill need to be open to sky at its center? cause flooring over the top isnt much of a problem in the current version.

i like the idea of a windy chasm... the trick here, is some maps have no wind (ive seen a few), which can be a problem.

[Aggiedog]

I love the compact windmill design. I usually put mine on top of my towers (Also look realistic).

[Skanky]

I've got a few just plain 2 windmill " boxes " set up to power the pumps to my aqueduct at the moment, and i've noticed that with the gearboxes hooked up to a lever and set to " off " my windmills spontaneously deconstructed. It was rather weird. Have you ever had something like that happen?

Anything using a gear as a support will get deconstructed when that gear is turned off. If you place another gear between the support gear and the rest of the power distribution system and connect that gear to a lever, the system can be turned off safely without things collapsing.

[unobtaniumman]

Dude, I can't even get windmills to grind my wheat yet. pulling off an engineering feat like that would knock my pig tail socks off.

Really, open space channelled right over the mill, windmill is getting power, what is wrong here?

[Paul]

The way windmills work is they need the center square to be outside. As long as the center square is outside, the rest can be underground. Thats the idea behind my tower, it overlaps them on Z levels but still leaves the centers open to air. All the shafts going up to the surface are the center of a windmill below, capping them off with a constructed floor would shut off power to that windmill.

I can't see a way to get it any more compact, really. I also use a 2 level design that is a little bit less compact but still produce a lot of power and is easier to build. I just have windmills in rows with 1 space between, and in that space theres a vertical axle that allows windmills to be built on the level above, overlapping the edges.

Building such a complex windmill as the one in the example isn't actually that hard, though. For a surface construction you just have to build a couple of rows of up/down stairs leading to the top, build all your axles, then start building the windmills. I work from the top down for the windmills, deconstructing stairs as I go. Once I reach the bottom I can remove the rest of my stairs and have the structure completely supported by the axles.

I usually build the smaller 9x9 version, though. I actually have no fort currently using the behemoth I built in the example, I just built it as a quick example to show the concept. Even on low wind maps the 9x9 gives you 321 power, which is enough to power a good sized pump system and still have enough left over to pipe it over to your grain mills.

If you built the large version on a high wind map, I honestly don't know what you would do with the 1604 power. The only way you could use that up would be to have gear boxes and pumps and shafts all over the place. When more mechanical devices that use power are implemented it will become necessary to build such large power generators. For instance, if traps all required 10 power, players would need a good sized generator to power the standard trap hall setup.

[d3c0y2]

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3247-shipdip

thats how my windfarms usually there, thats not the biggest ive built, but If I need more I make more modules coming of the central gear shaft.

[Paul]

Wow, your design is basically the opposite of mine. More space, longer axles.

You must be on a high-wind map to be able to power anything with that, I count 110 power used just transfering the power from the mills to the pumps. On a 20 power per mill map you'd be getting a net power of -25. It takes a high wind map just to make it do anything, and even then you only have 30 left over to do anything else. You could've built one mill above the pumps with a shorter axle/gear system connecting them and have it all run on 1 mill

I do admit that it looks nice, though. Heh.

[Lalandrathon]

I've got a few just plain 2 windmill " boxes " set up to power the pumps to my aqueduct at the moment, and i've noticed that with the gearboxes hooked up to a lever and set to " off " my windmills spontaneously deconstructed. It was rather weird. Have you ever had something like that happen?

Anything using a gear as a support will get deconstructed when that gear is turned off. If you place another gear between the support gear and the rest of the power distribution system and connect that gear to a lever, the system can be turned off safely without things collapsing.

And in the rare case that adding another gear to the system will exceed your power requirements, simply place a switched gear next to an existing gear, and when the assembly is switched on, the additional power requirement will stall the system.

That's also a good technique if you want a lever that turns one machine on and another machine off at the same time, just add enough assemblies connected through the switched one that it will stall out the system when turned on.