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[blue emu]

Has anyone posted this suggestion before?

How about adding Treadmills as a new source of Power? They might generate 10 + (Pump Operator Skill Level) in Power, active only while being operated. Require a Mechanism, one Log and one Chain to build.

Optionally, you could add a captured Goblin prisoner, to get a Slave Treadmill. This would only generate 10 Power (no modifier for skill), but would provide constant rather than intermittent power. Of course, if the Treadmill was somehow deconstructed (by a cave-in, for example), you would be facing a Sparticus-style Slave revolt, inside your Fortress.

[IT 000]

I would like to see a manual power controller. Not sure if I like the treadmill idea. Perhaps just a hand crank. The crank could be hooked up to a number of gears and it could lead back to the pump.

As far as the 10 power goes, the generator would have to be adjacent to the pump to actually move it, perhaps 15 this way it can be 5 tiles away to work.

[Girlinhat]

Or regular animals for this use, giving slightly less power.  15 for intelligent-manned, 10 for animal power.  The issue is power output Vs axle consumption.  A windmill may produce 20 power, but it needs 7 to get it anywhere.  That's how much power it takes to power the gear assembly beneath it and two axle segments, which is far enough to connect it to the next windmill and keep things moving.  That means that a windmill basically generates 13 power when it gets routed into the grid.  Then, however much that grid produces, you take out the axle cost and the mechanical cost.

It's not quite as dire as IT puts it though.  Since mechanical things transfer power between each other, you can support rows of treadmills.  If you use a windmill's area, and make 3x3 treadmills (assuming 1x1 per tread) you can get 90 power, but it costs workforce.  If they're 2x1 (and I don't see them being any bigger) you could still get 5 energy per tile, where windmills only give ~2.  Lines of treadmills leading to a single gear that connects them to the grid would be ideal, since every consecutive tread costs zero energy to add, and only bumps up the net energy.

[Buttery_Mess]

Animal powered mills would be cool. Having an ox turn around in circles about a millstone is funny and certainly has precedent in reality.

[anon_outlaw]

yeah, i like.

[NW_Kohaku]

Has anyone posted this suggestion before?

How about adding Treadmills as a new source of Power? They might generate 10 + (Pump Operator Skill Level) in Power, active only while being operated. Require a Mechanism, one Log and one Chain to build.

This sort of thing has Improved Mechanics written all over it.

Using ox-powered wheels (and additional uses for power) are fairly popular ideas, although putting goblins in giant hamster wheels is pretty amusing in and of itself. 

It wouldn't be that different from a current screw pump, either, since you can connect power to a screw pump, or power the screw pump manually, if you have an axle attached to a screw pump that is unpowered, you could just get the dwarf to run in and turn the screw pump, and supply some power, as well.

[Girlinhat]

You mean run the screw pump in reverse?  Have a dwarf man the pump to turn the axles?  That'd be pretty hot, but useless.  After all, you're usually trying to power the pumps, not power the windmills

[Buttery_Mess]

I've not tried it before because I didn't think it would work, but there are plenty of situations where you'd want to power a pump remotely with dwarf power. For example, a submerged pump.

[NW_Kohaku]

It would matter more if you had more actual uses for power, such as workshops that use power (which is currently possible), moving fortress pieces, and other things that are part of the improved mechanics thread - which is the whole point of the thread, ways to supply and use power.

[Girlinhat]

Wait, you can have workshops require power?

[Marshall Burns]

I think that's a typo for "impossible."

But, yes, I like this idea. But the power generated out to depend somewhat on the operator's (or operators') strength. Then you capture a cyclops, mod it to be tameable, and power your whole fortress with one mill. Yay!

[NW_Kohaku]

I think that's a typo for "impossible."

But, yes, I like this idea. But the power generated out to depend somewhat on the operator's (or operators') strength. Then you capture a cyclops, mod it to be tameable, and power your whole fortress with one mill. Yay!

Of course, the problem is that you can run your fortress indefinitely on the power produced by a couple bucketfuls of water currently, making any other system of power production completely moot.

[Marshall Burns]

Unless you consider perpetual energy water-reactors an exploit.

Besides, cyclops power is way cool

[Girlinhat]

Dwarves are rules by cool.  You give them an axe, and they throw it on the ground to distract the goblins while they build a magma pump.  Give us shiny new power systems and they'll be widespread.

[Naryar]

If there are treadmills, I want to see giant hamsters.

And why would an intelligent creature add more power ? The treadmills's power should be determined by the strength of the creature in it.