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[Jeoshua]

I searched, okay.  It's been mentioned but theres never been a dedicated thread for it, so far as I can tell.

This would be a great tag for custom workshops.  With it, whole new kinds of devices could be generated.  Treadmills, Water Reactors, NUCLEAR reactors (requires pitchblende, maybe uranium, and water).  But that's not all.

It could be used as a balancing mechanic on other workshops, requiring that they be linked up to some mechanical power source, in order to function.

And the beautiful part is, it wouldn't be all that hard to implement.  The mechanics are already in the game, so to speak.  All that's required is the tags and a way to check whether a workshop is powered, and the last part is already there as Mills clearly indicate.

What do you all think?

[IT 000]

Supported.

[neek]

I think this is a good idea, if the idea is for pushing windmills and watermills to raws, and allowing players to define their own power sources and power-based workshops. On the surface, this just creates new mechanisms for fortresses that Toady doesn't have to implement himself, such as steam engines (so we won't need to worry about the programmer's fiat about such things--modding, of course, does pull a lot of allure toward the gamer's base), and it also implies that additional power sources (such as draft-animals pulling a gearbox for a millstone) can become more a possibility.

But never assume that anything is that easy--Mills are probably hard-coded into the game, to the point that transferring them to the raws might be a more difficult venture.

[Jeoshua]

Perhaps "easy" would be the wrong way to put it.  The Mill, rather, proves that it CAN be done, in the first place.  Asking for something like [RADIOACTIVE] or [CREATES_BABIES] would be different, as there is nothing in any workshop that does this already.  But power? This is done already, so it becomes more likely to be possible.

The thing that I like the most about the idea is the ability to cannonize various player-created devices such as the Dwarven Water Reactor.  Or maybe create a "Magma Generator" that requires magma beneath it and makes power.  This can already partially be done, but having a custom workshop to generate the power would make pump stacks much easier to set up.

[Quietust]

Building tokens [NEEDS_WATER] and/or [NEEDS_FLOW] would also be nice. As an added bonus, allow restricting it so the water (or magma) must be underneath a specific workshop tile.

[antymattar]

I kindof hate the idea of having uranium reactors. WTH!? Anyway... 

I support the idea(because everybody does) and I have a few tags that I want to suggest myself.

[REQUIRES CAGED BENING]-It would require an animal that is caged and/or tame/good to run the device. This allowws to make treadmills and mule axels(those things with the donkey running around.)
[REQUIRES CAGED SMART] It would require an INTELEGENT caged creature to opperate it. This means that we can finally have slaves elves help you with your chores.
However, you would also have to take care of the caged creatures.

[GENERATES FLOW] As what Quitust said, this would make the machine GENERATE a flow

[Jeoshua]

The Nuclear reactor was merely an example of a complex thing that ONE tag could make possible.  Not a suggestion of something Toady should add.

Although I can see caged beings being used as reagents, I absolutely would not support their incorporation into the design of a workshop.  Especially intelligent ones.  That would require slavery, which is a whole new ballgame, and against Dwarven ethics.  Given that Dwarves are the focus of the game, and most likely to make anything mechanical, having intelligent slave labor as part of a mechanical system is, as far as I can tell, out of the question entirely.  Animals maybe.  Sentients never.

That doesn't stop Dwarven Power generation, which is one of the things this suggestion as originally stated would imply the possibility of.  Dwarf works at the workshop, generates power.  Simple and effective.

[Setharnas]

Supported. Additional suggestion: [DRAINS_POWER:x] for power transmission, like axles use up one unit of power right now.

[narhiril]

Although I can see caged beings being used as reagents, I absolutely would not support their incorporation into the design of a workshop.

I would like to see caged beings as products.  FABRICATE_MECHANICAL_GUARDIAN, anyone?  This idea was tossed around for alchemy in LFR, but was cut do to being impossible.

Also, these power tokens are a fantastic idea.  I would love to use these in a workshop that mass-produces blocks from stone.

[Jeoshua]

A better way to implement THAT might just be to allow creation of creatures in general.  No need to specify their mechanicity.  If creatures were allowed as reagents and products, one could even do such things as making a "clono-mat" to create clones.

But that's kind of a different suggestion, altogether.

[IT 000]

[REQUIRES CAGED BENING]

Perhaps [REQUIRES CAGED BENING:x] where x is the minimum size of the animal. This way war cats can't be used to power a millstone.

[Jeoshua]

Or maybe weight * strength * some_kind_of_constant = power generated

[Demonsul]

Should we be discussing the fine points of the modding possibilities? We ought to campaign to get the tags in first.

Thoroughly supported, by the way.

[Dutchling]

I like it.
I won't use it myself but it would be great to play genesis with this

[kaenneth]

I think the issue of the units of power needs to be defined as well, right now power sources generate a constant flow of power when active (windmills, waterwheels when places in flowing water), lets call that 'UPF' (Urists per Frame) without consuming any resources, while other sources of power, such as a wood/coal powered steam engine, or one run by a creatue that requires food, would generate a limited amount of Urists per unit of fuel, with a min/max limit of UPF.

So, using a steam engine with arbitrary numbers as an example, 1 unit of fuel + 1 unit of water produces 100000 U's of power, which is retained in a counter in the engine, which can be extracted from the engine at a rate of 100 UPF for 1000 frames, or 10 UPF for 10000 frames; whenever the buffer is empty enough to hold another round of power, hauling jobs for the fuel/water are generated if the engine is active; deactivating the engine empties the buffer, and you lose the fuel/water used to generate it.

Building the Engine adjacent to water would remove the need for the water hauling job (although the water would evaporate, so it would need refilling/flow), adjacent to magma the fuel job. with both resources the machine can run on it's own.