Why No Windmills

SabinSnake PS5#1 said:
Windmills are usually manufactured in a factory and not on a workbench. It takes special tools to put em together, that the game doesn't have. Then there's the PCBs that would be needed to operate the windmill, to control and regulate the electricity, another thing the game doesn't have since TFP deleted circuit boards.
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Do you have any idea the number of windmills at farms across the US were made at the farms on workbenches? Many were even made using scrap.
 
No one is talking about making the giant, bird-killing windmills. We're talking small scale like you might see at a house or farm. Traditionally used to pump water, mostly, but in this case used to generate electricity.
 
SabinSnake PS5#1 said:
Not modern turbine windmills we have today.
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And there is a reason I specifically said windmill and not wind turbine. You can make windmills that produce electricity with a generator. It is low power, but it is an option. And as I said, windmills (I'm not taking about wind turbines) are used in a lot of games for power, so I doubt anyone except purists or engineers would mind. And, yes, a *windmill* can be made without a factory.
 
Riamus said:
And there is a reason I specifically said windmill and not wind turbine. You can make windmills that produce electricity with a generator. It is low power, but it is an option. And as I said, windmills (I'm not taking about wind turbines) are used in a lot of games for power, so I doubt anyone except purists or engineers would mind. And, yes, a *windmill* can be made without a factory.
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Yeah, that's probably why TFP didn't add em, they're low power, inefficient, unreliable and obviously not as good as a gas generator, hence why they're not in the game.
 
There are many forms of windmills/turbines/generators. Some are giants exeding 1000ft, others are cute lil spinning blades on a sailing yacht.
If you check Youtube for off-grid solutions you'll find many small builds, using modified tumbledryer- or washing machine engines as generator and very efficient blades can be easy made from 2" pvc pipes. Or the vertical rotor variant, cut an oil drum in half and put the halfs together with an offset, so many DIY options that can be done in every backyards...
 
SabinSnake PS5#1 said:
Yeah, that's probably why TFP didn't add em, they're low power, inefficient, unreliable and obviously not as good as a gas generator, hence why they're not in the game.
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Why they didn't add them isn't what was being discussed. I even pointed out that they may not have added them because they don't want another power source. But you specifically said it wasn't possible, which isn't true. That then evolved into semantics over what a windmill is versus a wind turbine and I pointed out that many games use windmills (not wind turbines) as a power source and players don't mind, so that isn't a reason not to add them here. Whether or not they add they is up to TFP, but requesting them isn't a bad thing.
 
How about a "Wind Turbinemill"? :unsure:
I think that one would satisfy both parties, right? :sneaky:

In any case, if they added rivers back, we could talk also about Water Mills... ehrm... or maybe about Water Turbines? :confused:🤪
 
If we're talking about electricity generation, then it takes some game-world license to make the small "home-scale" wind turbines produce meaningful power beyond recharging a battery. In Arizona, you're going to go solar for electrical generation.

But aren't we ignoring the classic uses from the 1800s and 1900s? They could pump a decent amount of water in a day. They aren't the same design apparently for good reasons. It could become a dew collector alternative, maybe?
 
BrianAlso said:
How about a 30 ft draw bridge, that that’s being crafted😂😂😂
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Not quite a good comparison. A drawbridge is just a lot of planks or half logs connected to form the bridge and then ropes or chains with winches to lower and raise it (for unpowered). That's very different from trying to make a very long windmill or wind turbine blade. But even so, people have been making windmill blades at home for a very long time. What people are really complaining about is the difference between a windmill and a wind turbine. You won't craft a wind turbine at home and some aren't willing to accept that a game can treat a normal windmill that *can* be crafted at home as a power source even though a LOT of games do that.
 
BrianAlso said:
I have always had a thought. With all the items that can be crafted, Crafting tables, forge, drawbridge. Why no windmills for early game electricity… very low power, maybe high material cost… but something early game to get you going
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It's definitely low tier tech. You hook up some plywood wings to a washer dryer motor and done. It's shockingly simple and in the apocalypse, everything you need is literally in most houses. I think it should be a in the electrical magazine upgrade line. Currently there is so little early in electrical. Make it so it only generates power during storms to give it the handicap it needs early game, but you don't get traps for quite a while so really all you'd be using it for is lighting week 1.

I'd say;

Wiring 10 - You should know how to hook up a battery to a switch and power a light
Wiring 15 - Make a windmill
Wiring 25 - Is the generator bank, light, switches

I say this as someone who literally never wired an outlet in my life prior to building the house I now live in last year. Wiring up a battery/switch/light is Kindergarten level concepts compared to building a generator. There is no pay off early game for this path.
 
Riamus said:
You won't craft a wind turbine at home
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I think the key word there is craft. Given there are home wind turbine kits available today, I think its reasonable that you could assemble a wind turbine. I mean, in the game right now you cannot craft lead-acid batteries or solar cells. (The solar cells to me is interesting because even today nobody assembles their own solar panels.) But in the game you can assemble a 4x4 or a solar panel if you found the key pieces.
 
zztong said:
I think the key word there is craft. Given there are home wind turbine kits available today, I think its reasonable that you could assemble a wind turbine. I mean, in the game right now you cannot craft lead-acid batteries or solar cells. (The solar cells to me is interesting because even today nobody assembles their own solar panels.) But in the game you can assemble a 4x4 or a solar panel if you found the key pieces.
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Yeah, if they had kits, that would be different.

warmer said:
It's definitely low tier tech. You hook up some plywood wings to a washer dryer motor and done. It's shockingly simple and in the apocalypse, everything you need is literally in most houses. I think it should be a in the electrical magazine upgrade line. Currently there is so little early in electrical. Make it so it only generates power during storms to give it the handicap it needs early game, but you don't get traps for quite a while so really all you'd be using it for is lighting week 1.

I'd say;

Wiring 10 - You should know how to hook up a battery to a switch and power a light
Wiring 15 - Make a windmill
Wiring 25 - Is the generator bank, light, switches

I say this as someone who literally never wired an outlet in my life prior to building the house I now live in last year. Wiring up a battery/switch/light is Kindergarten level concepts compared to building a generator. There is no pay off early game for this path.
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I suppose having the ability to use a single battery connected to a light would be a possible option, though I'm not sure if it's really worth it. In most cases, I never get a battery more than a short time before I have the lights and generator unlocked anyhow since they aren't too common until you can scrap cars and unless I find a wrench early, I'm not scrapping cars early. But I think it could still be interesting and perhaps be a nice option for adding lights somewhere other than your main base or horde base without having to use gas.
 
Riamus said:
Not quite a good comparison. A drawbridge is just a lot of planks or half logs connected to form the bridge and then ropes or chains with winches to lower and raise it (for unpowered). That's very different from trying to make a very long windmill or wind turbine blade. But even so, people have been making windmill blades at home for a very long time. What people are really complaining about is the difference between a windmill and a wind turbine. You won't craft a wind turbine at home and some aren't willing to accept that a game can treat a normal windmill that *can* be crafted at home as a power source even though a LOT of games do that.
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wasn’t trying to relate to “real life” as why a windmill could be done, especially if you can craft a drawbridge. Which works in the way you didn’t explain🤣
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warmer said:
It's definitely low tier tech. You hook up some plywood wings to a washer dryer motor and done. It's shockingly simple and in the apocalypse, everything you need is literally in most houses. I think it should be a in the electrical magazine upgrade line. Currently there is so little early in electrical. Make it so it only generates power during storms to give it the handicap it needs early game, but you don't get traps for quite a while so really all you'd be using it for is lighting week 1.

I'd say;

Wiring 10 - You should know how to hook up a battery to a switch and power a light
Wiring 15 - Make a windmill
Wiring 25 - Is the generator bank, light, switches

I say this as someone who literally never wired an outlet in my life prior to building the house I now live in last year. Wiring up a battery/switch/light is Kindergarten level concepts compared to building a generator. There is no pay off early game for this path.
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Batteries run out of power, and a windmill could either power lights a or very slowly build the battery life. Would be a substitute for gas generators, but agree with a lot you wrote… could even have low output without storms… and storms could “fast charge”
 
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