Wind elevation bonus and surrounding penalty. And wind forecast

837 votes

For a more realistic windmill. It should have bonus from elevation. Maybe the game should calculate wind for each elevation differently. Higher elevation should have more consistent wind. And ground floor can be no wind at all

Also if there are too many things in the same elevation as the windmill it should decrease efficiency. Maybe checking 9x9 block in the same elevation around the sail to count number of block to decrease effeciency

Also wind speed each day should be available in forcast

Under consideration Game mechanics Suggestion Suggested by: Thaina Yu (17 Sep, '21) • Upvoted: yesterday • Comments: 36

Comments: 36

17 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin
"win tester and windmill" (suggested by dylan on 2021-09-16), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
17 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin
"Insights in the Windmill." (suggested by DeBeeR on 2021-09-16), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
17 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou
Oh, I really like forecast idea, we already discussed before weather prediction building (maybe using research points to operate) it would play along nicely!
17 Sep, '21
Paul Merged
I put windmills on the peak near the starting area, and they were no more powerful than the sea level windmills.

I would love it if the windmills gave more output the higher they are - after all we need to make expensive items to transfer power between levels, so let's make this effort worthwhile!
17 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin
"Windmils shoud scale their output with altitute, as well as with wind." (suggested by Paul on 2021-09-17), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
20 Sep, '21
Thaina Yu
Additionally I want to propose change to wind physics. Wind should be consistent on daily basis. If there is no wind on that day, then let it be no wind for the whole day. Or maybe has 3 shifts, morning noon and night, that wind would be constant value and direction for the duration

With this logic we could calculate wind beforehand everyday (and show them in forcast)
20 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin
"Set the variable power of the windmill depending on the height above ground level" (suggested by Robert from Poland on 2021-09-20), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
22 Sep, '21
Tom Merged
Wind speeds increase with height so installing windmills at higher points on the map should make them more reliable. I don't know if the wind is actually directional in the game but if so, maybe have an in game indicator of which direction the wind tends to go and avoid building behind walls or in valleys.
23 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Have build height and location affect the efficiency of Windmills" (suggested by Tom on 2021-09-22), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
23 Sep, '21
Ryan
I like this one too, sort of like Cities Skylines when placing down a wind turbine. There are spots where you can get max output, places with limited or places with none at all. This also would make it worth it to build windmills higher up, then using the connectors to reach down to your settlement.
30 Sep, '21
Tetrygon
It would also be nice to see a lower power generation limit be set on the windmills. So instead of 0hp - 120/300hp make it like 50hp - 180/300hp It is disheartening too see something that you start out with and that costs 50 resources outperform something that costs 1400 science, more than double its resource (taking into account production and labor), and is supposed to be an "endgame" item.
07 Oct, '21
Dan K
Since this is a valley-focused game, mountain/valley winds should be implemented. I built my first settlement to take advantage of the nice canyon on Plains(?) and it didn't work, at all. At this link, you'll find a lovely diagram and animation about this written by experts. https://satelliteliaisonblog.com/2017/10/13/wildfire-smoke-tracing-up-valleydown-valley-winds/
20 Oct, '21
Jamie
A wind forecast would be so helpful
03 Jan, '22
shingbi
I think it would be good for windmill power output to scale linearly with height and then give a flat penalty for other windmills (or buildings) in 1-2 block vicinity on the same or higher level, but not lower.

That way it could be useful to build a single free standing windmill at low elevation, but make it so at higher elevation you could place them in rows to get more power out per space. Also makes it so slopes are a good place, since the buildings next to it will be at lower elevation and not count.

I think that would be easy to understand and also implement and not require any complicated modelling or UI to show forecasts, etc.
07 Jan, '22
palidine40 Merged
If anything, just the "look" of the spinning could be changed. That way they don't need to make the code complicated on the generation side of things, like that way the wind could be just as powerful in both sides of the map, but just slightly different startup-timing and wind direction.
12 Feb, '22
Fluddy
Maybe have a wind speed tester like the water speed tester that you have to unlock and build.
20 Feb, '22
Mark Taylor
Interestingly, I've been going out of my way to build windmills as high up as I can, because its common sense... so this WASN'T a real thing? I just assumed it was, since they put so much effort into the water physics.
20 Feb, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
Mark Taylor, well, it's game about beavers, semi-aquatic creatures. reasonably more work was put into water and not air. There is a suggestion for windmill's elevation bonus somewhere here.
Personally I get out of my way to place lodges to have a nice view out from windows, though game doesn't encourage it in any way XD
06 Mar, '22
Ashered
i dont think this would be a good consideration unless the wind somehow got better, its almost unreliable as is, enough to not really have it as a source of true power, just something that maybe keeps the carousel running, maybe....and that as is, let alone having less wind than now, if there is any more nerf to the windmill i might as well not even play anymore, its getting not a casual game anymore....
not unless you choose easy, but then why do strategy, or take and make these large villages only to not be able to use the carousel cause there is no power.
15 Mar, '22
Tycho
I think wind strength (and direction) should be different everywhere on the map, not only in elevation, meaning there could be wind on one side of the map while the other side has no wind. That would make an endgame goal to have one big connected power network with multiple windmills across the whole map, so that there are always some windmills generating power.
31 Mar, '22
Knapp Merged
A principle of wind power is that it is always windy somewhere, which is why wind farms needs to be spread out. With wind strength and direction varying depending on location on the map, it would both encourage spreading out wind mills to make wind power even more viable (since it will be more reliable when spreading wind mills out). Good work by the beavers would mean to maybe always have some power instead of risking sometimes having zero power (for instance during drought when there is no wind).
01 Apr, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin Merged
"Varying wind strength and direction depending on map location (for Wind mills)" (suggested by Knapp on 2022-03-31), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
15 Apr, '22
SirMichael Admin
"same wind speed at different above c levels??? unreasonable" (suggested by Harry on 2022-04-15), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
22 Apr, '22
Rayne
What is the wind gauge for?
I don't think a lot of work is needed as wind is not and never will be an important factor in this game, but at least it is not immersive to have all the wind gauges move the same.
02 May, '22
Appesionist Merged
Currently the wind is constant throughout the map. This leads to no need to expand your windfarms to different regions. I currently have one giant windfarm, which produces all power. If the wind would be not only change over time, but also over the area (so in the morning my Northern windfarm has 60% efficiency and the southern 0 and in the evening the split is 20 50) then you would be forced to build a more complicated windfarm system, which I believe would be very enjoyable. Also there would be more need to connect the entire power system in one, rather than having many island systems.
1
02 May, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin Merged
"More Variable Wind" (suggested by Appesionist on 2022-05-02), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
12 Jul, '22
Kevin Merged
To also add to this, a sort of vector field for localized wind behaviour would be nice so that wind turbines in different areas of the world can pick up slack for each other when the wind is low in certain areas!
07 Aug, '22
W Merged
Would be pretty realistic, and compensate for it being harder to bring water power to those locations.
09 Aug, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Wind stronger/more frequent at higher elevation or exposed mountains/ridges" (suggested by W on 2022-08-07), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
29 Aug, '22
Aly
I like the idea of making the wind be more realistic... That said, some narrow valleys have very good wind based on it's direction, and wind off the ocean is usually strong regardless of elevation. I do like the idea of penalties for things that obstruct the wind from getting to the windmill. I also think that if your windmill is at the tallest elevation on the map, wind should be constant (not necessarily consistent wind). The contrast between you water physics and wind physics is a little jarring...
15 Sep, '22
Jcheung Admin
"Windmill running in synchronised way, It every windmill should run based on location." (suggested by JNPK on 2022-01-05), including upvotes (14) and comments (6), was merged into this suggestion.
19 Oct, '22
stwf
I wouldn't mind the wind being different in different places. It would be cool if it moved in waves across the map. But it should get stronger with elevation wherever it is. Its semi realistic and a good reward for going higher.
I mean real wind modeling would be cool but not worth the trouble yet...
30 Dec, '22
steph
a wind forcast would be veru useful
10 Jan, '23
LaffeeTaffee Merged
Pretty sure this has already been suggested, but windmills are currently unaffected by environmental factors or elevation. It would give the player a lot more control over the efficiency of their windmills if wind speed has a higher potential for being steady or stronger at higher elevations, and maybe even stifled depending on the windmill's proximity to trees or buildings. The larger windmill could even increase power efficiency and bypass building and tree proximity penalty, which would also give players more incentive to save science points for the large windmill.
11 Jan, '23
SirMichael Admin
"Windmill efficiency based on location!" (suggested by LaffeeTaffee on 2023-01-10), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
10 Mar, '23
Marbaus
I actually expected this when placing my first windmill as the suggestion of the reliance on wind power inherently implies that 'wind variables' are something to consider.

The wind could always come from one direction, or not, whereas the programming of such a thing is only dependent on a few squares surrounding the windmill itself instead of attempting to create an entire wind map system. Either choice results in the same challenge, but one take more processing resource as a result. The later has the benefit of added variations and interesting challenges that could be implemented for 'late game' concepts as well as expansion 'preplacement' as to save development time further down the road on this specific idea that has a wide variety of possibilities.