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[Pinstar]

Dwarfwiki is surprisingly sparse with any info on wind.

All it says that a windmill can generate 0, 20 or 40 power based on your location.

Other than placing your windmills outside (which I think is a requirement) does any aspect of their placement impact their power generation? If I build a 5 z-level high tower and put one on top of it, would it possibly generate more than one sitting on the ground? If one is surrounded by walls would that impact it?

If one is on a multi-biome embark, would it be possible for one biome to have one wind level and another biome have another?
Is there any types of biomes that tend to favor wind or are more likely to have high wind levels?

[smjjames]

AFAIK, the wind level is the same over the whole embark area.

[Niyazov]

the top of the central tile needs to be above ground and exposed to light; otherwise you can completely encase a windmill and it won't affect power generation.

it would make sense for coasts and mountaintops to have high wind. nobody seems to have really studied how wind level relates to biome and geographic location.

[smjjames]

the top of the central tile needs to be above ground and exposed to light; otherwise you can completely encase a windmill and it won't affect power generation.

it would make sense for coasts and mountaintops to have high wind. nobody seems to have really studied how wind level relates to biome and geographic location.

Sounds like an idea. It might not have been studied because the amount of wind seems to be random and water mills are a much more reliable source of power.

[WhimsyWink]

Just to add to the info: "Play now" embarks seem to always have 20 wind power

[smjjames]

Hm, going to do a test world and some experimentation. I will of course be using DFhack to have fastdwarf and teledwarf on and embarkeverywhere.

First up, arctic tundra.

Note: All embarks are 4x4.

Tundra, flat embark
prepared setup, Wind power: 40
same embark, Playnow, wind power: 40

Second tundra, shallow valley
Inside valley: 40 wind power
On slope: 40 wind power.

Without a larger sample size, I would say that tundra potentially has high wind power.

High mountains within a mountain range, northern regions, the pole is in the northern part of this world): wind speed 20

High mountains, same mountain range, different area: wind speed 20

High mountains, different mountain range: Wind speed 40 (Though I think this one was at or near the highest points?)

High mountains, near the core of the range, different mountain range again: wind speed 40.

Coast with desert and badlands biomes: (apparently temperate ocean that is frozen on embark) wind speed 40

Tropical coast with desert/wastelands: wind speed 40

Tropical coast with mangrove swamp: wind speed 0, also built on the beach to be sure.

Inland desert (technically badlands/wasteland biome), mostly flat: wind speed 20

Inland badlands (which is in a sort of mountain canyon): wind speed 40

Thick forest, embarked on top of a hill: Wind speed 20

Tropical savanna (sort of a rolling plains, to describe the terrain): wind speed 40.

[WhimsyWink]

Thank you for the correction: it was wrong of me to suggest that "Play now" would have any impact on the wind of an established biome.

I was trying to avoid the word 'vanilla' since I do have DF hack installed.

I have, as of yet, only embarked on worlds without advanced parameters; in regions with at least some trees and the wind power has always been 20.  Which suggests to me that it may vary but certainly not random

[smjjames]

Well, I wouldn't be able to embark deep in the mountains without DFhack, also the wind speed is the same over the whole embark, so the z level makes no difference.

I'll keep editing that post above to keep it in one post.

Also, it's a world I made with create now! with default parameters other than a very short worldgen time.

[smjjames]

If anybody wants to do a more in-depth look at it over various advanced worldgens, you're free to do so as I've had desert embarks and even a coastal embark (well, it was a lake and not an ocean) with 0 wind power.

[Quietust]

I've just done a bit of disassembly diving, and I think I've discovered how wind is supposed to work in Dwarf Fortress: it's based entirely on your latitude - specifically, the region tile in which your fortress is located (0-16 for POCKET, 0-32 for SMALLER, 0-64 for SMALL, 0-128 for MEDIUM, and 0-256 for LARGE).

The latitude is first scaled to LARGE size (though there's an odd bug that sets constant wind for SMALL/SMALLER/POCKET worlds) and is then fed into the following table to generate the east/west wind strength:

Arctic (0-50):
0-15: strength -15
16-27: strength -14
28-38: strength -13
39-45: strength -12
46-50: strength -11

Temperate (51-170):
51-52: strength +11
53-54: strength +12
55-56: strength +13
57-59: strength +14
60-62: strength +15
63-65: strength +16
66-69: strength +17
70-73: strength +18
74-77: strength +19
78-82: strength +20
83-87: strength +21
88-92: strength +22
93-98: strength +23
99-104: strength +24
105-116: strength +25
117-122: strength +24
123-128: strength +23
129-133: strength +22
134-138: strength +21
139-143: strength +20
144-147: strength +19
148-151: strength +18
152-155: strength +17
156-158: strength +16
159-161: strength +15
162-164: strength +14
165-166: strength +13
167-168: strength +12
169-170: strength +11

Tropical (171-220):
171-172: strength -13
173-175: strength -14
176-178: strength -15
179-181: strength -16
182-184: strength -17
185-188: strength -18
189-192: strength -19
193-198: strength -20
199-202: strength -19
203-206: strength -18
207-209: strength -17
210-212: strength -16
213-215: strength -15
216-218: strength -14
219-220: strength -13

Equator (221-256):
221-256: strength 0

In addition, certain regions of the world (if any - I've yet to find one) can have up to two gusty winds which occur daily - for a brief period of time each morning (3:00am to 7:00am for the first one, 6:00am to 9:00am for the second one), wind strength may be adjusted by +/- 10 on each axis (north/south and east/west), and in the evening (3:00pm to 6:00pm for both) it will be briefly adjusted in the opposite direction.

The combined wind strength (just abs(wind_x) + abs(wind_y)) determines the amount of power the windmill generates: 1-14 wind generates 20 power, 15-29 wind generates 40 power, and 30+ wind generates 60 power (though only for a few seconds, and the opposing gust will likely knock it down to 20 power for a brief moment). If you are in an area with weak wind, a gust of wind can potentially cause the windmill to reorient itself, causing some of the extra power to be lost.

[Aseaheru]

Good to know. I almost always use wind whilst seldom useing water power.

[smjjames]

I get that equatorial regions would have little, if any, wind and the midlatitudes would have varying wind, but I'm not seeing the math here with that column of latitudes and the +/- various numbers.

Could you maybe show how it translates into wind speed for a medium sized world? or does it just not use the column past the 129 point? The desert fort that was on a lake was really close to the equator, so having 0 wind speed there makes sense for me.

[Quietust]

I get that equatorial regions would have little, if any, wind and the midlatitudes would have varying wind, but I'm not seeing the math here with that column of latitudes and the +/- various numbers.

There isn't any "math" behind that - it's purely a lookup table. Also take note that the "equator" region is going to be the bottom of the world map (assuming the arctic region is at the top, otherwise switch them around). The best I could probably do would be to make an image; maybe I'll do that later tonight if I have some free time.

Could you maybe show how it translates into wind speed for a medium sized world? or does it just not use the column past the 129 point? The desert fort that was on a lake was really close to the equator, so having 0 wind speed there makes sense for me.

The latitude is first scaled to LARGE size (though there's an odd bug that sets constant wind for SMALL/SMALLER/POCKET worlds) and is then fed into the following table to generate the east/west wind strength:

For MEDIUM worlds the latitude is multiplied by 2, for SMALL worlds it's multiplied by 4, for SMALLER it's multiplied by 8, and for POCKET it's multiplied by 16.

[smjjames]

I get that equatorial regions would have little, if any, wind and the midlatitudes would have varying wind, but I'm not seeing the math here with that column of latitudes and the +/- various numbers.

There isn't any "math" behind that - it's purely a lookup table. Also take note that the "equator" region is going to be the bottom of the world map (assuming the arctic region is at the top, otherwise switch them around). The best I could probably do would be to make an image; maybe I'll do that later tonight if I have some free time.

I'm just not sure what the + and - numbers are about or indicate.

[Quietust]

I'm just not sure what the + and - numbers are about or indicate.

"+" means the wind is going to the east, "-" means the wind is going to the west. Or vice-versa - I can't really tell from looking at it.