Water Mill

alaindustrial:water_mill

GeneratorsLVImplementedtier-lvenergywater

Summary

The Water Mill is a passive LV-tier generator: it produces EU/FE as long as there's flowing water (a current) next to it. It needs no pump, no tanks and no fluid system — it simply "looks" at the neighbouring water blocks, but only a current counts, not a still pool. Weaker than the fuel Generator, but it never needs fuel: build a stream or a waterfall past it and you get a steady trickle of EU/FE.

Energy

The mill only produces power. Inside is a 4000 EU/FE buffer, released into an LV-tier network. Energy is emitted from the back face only (opposite the front) — like the wind mill: the back face carries an output-port texture (a red dot), so connect your cable or battery there. The front carries the wheel and the sides stand in the water — all of them are inert, for both energy and hoppers.

Generation

The mill counts flowing water on the four horizontal sides of the block. The wheel is driven by a current, so only flowing/falling water (isSource == false — a stream or a waterfall) counts; a still source block does NOT. Just dropping the wheel into a source pool isn't enough — that would be an exploit. Each face touched by flowing water gives 1 EU/FE/tick, up to 4 EU/FE/tick with a current on all four sides, continuously and at no resource cost. The mod's fluid system (tanks, pumps) isn't involved here. How to power it: vanilla river/ocean water is still source water, so "just put it in a river" won't work. Supply an actual current: place a source above/beside so the water flows past the mill's faces (a waterfall onto a face, or a "source → drain" channel where water runs along the block).

Wheel clearance

The wheel must be free to spin in an open vertical slot. A solid block in one of the four cells around the front cell (in front of the face) — the front cell itself (where the hub sits), the cell above it, or the cell to its left or right (where the rim arcs sweep) — hides the wheel and stops generation; the GUI shows a "Blocked" status. Water and walk-through "filler" blocks (grass, flowers, snow layers) don't obstruct the wheel — you can run a water channel along the sides. The one exemption is the cell below: the lower arc of the wheel is meant to dip into the river, so a solid riverbed under the wheel is fine. The check runs every tick: remove the block and the wheel comes right back.

Placing several mills

The external water wheel is a large 3D model that sticks out past the block face (rim radius ~1.3 blocks). Placing two mills too close makes their wheels intersect in space — it looks broken (models overlap and z-fight). The mill detects that overlap and, while it lasts, hides its own wheel, stops generating, and shows a "Wheel interference" status in the GUI. Interference is symmetric: both mills stall — there is no tie-break. Spacing rules (the wheel is larger than the wind-mill rotor, so the gap is wider): Side by side (same direction): leave 2 empty blocks between mills. Face to face: at least 2 empty blocks between them. Directly adjacent (no gap), each wheel runs into the other mill's casing — both stall under the "Wheel clearance" rule (status "Blocked" rather than "Wheel interference"). Back to back (wheels facing opposite ways): directly adjacent is fine — the wheels don't meet. A neighbour without a wheel causes no interference (no wheel is rendered), but install a wheel in it and the working mill next to it stalls too.

Inventory

One component slot accepts only the water wheel. The wheel stacks to one in this slot and is neither consumed nor damaged. Without an installed wheel, generation is 0 EU/FE/tick and the external 3D wheel model isn't rendered. The four standard upgrade slots follow it.

Interface

Type: dedicated 176×178 energy screen with one component slot Right-click opens a screen with a vertical energy bar on the left, a central water-wheel slot and a status indicator on the right: a white wheel means idle and a blue wheel means active generation Status labels: "Wheel interference" — the wheel intersects a neighbouring mill's wheel; "Blocked" — the wheel is obstructed by a solid block; "No water" — the wheel is installed and free, but no horizontal face has water (a hint to the player,

Block Properties

An ordinary solid block. Any pickaxe breaks it.

Visual

A large open 3D wheel (~2.7 blocks across at the rim) hangs in front of the face: two smooth 24-segment oak rims, eight spokes on each side, twelve compound L-shaped buckets between the rims, a timber hub and a copper axle. The buckets stay entirely inside the circular rim silhouette, with no rectangular teeth or clipped ends protruding beyond it. The wheel is built procedurally from vanilla oak and copper textures (no production PNGs of its own), is lit by the real world light, and spins faster the more flowing water is around it. Without a current, the wheel stands still. The in-world wheel is rendered only while water_mill_wheel is installed. Its item icon is an original 16×16 pixel-art silhouette of a heavy six-spoke oak wheel; the in-world model remains more detailed and uses vanilla oak and copper textures. Reference in-game captures: front, isometric, side, and night lighting.

Sound

While the wheel turns (a current on a face,, the mill emits a soft water splash/rumble — the loop (pattern C, humVolume 0.22, fixed 12-block range). It plays only while the wheel actually spins and falls silent when it stands still: no water, a neighbouring mill's interference, or a blocked wheel.

Recipes

Crafted on a workbench (shaped 3×3): planks in the corners, copper ingots top and bottom, copper cable on the sides, a wooden gear in the center. Same logic and cost as the wind mill.

PUP
CGC
PUP

P — planks (any, ×4); U — copper ingot (×2); C — copper cable (×2); G — Wooden Gear (×1). Recipe:. The water mill wheel is crafted separately; without it the mill produces no energy.

Balance

Base output is = 1 EU/FE/tick for each face touching water, up to 4 EU/FE/tick when surrounded. This is weaker than the coal-fired Generator at 8 EU/FE/tick and two to four times weaker than the Geothermal Generator. The trade-off is fully passive output with no fuel or logistics. It is comparable to two to four T1 Solar Panels, but depends on adjacent water instead of daylight and weather.

Related

Solar Panel — another passive source, dependent on the sky. Generator — the active, fuel-burning alternative.

Crafting

Shaped Crafting

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Water Mill