For everyone watching a video on this channel for the first time: No, this is not an April's fool's joke. This is what we watch this channel for. Usually with a bit more focus on the farms.
Bro i didn't expect an april fools video to be so detailed and well thought out, and best of all, historically accurate and educational. This is definitely why we love SOTL.
I know you are posting this for April first.. but historical accuracy and aesthetics comments of different building sprites is actually something I would love to see more!
This is the best AOE content I've ever seen. Also the cool stick in the Cuman mill is definitely a plow propped against the wall. Another knock against the African mill is that the draft animal powering the mill isn't actually an ox, it's a cape buffalo which is not a domesticated animal. In fact, it's the second most dangerous vertebrate in Africa after the hippopotamus, so using to power a mill would be a very bad idea.
I KNOW RIGHT? Like, there are African cattle... they were basically the measure of personal wealth across much of the continent (except where the Tsetse Fly reigns supreme). WHY NOT USE THEM???
The pre-castle East Asian mill will always have a special place in my heart because I built it on a minecraft server, the group I was playing with got bored and stopped playing on that server, and then i checked the map the year after and found out the mill survived that whole time despite the town being occupied by multiple other groups.
See now this is the content I like. None of this pedantic villager timing, the 'unique units' nonsense or the barbarity of pointless bloodshed. Just an in-depth well-researched look into one interesting facet of human ingenuity. Kudos!
However I will have to detract a point because the final list of scores makes no sense compared to the rest of the video and completely excludes the ox mill while still keeping the watermills. I'm going to have to give it 8/10 spirits of the law.
Dude, jokes aside, I think we all would love more architecture insights not only for the mills, but for all the other buildings as well! I love architecture and I even designed some graphic mods for the old HD edition, and I never noticed the little details you mentioned here!
If you've ever seen a wind indicator spin, they don't block any wind. But the way they're designed involves a bit of a spoon shape. When they're on one side, they're catching the wind. When they rotate to the other side, the wind is able to go around them. A non-closed off design can allow a windmill to spin, provided it's designed to catch more wind on one side than the other. You can see this in the Castle Age Indian windmill design, too. In fact, the wind forces being applied to each side would have to be perfectly balanced in order for the windmill to _not_ spin. Any asymmetry in forces will affect the way it catches the wind and thus cause it to rotate. That said, restricting the flow of air on one side would cause it to rotate faster, no matter the design.
@@Kaarl_Mills We don't declare war on the sea. We just colonize it's home, build walls around our borders to stop it from claiming it's heritage, then use it as a cheap source of resources and labour.
1:16 The water wheel also has the water behaving as if it would come from the top and going over (like for the next one), instead of from the side and going under (and the orientation of the shovels accordingly). 7:30 This one has at least the lower half of the wind blocker.
I think you heavily underrated the Central Asian variant, as it DOES have the blocking wall, just not a perfect one, and is the only representative of one in the whole list.
Wow. Cant believe you and your team really built a replica of the windmill shown just to visualize the effect of the wind better than in the graphic. The lenghts you go through to deliver the best possible video is crazy! Thanks for all your effort.
"If really not now, then when if every would be the right time". As an engineer, that made me jump up on my chair. Cant say how much I love watching you
I know this is a random place to say it... but you are awesome, SOTL... seriously. Between you, T-90, Dave, MembTV, and of course all the 2700+ legends (Viper- & all the other V's, Hera, Mr. Yo, Tatoh, Daut, etc...)... all the Low and Mid ELOs.. and commenters in general... this AOE2 community is just so grand. Thank you so much for your dedication, patience, diligence, careful attention, insight, and passion for your craft. It truly is inspiring. _ /\ _
This is extremely entertaining the 2/10 inflating and deflating sacks was so funny, also the level of care to show off the cool animations was top notch. please more like this!
For the southeast asian mill, the wheel has the dents leaining to the wrong direction. In order for the dents to effectively use the strength of the water from the fall and for the wheel not be slowed down by the river, the dents have to lean to the opposite direction.
as an actual, totally real and certified engineer I can confirm that the east asian windmill would work, the flow rate and drag coefficient would ensure that the water kept flowing and stayed in it's path. You are correct that the support seems a bit thin but the wheel would work as a suspension force reliving the bearing from a lot of pressure, assuming that force vectors are correct
Ngl this is one of your best nonconventional videos, I always loved the art in the game and it's nice to learn about it's little quirks. We need more of this!
I know this is meant to be an April Fool's joke, but I've legitimately spent time in-game just watching the windmills spin and examining their engineering and accuracy.
You should deduct some extra points from the east asian mills. Yes the cogs are a nice detail but in the castle age 2 cogs seem to be driven by one main cog connected to the main wheel. Both those cogs run the same direction which would be impossible when driven by the same cog.
*and* those two cogs being driven by the wrong direction main wheel, seem to have an axle between them, so the whole thing should just jam up and break.
Y'know, for many years the game eluded me after playing for the first time around 2005 and always remembered how pleasant was to just look at my feudal age village, specially mills. When I got my hands back at it in 2012 or so, I just played matches that didnt get past feudal age because of the aesthetic. And you just went and did a raking that I wouldve watch the first day RUclips was live on the internet.
You have no idea how glad I am I found this video and this channel, I love worldbuilding fictional worlds but I hate researching farming and general infrastructure for different cultures/nations, but you present that information in such an interesting way. Now I'll finally be able to determine what kind of windmills each the nations I make would be most likely to use
Lol when u mentioned that u got a team to build a windmill out in windt canada, i genuinely thought "goddamn he's stepping it up bigtime, hes gona be the veritasium of AOE 2 now" 😂😂😂😂 Still the boss IMO
Spirit of the Law continues to produce absolute top tier April 1st content. Great video, perfect list, incredible outro music. I give it all 11 spinning sails out of 10
As someone from Mexico I would say we didn’t have proper wind mills before the Spanish (as far as I know). We instead used to grind the corn by hand in the “metate”, the metate kind of like a mortar but flat and when you use it is kind of like you are flattening the dough for pizza with the roller.
Congrats on the no-bell prize. Unfortunately, i have to turn notifications off because, no bells are allowed. I'll continue watching from the subscription feed.
i think the thing with wheelbarrows popping up before research is that a random mill person built one, but the empire wasn't convinced of its usefulness until an entire age went by, and they just couldn't have the mill people have all the benefits to themselves, so the invention was taken from the mill people, and claimed as a new research by the empire's ruler
Thinking about it, I bet the original plan was to make all the vills push wheel barrows after researching it. But this model and animation work was cut from the 1999 version and never reconsidered again 😣
that gorillaz windmill reference on a piano at the end of the video is the kind of perfect added subtle thing that is the reason i`ve been watching this channel for almost a decade.
The fact that you're using an instrumental cover of Feel Good Inc. from Gorillaz for the outro is amazing, because its music video has an floating island with a windmill on it
If you were interested in doing a further video regarding the actual power output of each mill (who has the most effective mill) I study waterwheels, and to lesser extent, wind power, and could give some pointers. I love the overshot and undershot wheel designs, but do with the there was more of a canal leading to each, or more water flowing away as opposed to magically diaappearing. So glad you did this video, been think about it for ages
Kind of an engineer here! About the vertical axles, the trick is in the asymmetry of the sails. You gotta ensure the pressure is higher on one side than the other in order to make it work. It is very clearly observable in the Indian castle age mill, and probably more subtle in the rest, but I think is feasible. And OF COURSE devs don't make mistakes, magic medieval windmills are very well known and well documented, in case you didn't know.
I think this video shows us exactly what the wheelbarrow upgrade actually does. It provides gloves to the villagers so they can push them around without getting splinters.
Easily on of the best videos ever produced by spirit of the law. And he totally had me... I really thought, for a second, that he had built a mill 11111 amazing
This is my favourite video so far. I love the objectivity of your content, but I don't even play AoE II anymore -I still try not to miss any of your videos- and I just love historical accuracy and aesthetics so this one goes to favourites.
I hope it's not just an April Fool's Joke.. I honestly would love more videos like this. I've always loved the art that goes into the buildings, and being able to look up close, have it critiqued, and even get some authentic learning out of it... hell yeah, I want more videos like this!
I love how out of place this video DOESN'T feel. If he had mentioned some vague stat about how much space the mill takes up, therefore making it better to hide villagers behind so they're harder to click on during a raid, it wouldn't even be an April Fool's video. :)
"I don't want to get bogged down in the physics of medieval windmills"
"For GODSAKE MAN THATS WHY I'M HERE"
While I completely agree with this sentiment, I also had a deep belly laugh. 15/10 comment.
And therein lies the true April's fool.
I think that Lindybeige might be your channel if you looking for that sorta thing
For everyone watching a video on this channel for the first time:
No, this is not an April's fool's joke.
This is what we watch this channel for.
Usually with a bit more focus on the farms.
We need more than one farm report per year.
There is usually more (way more) maths also.
lol
It really hadn't even registered to me as april fools
@@user-sl6gn1ss8p same
See, he thinks it’s an April fools joke on us, but really it’s just more peak mid sized gaming RUclipsr content
Thanks for the spolier
I didn't even check the date.... just figured this was my typical excellent quality Spirit of the Law content.
Was this supposed to be an April's fools joke ? I've always been disturbed by mills turning the wrong way in AoE 2, I'm glad this is finally covered.
Feel Good Inc. for the outro. A man of windmill culture I see.
id does not get more windmill tha this
Windmill lore intensifies
That outro made me go from Hmm interesting funny video to eyes wide opened no freaking way! Great inclusion.
I've heard this outro song, where is it from?
@@leonardosternberg5093 feel good inc. By the gorillaz
Bro i didn't expect an april fools video to be so detailed and well thought out, and best of all, historically accurate and educational. This is definitely why we love SOTL.
I know you are posting this for April first.. but historical accuracy and aesthetics comments of different building sprites is actually something I would love to see more!
I second that!
Absolutely!
A 100%!
Fully agreed! Really hope for a follow up.
I went to the comment section just to comment and upvote this sort of comment, we need more.
2:08 "Developers don't make mistakes"
The true April Fool's joke right there
This is the best AOE content I've ever seen.
Also the cool stick in the Cuman mill is definitely a plow propped against the wall.
Another knock against the African mill is that the draft animal powering the mill isn't actually an ox, it's a cape buffalo which is not a domesticated animal. In fact, it's the second most dangerous vertebrate in Africa after the hippopotamus, so using to power a mill would be a very bad idea.
Surely to meant to say "... would be a demonstration of power, fit to demoralize your enemies."
I knew it. Someone would notice it before me and said it.
Yes, that "stick" is actually a plow. You can even see the share very well.
I KNOW RIGHT? Like, there are African cattle... they were basically the measure of personal wealth across much of the continent (except where the Tsetse Fly reigns supreme). WHY NOT USE THEM???
It was just the medieval way of building a nuclear reactor to show off how powerful you are as a nation
the mill is powered with cow anger
I love how this Video doesn't feel out of place, it could have been uploaded any day of the Year.
The pre-castle East Asian mill will always have a special place in my heart because I built it on a minecraft server, the group I was playing with got bored and stopped playing on that server, and then i checked the map the year after and found out the mill survived that whole time despite the town being occupied by multiple other groups.
good work is always appreciated lol
i remember being very flattered that someone stole a building of mine and moved into it
See now this is the content I like.
None of this pedantic villager timing, the 'unique units' nonsense or the barbarity of pointless bloodshed.
Just an in-depth well-researched look into one interesting facet of human ingenuity. Kudos!
However I will have to detract a point because the final list of scores makes no sense compared to the rest of the video and completely excludes the ox mill while still keeping the watermills.
I'm going to have to give it 8/10 spirits of the law.
Yeah, I don't really like his age of empires content, so as a big fan of his channel, I'm glad he's branching out.
@@owlblocksdavid4955 the age of empires is over. The time of windmills has come!
I didn't realize it was April 1st. I assumed this was just a normal upload, and frankly I stand by that assumption.
If SotL did AoE2 historical accuracy videos on top of the mathematical crunching ones he would become unstoppable in terms of Age related content
"Spirit of the Past" if you will
I think he did before, check his old videos
He did a series on this last month !
Dude, jokes aside, I think we all would love more architecture insights not only for the mills, but for all the other buildings as well! I love architecture and I even designed some graphic mods for the old HD edition, and I never noticed the little details you mentioned here!
If you've ever seen a wind indicator spin, they don't block any wind. But the way they're designed involves a bit of a spoon shape. When they're on one side, they're catching the wind. When they rotate to the other side, the wind is able to go around them. A non-closed off design can allow a windmill to spin, provided it's designed to catch more wind on one side than the other. You can see this in the Castle Age Indian windmill design, too. In fact, the wind forces being applied to each side would have to be perfectly balanced in order for the windmill to _not_ spin. Any asymmetry in forces will affect the way it catches the wind and thus cause it to rotate. That said, restricting the flow of air on one side would cause it to rotate faster, no matter the design.
Finally a video that appeals to my dutch heritage.
No Dutch windmills though. 😢
We could do with a similar vid about AoE3
I dont see him declaring war upon the sea, so really how Dutch is it?
@@AW-sx8hm I think that's why they aren't in AOE2, the windmills would make them too OP
@@Kaarl_Mills
We don't declare war on the sea.
We just colonize it's home, build walls around our borders to stop it from claiming it's heritage, then use it as a cheap source of resources and labour.
Not gonna lie, this is exactly the type of AoE 2 video I want to see, April Fool's or any other time of year
The windmills at 7:30 do actually have the wind-blocking part in the bottom corner!
1:16 The water wheel also has the water behaving as if it would come from the top and going over (like for the next one), instead of from the side and going under (and the orientation of the shovels accordingly).
7:30 This one has at least the lower half of the wind blocker.
Using the Don Quixote scale to rank windmills is an epic deep cut. Very well done Spirit--you are indeed a man of culture
AND a Veritasium burn?! This video has everything!
I think you heavily underrated the Central Asian variant, as it DOES have the blocking wall, just not a perfect one, and is the only representative of one in the whole list.
Wow. Cant believe you and your team really built a replica of the windmill shown just to visualize the effect of the wind better than in the graphic. The lenghts you go through to deliver the best possible video is crazy! Thanks for all your effort.
"If really not now, then when if every would be the right time". As an engineer, that made me jump up on my chair. Cant say how much I love watching you
"What am I, veritasium?"
You earned +1000 points of respect
Now we wait for Derek to react 😅
Even though it was an April Fools "joke" , I loved this video. I hope these become a yearly tradition.
i must stop everything and watch a video about the historical accuracy of windmills in aoe2
I know this is a random place to say it... but you are awesome, SOTL... seriously.
Between you, T-90, Dave, MembTV, and of course all the 2700+ legends (Viper- & all the other V's, Hera, Mr. Yo, Tatoh, Daut, etc...)... all the Low and Mid ELOs.. and commenters in general... this AOE2 community is just so grand.
Thank you so much for your dedication, patience, diligence, careful attention, insight, and passion for your craft.
It truly is inspiring. _ /\ _
The piano cover of Feel Good Inc. was the icing on the cake. I salute to you.
You wanted to know why the MesoAmerican mills needed those skulls on them? Well that's how they get them to spin against the wind. Duh!
Scare the wind into going the right direction!
This is extremely entertaining the 2/10 inflating and deflating sacks was so funny, also the level of care to show off the cool animations was top notch. please more like this!
Each second of this video is a work of art.
Imagine that next patch would be all mill fixes and additionaly wheelbarrow would appear only after researching the tech 😂
For the southeast asian mill, the wheel has the dents leaining to the wrong direction. In order for the dents to effectively use the strength of the water from the fall and for the wheel not be slowed down by the river, the dents have to lean to the opposite direction.
I was looking for this comment. Sat least the east asian mill got that right. Their points should be switched.
as an actual, totally real and certified engineer I can confirm that the east asian windmill would work, the flow rate and drag coefficient would ensure that the water kept flowing and stayed in it's path. You are correct that the support seems a bit thin but the wheel would work as a suspension force reliving the bearing from a lot of pressure, assuming that force vectors are correct
Top comment
If you walk into a windmill, does it change colour?
Props to you for the explanation
11/10 Gorillaz piano outros.
Top notch touch 👌
You are indeed aoe2 Veritasium
Ngl this is one of your best nonconventional videos, I always loved the art in the game and it's nice to learn about it's little quirks. We need more of this!
Next video: Top 10 best Outposts in AOE2.
The piano Feel Good Inc. bit at the end broke me a bit.
"Windmill windmill for the land, turn forever hand in hand"
He's in pain
broke you how?
I know this is meant to be an April Fool's joke, but I've legitimately spent time in-game just watching the windmills spin and examining their engineering and accuracy.
This is probably one of the best RUclips videos I have ever watched
Finally some quality videos. Took you long enough
I instinctively hit the like button when we got that "I'm not Veritasium" line. Great video!
I just came back from work and turned on my PC, and lo and behold! An SOTL video just minutes old! Thanks a lot for making my day better my man!
This isn't an april fool's joke, this is quality content and the reason we have watched spiritofthelaw for years.
You should deduct some extra points from the east asian mills.
Yes the cogs are a nice detail but in the castle age 2 cogs seem to be driven by one main cog connected to the main wheel. Both those cogs run the same direction which would be impossible when driven by the same cog.
it also runs in the opposite direction to the waterwheel
*and* those two cogs being driven by the wrong direction main wheel, seem to have an axle between them, so the whole thing should just jam up and break.
The art for aoe2, whether classic or DE, is absolutely timeless and simply a joy to look at.
I dunno is somebody already tell you, but the that "stick" on the central asian mill is a PLOW.
Y'know, for many years the game eluded me after playing for the first time around 2005 and always remembered how pleasant was to just look at my feudal age village, specially mills. When I got my hands back at it in 2012 or so, I just played matches that didnt get past feudal age because of the aesthetic. And you just went and did a raking that I wouldve watch the first day RUclips was live on the internet.
My favorite windmill will always be the Mountain Giant from Age of Mythology
10/10 Don Quixotes
You have no idea how glad I am I found this video and this channel, I love worldbuilding fictional worlds but I hate researching farming and general infrastructure for different cultures/nations, but you present that information in such an interesting way. Now I'll finally be able to determine what kind of windmills each the nations I make would be most likely to use
nice video enjoyed all 9 min of it
It took me 9 and a half mins to realise this was a joke... Noble prize winning content! Thanks SOTL!
Lol when u mentioned that u got a team to build a windmill out in windt canada, i genuinely thought "goddamn he's stepping it up bigtime, hes gona be the veritasium of AOE 2 now" 😂😂😂😂
Still the boss IMO
Spirit of the Law continues to produce absolute top tier April 1st content. Great video, perfect list, incredible outro music. I give it all 11 spinning sails out of 10
The Aztec windmill is spinning very fast, just below framerate, thus creating the illusion of spinning in the wrong direction. You're welcome.
I gave this video a like instantly, paying forward the folwark praise. I'm glad it came
Finally started going online..... it's kinda tough as an Xbox player
As someone from Mexico I would say we didn’t have proper wind mills before the Spanish (as far as I know). We instead used to grind the corn by hand in the “metate”, the metate kind of like a mortar but flat and when you use it is kind of like you are flattening the dough for pizza with the roller.
Congrats on the no-bell prize. Unfortunately, i have to turn notifications off because, no bells are allowed. I'll continue watching from the subscription feed.
Top tier quality content, ten medium-sizes gaming youtubers out of ten
i think the thing with wheelbarrows popping up before research is that a random mill person built one, but the empire wasn't convinced of its usefulness until an entire age went by, and they just couldn't have the mill people have all the benefits to themselves, so the invention was taken from the mill people, and claimed as a new research by the empire's ruler
Thinking about it, I bet the original plan was to make all the vills push wheel barrows after researching it. But this model and animation work was cut from the 1999 version and never reconsidered again 😣
that gorillaz windmill reference on a piano at the end of the video is the kind of perfect added subtle thing that is the reason i`ve been watching this channel for almost a decade.
this is peak aoe2 content
I would love this kind of videos for the other buildings as well!
The fact that you're using an instrumental cover of Feel Good Inc. from Gorillaz for the outro is amazing, because its music video has an floating island with a windmill on it
If you were interested in doing a further video regarding the actual power output of each mill (who has the most effective mill) I study waterwheels, and to lesser extent, wind power, and could give some pointers.
I love the overshot and undershot wheel designs, but do with the there was more of a canal leading to each, or more water flowing away as opposed to magically diaappearing.
So glad you did this video, been think about it for ages
7:54, that is a plow, not a cool looking stick
Mindblown!
it totally is a plow. it looks heavy with the metal part added. Do they have heavy plow insta researched?
@@LuisManuelRoballoAlvarez Can't say anything about such tech, but I have been near a plow or two, so I have some inclination how they look ^-^
Kind of an engineer here! About the vertical axles, the trick is in the asymmetry of the sails. You gotta ensure the pressure is higher on one side than the other in order to make it work. It is very clearly observable in the Indian castle age mill, and probably more subtle in the rest, but I think is feasible. And OF COURSE devs don't make mistakes, magic medieval windmills are very well known and well documented, in case you didn't know.
This is the content we need. Bonus points for the themed tune to finish the video
This is the most important video this channel has ever put out. Well done.
Its nice to have your attention drawn to the little details sometimes. I love the art in this game.
Thank you for pointing out the issues with the vertical windmills in game. I didn't know the history but they never looked like they would spin to me.
Haha that's hilarious that you used "Don Quixotes" as a rating system for the windmill sails! 😂
this was way more informative then I thought it was going to be
This is the greatest video in the history of the internet. So may great lines but the thing about the cool stick was the truth that the world needed.
I think this is one of the best videos I have ever seen in the channel, I give this one 10, mills built in Canada, out of 10
My life is forever changed by this video! My daughter was sitting next to me, and asked me if I was getting hints for the game I play all the time 😂
I went into this knowing full well that it's an April 1st video but was still excited about the analysis of the various windmill designs. :D
SOL you're an absolute legend. Even when your videos are nonsense, I'm at the edge of my seat the whole time. Bravo 👏
I swear, he has way more fun when he's being less serious about the game. I'm all for it!
I know it's just for April Fools but I really liked this. I hope you do more aesthetic top tens with this type of deep analysis.
This is the quality content I've subscribed for
My favorite building has always been the mill. It's always the most dynamic part of a town and lovely to look at.
I think this video shows us exactly what the wheelbarrow upgrade actually does. It provides gloves to the villagers so they can push them around without getting splinters.
3:58 "What am I, Veritasium??" 😂 that made my day
I love that the closing music is a piano instrumental of Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz, namely the part where they sing about windmills.
Easily on of the best videos ever produced by spirit of the law. And he totally had me... I really thought, for a second, that he had built a mill 11111 amazing
This is my favourite video so far. I love the objectivity of your content, but I don't even play AoE II anymore -I still try not to miss any of your videos- and I just love historical accuracy and aesthetics so this one goes to favourites.
This is some of the best content I’ve seen On YT in a while.
I understand this is an April 1st video, but can we please get more of these? This was so bloody entertaining.
I hope it's not just an April Fool's Joke.. I honestly would love more videos like this. I've always loved the art that goes into the buildings, and being able to look up close, have it critiqued, and even get some authentic learning out of it... hell yeah, I want more videos like this!
I loved this, hope you still reviewing all buildings from different civs
Excellent! The cool looking stick of the Central Asian mill is a wooden plow/plough
The result of this April video is me really wanting the same videos about other buildings 😂
The most important video on RUclips. Lovely
I love how out of place this video DOESN'T feel. If he had mentioned some vague stat about how much space the mill takes up, therefore making it better to hide villagers behind so they're harder to click on during a raid, it wouldn't even be an April Fool's video. :)
Joke or not, I want more of this! :D I LOVE your videos, but this one was the best so far
Asking life's important questions and ending with Feel Good Inc. Huzzaahhh, a man of quality.
Love how this is both an April's Fools joke but also an actually entertaining video.