Gravity problem I need to solve!)

Hi all, I'm not a Physicist, but, I had an idea I wanted to put to bed. If you drop a weight on a rope that turns a generator as it falls, the mgh calculation gives you the force that could be converted to electricity,subject to frictional losses etc. Ignoring getting it back up again, if you connected a pneumatic cylinder to the bottom of the weight so that it struck the ground at the end of the weights journey.My question therefore is, what happens)) as far as I can see, the weight will travel the same distance as before, the motor will turn the same amount, allbeit slowed by the cylinder, yet the cylinder will store force in its air pressure.Please help me get this one correct in my little brain!))