Ships mod lets you build a ship out of blocks and sail it around the Minecraft world!
Other mods have attempted this in the past. Some of these projects have been abandoned, and in my opinion, the remaining ones leave something to be desired. Ships mod is my take on how I think sailing should work in Minecraft and this aims to be a high-quality and feature-rich mod.
Want to see what Ships Mod looks like? Take a look at these early technology demo videos on YouTube.
Also, feel free to ask questions. Like, will feature X be supported? Chances are, it will. Eventually. And feel free to share your suggestions for what features you'd like to see added.
Yup, I'm me. I've been on PMC for a while, but I thought I'd start hanging out in the official Minecraft forums too.
To answer your questions:
Yes, there will be propulsion systems. Propulsion will be a big part of the mod. Larger ships will need propellers etc to move. The paddle is just for the raft-type ship. It's designed to be a simple starter ship that doesn't take a lot of resources to build. Paddling won't even work on larger ships.
For the lag, I'm not sure how low-end computers will handle the mod. Larger ships will need more CPU time to process than small ships, but I've done a lot of work to optimize the code. The goal is to keep the code very efficient to remove lag as much as possible.
I'll keep updating this thread with progress on the mod, so stay tuned. =)
Thanks! The next update I'm working on will have more accurate calculations for water displacement. So, hull-shaped ships will float properly and won't look like they're filled with water!
My questions are will there be any other ways to make the ship move like, steeringwheel+sails, and will there be any different types of cannons.
Yes, there will be steering wheels (ie a helm) and sails. The paddle shown in the video is currently only for small raft-type ships where larger propulsion systems don't make much sense. I currently don't plan to add any cannons.
This looks incredible. I've always had an interest in building ships in Minecraft, but have shied away from it, since they don't serve much purpose except as a house-boat due to being immobile.
As far as suggestions, I'd just like things like Balkon's Weapons Mod (cannons) (and other mods like Balkon's) to be able to be included in the ship's make-up.
As far as suggestions, I'd just like things like Balkon's Weapons Mod (cannons) (and other mods like Balkon's) to be able to be included in the ship's make-up.
There are currently no plans to add cannons. After I get done with all the features I have planned already, I'll consider adding cannons. The primary goal of the mod right now is to allow exploration using ships. Ship combat is currently not a priority.
You should make the crafting recipe use gold instead of iron and then retexture the ship block. I can make the textures and give them to you in Standard definition (16x16) and High Definition (128x128) if you would like me to.
With that thought I wanted to ask does redstone work on the ship? (You said in the last post players/mobs/cows/etc work Wich include tnt?)
Redstone circuits are a bit different than players/mobs/cows. They're closer to chests and furnaces actually. I do intend to have working chests,furnaces,hoppers,etc on ships. Redstone is much trickier though. I'd like to support it if I can, but it's currently a lower priority.
You should make the crafting recipe use gold instead of iron and then retexture the ship block.
The crafting recipes are not finalized, so I do appreciate everyone's input on this. Let me give you a peek of what's to come, so everyone understands what we're balancing with these recipes. There will be many different classes of ships. The ship in the video is a small raft. It's limited to 16 blocks total, and Its recipe is supposed to be easy to make. It's kind of like a small starter ship.
Other ships I have planned in the future are larger ships (64 blocks, 256 blocks, 1024 blocks, 8192 blocks, etc), air ships, and submarines. The blocks for those ships should certainly have more difficult recipes. But it's probably not necessary to make the raft-type ship block more difficult.
I can make the textures and give them to you in Standard definition (16x16) and High Definition (128x128) if you would like me to.
If you want to make textures, that would be sweet. I won't guarantee I'll use them in the mod, but if I do, I'll add the appropriate credits. Let's see what you can do. =P
This sounds great! Will there be a limit to how big the boats can be? Or can we use multiple Ship blocks to make a bigger ship? I'd love to make a real Titanic
This sounds great! Will there be a limit to how big the boats can be? Or can we use multiple Ship blocks to make a bigger ship? I'd love to make a real Titanic
The only technical limit on ship size is lag. Larger ships will need more CPU time to update. There will be a way to craft ship blocks for large ships.
I'd like to do a public release, but I need to finish more of the core features first. I don't want to put out a mod (even an initial version) that looks unfinished or glitchy.
What I'm working on now is getting water displacement to work correctly, so there's no water in the bottom of the boats. That always annoyed me in other mods. Also, I want to get tile entities like chests and furnaces working. Also, lighting like torches and glowstone needs to do something reasonable. When these tasks are complete, I'll start thinking about doing a public release. Until then, I'll keep making youtube videos to show off some of the progress.
No. But you can dock the ship, change the blocks, then re-launch it. It's effectively the same thing, but it's a little more cumbersome than building directly to the ship.
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to answer it. If you leave the server/game while on a ship, everything will stay where you expect it to be when you log back on.
I must admit that I don't like how it's done in Archimedes' ships, since although it's nice that you can rotate your ship by 90 degrees, no mods support it, so it screw's the placement. I hope you have a different solution for that, I believe that most people wouldn't mind if you had to rotate the ship to it's original position.
I've seen how Archimedes ships does things in a youtube video. My system is currently similar to theirs. My ships will allow rotation, but when you dock the ship, it has to be pointing along a NSEW direction. This means, you could end up rotating some set of world blocks by 90 degrees. Does this cause problems? Maybe with something like hoppers? Can you describe the issue in more detail? I can try to correct for it.
The point is, when you have a structure and rotate it, you must ensure that the blocks in it change the direction they are facing to - like when you have a furnace that was facing north and you rotate the ship by 180 degrees, it must be facing south now. This is not that complicated for vanilla items, but it would require an API for modded items.
Ah, I see the problem now. That's not easy to fix since different blocks store their orientation in different ways. I would have to add an event method to tell a block it has been rotated, then every orientable block would have to implement the event method if it wants to re-orient itself after a rotation. I guess in the long term, I could make a Rotatable Blocks mod (probably a forge coremod) and then Mod authors could use the API for their blocks.
In the short term, maybe the easiest thing to do is give ship captains an option if they want to allow docking at 90,180,270 degrees or not.
but you will consider the option of building while the ship is an entity? i hate that water holes from the other mods
No, building on a sailing ship adds a huge number of technical difficulties I'd rather not deal with right now. It's much simpler to just restrict building to docked ships.
Will there be a restriction with ships as to what their hull is made out of? I hope not. Even though wood is realistic, other blocks like iron or wool are sometimes required for the design.
Also, with the sail powered ones, can sails not be a new item? I build ships with wool sails and really don't want to change them all to a non vanilla blocks.
And what about this helm, will it be an item you hold like the paddle or a stationary block like in the zepelin mod?
Will there be a restriction with ships as to what their hull is made out of? I hope not. Even though wood is realistic, other blocks like iron or wool are sometimes required for the design.
There is no restriction on what blocks can be used for ships. But blocks have different physical properties. For instance, a ship made out of dirt won't be very watertight and might sink. You can make a ship out of iron too... but it might have to be pretty big before it will float. Iron is heavy. =P
Also, with the sail powered ones, can sails not be a new item? I build ships with wool sails and really don't want to change them all to a non vanilla blocks.
Hey, just got a very simple and working idea for water displacement - just fill the ship with almost transparent block (water is not visible through transparent blocks), although it might not work as well when looking through glass. But I offer you a solution for that as well - draw a water around the ship (cull faced - visible only when looking from inside) after you draw those transparent blocks - it should work
That's an interesting idea. I already have a system in place that works pretty well though.
Ships mod lets you build a ship out of blocks and sail it around the Minecraft world!
Other mods have attempted this in the past. Some of these projects have been abandoned, and in my opinion, the remaining ones leave something to be desired. Ships mod is my take on how I think sailing should work in Minecraft and this aims to be a high-quality and feature-rich mod.
See the full list of features here:
http://www.cuchazinteractive.com/ships/
If you want to stay up to date about releases and updates, follow me on Twitter: @cuchaz
Ships Mod doesn't work with your favorite other mod?
Tell Leviathan143 so the compatibility spreadsheet can be updated. Compatibility issues can be reported on this thread.
Want to see what Ships Mod looks like? Take a look at these early technology demo videos on YouTube.
Also, feel free to ask questions. Like, will feature X be supported? Chances are, it will. Eventually. And feel free to share your suggestions for what features you'd like to see added.
Download
The latest version of Ships Mod is v1.7.10-1.0.4
Get it at cuchazinteractive.com!
Recipes
Read the list of recipes
Frequently Asked Questions
Read the FAQ
All mods by Cuchaz:
Ships Mod
Power Tools
Tall Worlds Mod
Ships Mod AddOns:
Sails/Masts - by Alpha_ThePro
To answer your questions:
Yes, there will be propulsion systems. Propulsion will be a big part of the mod. Larger ships will need propellers etc to move. The paddle is just for the raft-type ship. It's designed to be a simple starter ship that doesn't take a lot of resources to build. Paddling won't even work on larger ships.
For the lag, I'm not sure how low-end computers will handle the mod. Larger ships will need more CPU time to process than small ships, but I've done a lot of work to optimize the code. The goal is to keep the code very efficient to remove lag as much as possible.
I'll keep updating this thread with progress on the mod, so stay tuned. =)
Keep up the work. Will definitely watch your progress.
You haven't tried hard enough.
Yes, there will be steering wheels (ie a helm) and sails. The paddle shown in the video is currently only for small raft-type ships where larger propulsion systems don't make much sense. I currently don't plan to add any cannons.
As far as suggestions, I'd just like things like Balkon's Weapons Mod (cannons) (and other mods like Balkon's) to be able to be included in the ship's make-up.
There are currently no plans to add cannons. After I get done with all the features I have planned already, I'll consider adding cannons. The primary goal of the mod right now is to allow exploration using ships. Ship combat is currently not a priority.
The mod will be single-player and multi-player. Ships can carry any number of players, mobs, cows, etc.
-Your Friendly Neighborhood Pigeon
Redstone circuits are a bit different than players/mobs/cows. They're closer to chests and furnaces actually. I do intend to have working chests,furnaces,hoppers,etc on ships. Redstone is much trickier though. I'd like to support it if I can, but it's currently a lower priority.
The crafting recipes are not finalized, so I do appreciate everyone's input on this. Let me give you a peek of what's to come, so everyone understands what we're balancing with these recipes. There will be many different classes of ships. The ship in the video is a small raft. It's limited to 16 blocks total, and Its recipe is supposed to be easy to make. It's kind of like a small starter ship.
Other ships I have planned in the future are larger ships (64 blocks, 256 blocks, 1024 blocks, 8192 blocks, etc), air ships, and submarines. The blocks for those ships should certainly have more difficult recipes. But it's probably not necessary to make the raft-type ship block more difficult.
If you want to make textures, that would be sweet. I won't guarantee I'll use them in the mod, but if I do, I'll add the appropriate credits. Let's see what you can do. =P
That's very kind. Thank you! I finished some more work on the mod. I hope I can put up a new video soon.
The only technical limit on ship size is lag. Larger ships will need more CPU time to update. There will be a way to craft ship blocks for large ships.
I'd like to do a public release, but I need to finish more of the core features first. I don't want to put out a mod (even an initial version) that looks unfinished or glitchy.
What I'm working on now is getting water displacement to work correctly, so there's no water in the bottom of the boats. That always annoyed me in other mods. Also, I want to get tile entities like chests and furnaces working. Also, lighting like torches and glowstone needs to do something reasonable. When these tasks are complete, I'll start thinking about doing a public release. Until then, I'll keep making youtube videos to show off some of the progress.
I do, but I'm not using it for much. Maybe I could use it to announce updates to mods. I'm @cuchaz
Yes
No. But you can dock the ship, change the blocks, then re-launch it. It's effectively the same thing, but it's a little more cumbersome than building directly to the ship.
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll try to answer it. If you leave the server/game while on a ship, everything will stay where you expect it to be when you log back on.
I've seen how Archimedes ships does things in a youtube video. My system is currently similar to theirs. My ships will allow rotation, but when you dock the ship, it has to be pointing along a NSEW direction. This means, you could end up rotating some set of world blocks by 90 degrees. Does this cause problems? Maybe with something like hoppers? Can you describe the issue in more detail? I can try to correct for it.
Ah, I see the problem now. That's not easy to fix since different blocks store their orientation in different ways. I would have to add an event method to tell a block it has been rotated, then every orientable block would have to implement the event method if it wants to re-orient itself after a rotation. I guess in the long term, I could make a Rotatable Blocks mod (probably a forge coremod) and then Mod authors could use the API for their blocks.
In the short term, maybe the easiest thing to do is give ship captains an option if they want to allow docking at 90,180,270 degrees or not.
The goal is to support as much redstone as possible. Redstone support will be difficult though, so I'm saving that challenge for later.
No, building on a sailing ship adds a huge number of technical difficulties I'd rather not deal with right now. It's much simpler to just restrict building to docked ships.
Although, what do you mean by water holes?
Will there be a restriction with ships as to what their hull is made out of? I hope not. Even though wood is realistic, other blocks like iron or wool are sometimes required for the design.
Also, with the sail powered ones, can sails not be a new item? I build ships with wool sails and really don't want to change them all to a non vanilla blocks.
And what about this helm, will it be an item you hold like the paddle or a stationary block like in the zepelin mod?
There is no restriction on what blocks can be used for ships. But blocks have different physical properties. For instance, a ship made out of dirt won't be very watertight and might sink. You can make a ship out of iron too... but it might have to be pretty big before it will float. Iron is heavy. =P
Sails will be just plain cloth.
The helm will be a stationary block like the ship block. The paddle is only for smaller ships where a helm doesn't make much sense.
Oh, I see. My mod doesn't have that problem.
That's an interesting idea. I already have a system in place that works pretty well though.