For the issue of dragging a ship/boat into the sea/lake/river, I add the archimedes block(ima heretic now xD) so I can move it along slowly on land to the water Or if I ground my vessel in shallow waters. So the Arch helm is a emergency/launch tool instead of a replacement o3o
Also because I like to play semi legit in survival without mcedit support =w=
making a shipyard is rather interesting instead of the usual paste of edit o3o
Well, that's another reason to add this ability, Cuchaz Of course, if you have time. It's your mod, your decision!
I was not sure about the translation from my language. Therefore I did not use the word. :-)
Thanks for giving me the translation.
Any way, to me, the dry dock is the thing that makes the most sense, because I believe it is still used for quite the same reasons in real life : you don't need to build gigantic structures to support the ship, remove them and build them again.
So yeah, I would say that it could be useful, especially if combined with Tall Worlds when it will be done, you will not loose dozens of wooden blocks foolishly. Imagine that you were building an iron boat. Even if you had a tech mod that gives you 3 ingots for an iron ore, you would have to kind quite a lot, just to build a small ship.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =) Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Well, (in Minecraft) if you build your ship on the shore, you have comfortable access to the bottom of the hull (you don't need to swim and dive around), you can set up lightning for night work, removed blocks don't sink in the water - they lie on the ground for easy pick-up, and so on. After the ship is done, you just push it a dozen meters to the water, and it's launched. If you build it above water, like you suggested, than you need some kind of bulky structure so you can walk around and build on, that your items don't fall in the water, and after the ship is complete, you have to remove it so that the ship can be launched (while you do it ships floats in the air - well, they aren't supposed to do that). I don't know, but imho the first option makes more sense...
Another option, like was suggested, is a drydock, but I guess it is far more harder to code than to add slow movement on land...
I understand now. Thanks for explaining. I've done all of my ship building in creative mode so far. It's much easier for testing to be able to fly around. I see now how ship building is much harder in survival mode. =)
I'll need some time to think about how to build something that lets you launch a ship from land.
It seems like the easiest way for now is to build a natural dry dock by digging a big empty hole. You can build your ship in it, and then flood the hole by breaking a dam. That's a one time use thing though, because there's no good way to get the water back out. You'd need water pumps. Or maybe you can fill in the hole with dirt. But at least it would let you launch one ship right now.
There might be a way to use rails and rail carts to tow ships around. That would be an interesting way to incorporate rails into the mod. I don't know if rails can be placed underwater though.
The solution you suggested, letting ships move on land, seems like a simple solution, but it's actually really hard to implement. The way the collision system for ships is designed now, ships can't really slide along the land. I'd have to change the collision system which is already stupidly complicated.
Launching ships from land is certainly an interesting feature, and I think it would be fun to add to the mod. It's hard to do though, so it might take me a while to finish it.
I'd add a ticket on BitBucket to remind myself, but BitBucket seems to be down at the moment. I'll try to remember to do it later.
There might be a way to use rails and rail carts to tow ships around. That would be an interesting way to incorporate rails into the mod. I don't know if rails can be placed underwater though.
You don't need to place rails underwater though. You just need the rails to go to the water, then ride the ship off the rails, into the water.
Though, picking up whatever you used to tow the ship to sea might be annoying.
I understand now. Thanks for explaining. I've done all of my ship building in creative mode so far. It's much easier for testing to be able to fly around. I see now how ship building is much harder in survival mode. =) ....
I'm very glad to hear you found my proposal interesting. As for dry docks, I'm not entirely sure whenever your mod requires stationary water blocks for ship to move. As I've tested launching possibilities with 6x3x1 raft (just plank blocks with Tiny Ship block on top), I noticed that digging underneath the ship ant letting water flow under is enough for it to get moving. I'm not sure if this would work with larger ships.
With this method, there are limitations, of course, because water flows only for 7 blocks distance. If a dry-dock would have water flowing from sides (easy to do with dispensers or pistons), then the ship width would be limited for 14 blocks, which is kind of enough for most ships, but not enough for really big ones.
I'm not sure if this would even work with big ships.
I'm not sure which method would be easiest for you to code, but I'll just throw in my remark that your mod is very popular, and often used in conjunction with other mods. Adding new blocks or block-specific mechanics which might be required for pumps to work might break compatibility here and there. I know this isn't a priority for you, so I'm just saying - maybe it's a thing to consider. Your decision, anyway.
I'm pretty sure that rails can't be placed underwater, because water breaks them. Anyway, that probably wouldn't be needed, as the ship could be carried on rails to the shore, where water is immediately deep enough for that ship. The ship would fall of the rails and into the water without getting stuck because it's deep enough.
Just a suggestion, if you will choose to follow this path. It would be great if rails wouldn't require 1 on 1 slope to work. Because if they would, then the ship would be needed to be built on high platforms, which by definition would be very difficult to accomplish. Maybe 1 to 5 slope would be enough? Or, for example, larger slope at the beginning to help ship gain momentum, and then smaller slope for it to travel to the water by it's inertia?
Another proposal. Maybe you could implement a kind of special "towing" block, which, when used, would disable collisions altogether, except for the bottom blocks of the ship (so that it doesn't sink in the ground). It could have some kind of limitations, like speed or fuel or anything, so that it couldn't be abused. Not sure if that's easier to code than the rails or dry-dock.
It would be so neat to see the ship being pushed by pistons along the rails. =D
That might be a bit eye candy, but it would also be a nice wink(is that the right word?) to the Minecraft mechanics. =P
Also, it would be neat to see a propulsion system based on pistons in Minecraft, I mean, if redstone is implemented some day, which I'm sure it will, and if pistons can actually move inside the ship, seeing that you can make a motor out of it would be nice. Of course, I would understand that it is not powerful at all, because redstone is an infinite source of energy, a flowing input of some magical program leak (perhaps it is in fact the visible form of dark energy?), but it would be neat to see something like this.
I had always advocated multiblock structures for anything because despite its programming difficulty, the gameplay is always improved a lot, you can always optimize better the installation if it is mutliblock, rather than if you have a magic box doing all the stuff you want... But I think that my engineer spirit is digressing right now...
So, I would imagine that pistons would be in a squarish pattern, and would push a bar around an axis, on which it would be attached, providing a circular force. =)
Not sure somebody can understand what I am imagining. Perhaps I'm too far away in my imagination. =D
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =) Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Oh, right. Water in Minecraft doesn't really fill holes. It just flows into them. I guess those mechanics would make a dry dock impossible. Maybe there's a mod out there that implements a lock system. That might let you implement a dry dock.
Until then, I guess that leaves us with rail solutions, or finding a way to drag ships across land. I'd prefer the rail solution I think. I'll have to think about how it should work.
Oh, right. Water in Minecraft doesn't really fill holes. It just flows into them. I guess those mechanics would make a dry dock impossible. Maybe there's a mod out there that implements a lock system. That might let you implement a dry dock.
The only thing i can think of off the top of my head is Thaumcraft's Arcane spa. Its a single block filled with water, and upon activation can fill a 1x5x5 area with water.
The only thing i can think of off the top of my head is Thaumcraft's Arcane spa. Its a single block filled with water, and upon activation can fill a 1x5x5 area with water.
Or a mod like Buildcraft, that through its close gate can place water blocks, combined with the alpha Realistic Fluids Overhaul. :-)
That would work. You would just have to get some pistons pushing blocks to close the dry dock. Then you pump all the water, it is dry, build your ship, you can use the flood gates to fill it back up, the RFO mod will ensure that the water level is the same everywhere.
Ask the pistons, thanks to an ingenious system to open the gate, you're done.
:-)
For Petlahk1, there are 3 ways to accelerate a ship:
1) Newtonian physics: more force = more acceleration
2) Again, thank Newton: less mass = more acceleration
3) Common sense: less drag = more overall push = more acceleration
These are the only ones I can think about.
:-)
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =) Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Does anyone know if you can increase ship speed by raising how high the keel sits, or lowing how much of the ship is in the water?
Yes, you can. =)
Quote from jenniferstrifejumpThis mod is really amazing.
Sorry if someone already asked that (I searched into the thread but nothing shows up), but will you add some seats? I always fall in water when the ship is moving. Maybe I am doing something wrong...? It's a bit annoying. XD I tried to add chairs from other mods, but they made me die in the void. Ouch.
Rather than have to implement everything in Ships Mod, it would be nice if special blocks like chairs just worked correctly on ships. It's a goal, but it may take me a long time to get there. It will probably mean I can to create some kind of Ships Mod API so that other mod blocks can tell if they're on ships or not and do the right thing. This kind of thing might be handled better in the mod loader I'm working on, so I may save it until then.
By the way, I'm always about to ask: supposing Ships mod had an API, wouldn't the other mod devs also say that it's a never ending pile of work to make their mod compatible with every other mod?
It's not to accuse you about your current position regarding compatibility, because I'm on your side, but I think that this problem could also slow down everything....
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =) Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
For those of you interested in the dry dock idea... I've been perfecting a design for the last several weeks with the intention of being able to build and launch a ship comfortably in survival... It uses this mod of course, buildcraft, thermal expansion, and project red. My current build is way too small, but working so I could post a video if it would help. That was the first thing I built after downloading this amazing mod.
By the way, I'm always about to ask: supposing Ships mod had an API, wouldn't the other mod devs also say that it's a never ending pile of work to make their mod compatible with every other mod?
It's not to accuse you about your current position regarding compatibility, because I'm on your side, but I think that this problem could also slow down everything....
Absolutely. Making mods compatible is always extra work. The trick is to not make one modder do all of that work. The ecosystem works better if the inter-mod compatibility work is spread among multiple modders. This is the reason for the API. The API is a way for one modder to say, I really do care about compatibility, so I'm going to do some extra work to let other modders add compatibility more easily if they want. The API lets multiple modders add compatibility by sharing the workload and meeting somewhere in the middle, rather than forcing one modder to do all the work.
I understand now. Thanks for explaining. I've done all of my ship building in creative mode so far. It's much easier for testing to be able to fly around. I see now how ship building is much harder in survival mode. =)
I'll need some time to think about how to build something that lets you launch a ship from land.
It seems like the easiest way for now is to build a natural dry dock by digging a big empty hole. You can build your ship in it, and then flood the hole by breaking a dam. That's a one time use thing though, because there's no good way to get the water back out. You'd need water pumps. Or maybe you can fill in the hole with dirt. But at least it would let you launch one ship right now.
There might be a way to use rails and rail carts to tow ships around. That would be an interesting way to incorporate rails into the mod. I don't know if rails can be placed underwater though.
The solution you suggested, letting ships move on land, seems like a simple solution, but it's actually really hard to implement. The way the collision system for ships is designed now, ships can't really slide along the land. I'd have to change the collision system which is already stupidly complicated.
Launching ships from land is certainly an interesting feature, and I think it would be fun to add to the mod. It's hard to do though, so it might take me a while to finish it.
I'd add a ticket on BitBucket to remind myself, but BitBucket seems to be down at the moment. I'll try to remember to do it later.
The most realistic way to launch would be with rollers, However the best in terms of your time management it would be to implement air ships. xD cant wait.
Although having said that about which is easier i would like to point out that i wouldn't know how the collisions are done, like would it be possible to for ships blocks to detect it u were on rollers rather that water and if so to ignore buoyancy?
If it was that simple then heck i could do it
Normally, you shouldn't fall off the ship.
Maybe recording a video would helping diagnose where your problem is?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =) Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
The most realistic way to launch would be with rollers, However the best in terms of your time management it would be to implement air ships. xD cant wait.
Although having said that about which is easier i would like to point out that i wouldn't know how the collisions are done, like would it be possible to for ships blocks to detect it u were on rollers rather that water and if so to ignore buoyancy?
If it was that simple then heck i could do it
I certainly want to implement air ships before I spend too much time working on land-based launching. And propulsions system too. =)
Ok, no problem for time needed. ^^ For now, does somebody know how to not fall out of the ship? Am I going too fast maybe? What do you do about that? I tried to place a lot of blocks around me but nothing can stop my fall.
Unfortunately, ship collision still isn't perfect. It's still sometimes possible to walk through walls while the ship is moving towards you. I'm guessing this is what you're talking about. It's a tricky bug, but I should eventually fix it.
Oh, right. Water in Minecraft doesn't really fill holes. It just flows into them. I guess those mechanics would make a dry dock impossible. Maybe there's a mod out there that implements a lock system. That might let you implement a dry dock.
Until then, I guess that leaves us with rail solutions, or finding a way to drag ships across land. I'd prefer the rail solution I think. I'll have to think about how it should work.
Whatever floats your boat! But again, wouldn't this special "tow" block work? It could use only part of physics engine that normal ship blocks use. For example, slow speeds, no rotation, no advanced collision checking. Just enough to make it crawl on the ground until it reaches water.
Rather than have to implement everything in Ships Mod, it would be nice if special blocks like chairs just worked correctly on ships. It's a goal, but it may take me a long time to get there. It will probably mean I can to create some kind of Ships Mod API so that other mod blocks can tell if they're on ships or not and do the right thing. This kind of thing might be handled better in the mod loader I'm working on, so I may save it until then.
Absolutely. Making mods compatible is always extra work. The trick is to not make one modder do all of that work. The ecosystem works better if the inter-mod compatibility work is spread among multiple modders. This is the reason for the API. The API is a way for one modder to say, I really do care about compatibility, so I'm going to do some extra work to let other modders add compatibility more easily if they want. The API lets multiple modders add compatibility by sharing the workload and meeting somewhere in the middle, rather than forcing one modder to do all the work.
Speaking of this, I am now testing your mod compatibility with the famous TerraFirmaCraft mod. These two seem to be compatible on most things, but there are things, like chests that crash the game (I know, non-vanilla GUI's cause that) and detailed blocks of TFC (tile entities) which do not have correct weight (for example, in TFC stone and wood stairs have the same ID. Even wood stairs and slabs have the same ID too). I have talked with TFC devs, and they said that if you'd release API, it would make it much easier to make these two mods compatible.
I know, this isn't on your priority list, and I respect that. But if you wish, please take a look at that discussion. Although I don't know much of modding, I offer my help with testing to reduce your workload should you choose to consider at least somewhat compatibility between those mods in future releases.
Whatever floats your boat! But again, wouldn't this special "tow" block work? It could use only part of physics engine that normal ship blocks use. For example, slow speeds, no rotation, no advanced collision checking. Just enough to make it crawl on the ground until it reaches water.
Speaking of this, I am now testing your mod compatibility with the famous TerraFirmaCraft mod. These two seem to be compatible on most things, but there are things, like chests that crash the game (I know, non-vanilla GUI's cause that) and detailed blocks of TFC (tile entities) which do not have correct weight (for example, in TFC stone and wood stairs have the same ID. Even wood stairs and slabs have the same ID too). I have talked with TFC devs, and they said that if you'd release API, it would make it much easier to make these two mods compatible.
I know, this isn't on your priority list, and I respect that. But if you wish, please take a look at that discussion. Although I don't know much of modding, I offer my help with testing to reduce your workload should you choose to consider at least somewhat compatibility between those mods in future releases.
Please, let me know what you think
It's nice to hear that Ships Mod is almost compatible with TFC. Maybe it's about time I make an API that can let Entities and TileEntities know they're on ships if they want. I don't mind adding compatibility features as long they can benefit everyone and not just one specific mod. It's officially on the todo list now. =)
Well, that's another reason to add this ability, Cuchaz Of course, if you have time. It's your mod, your decision!
Thanks for giving me the translation.
Any way, to me, the dry dock is the thing that makes the most sense, because I believe it is still used for quite the same reasons in real life : you don't need to build gigantic structures to support the ship, remove them and build them again.
So yeah, I would say that it could be useful, especially if combined with Tall Worlds when it will be done, you will not loose dozens of wooden blocks foolishly. Imagine that you were building an iron boat. Even if you had a tech mod that gives you 3 ingots for an iron ore, you would have to kind quite a lot, just to build a small ship.
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =)
Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
I understand now. Thanks for explaining. I've done all of my ship building in creative mode so far. It's much easier for testing to be able to fly around. I see now how ship building is much harder in survival mode. =)
I'll need some time to think about how to build something that lets you launch a ship from land.
It seems like the easiest way for now is to build a natural dry dock by digging a big empty hole. You can build your ship in it, and then flood the hole by breaking a dam. That's a one time use thing though, because there's no good way to get the water back out. You'd need water pumps. Or maybe you can fill in the hole with dirt. But at least it would let you launch one ship right now.
There might be a way to use rails and rail carts to tow ships around. That would be an interesting way to incorporate rails into the mod. I don't know if rails can be placed underwater though.
The solution you suggested, letting ships move on land, seems like a simple solution, but it's actually really hard to implement. The way the collision system for ships is designed now, ships can't really slide along the land. I'd have to change the collision system which is already stupidly complicated.
Launching ships from land is certainly an interesting feature, and I think it would be fun to add to the mod. It's hard to do though, so it might take me a while to finish it.
I'd add a ticket on BitBucket to remind myself, but BitBucket seems to be down at the moment. I'll try to remember to do it later.
You don't need to place rails underwater though. You just need the rails to go to the water, then ride the ship off the rails, into the water.
Though, picking up whatever you used to tow the ship to sea might be annoying.
I'm very glad to hear you found my proposal interesting. As for dry docks, I'm not entirely sure whenever your mod requires stationary water blocks for ship to move. As I've tested launching possibilities with 6x3x1 raft (just plank blocks with Tiny Ship block on top), I noticed that digging underneath the ship ant letting water flow under is enough for it to get moving. I'm not sure if this would work with larger ships.
With this method, there are limitations, of course, because water flows only for 7 blocks distance. If a dry-dock would have water flowing from sides (easy to do with dispensers or pistons), then the ship width would be limited for 14 blocks, which is kind of enough for most ships, but not enough for really big ones.
I'm not sure if this would even work with big ships.
I'm not sure which method would be easiest for you to code, but I'll just throw in my remark that your mod is very popular, and often used in conjunction with other mods. Adding new blocks or block-specific mechanics which might be required for pumps to work might break compatibility here and there. I know this isn't a priority for you, so I'm just saying - maybe it's a thing to consider. Your decision, anyway.
I'm pretty sure that rails can't be placed underwater, because water breaks them. Anyway, that probably wouldn't be needed, as the ship could be carried on rails to the shore, where water is immediately deep enough for that ship. The ship would fall of the rails and into the water without getting stuck because it's deep enough.
Just a suggestion, if you will choose to follow this path. It would be great if rails wouldn't require 1 on 1 slope to work. Because if they would, then the ship would be needed to be built on high platforms, which by definition would be very difficult to accomplish. Maybe 1 to 5 slope would be enough? Or, for example, larger slope at the beginning to help ship gain momentum, and then smaller slope for it to travel to the water by it's inertia?
Another proposal. Maybe you could implement a kind of special "towing" block, which, when used, would disable collisions altogether, except for the bottom blocks of the ship (so that it doesn't sink in the ground). It could have some kind of limitations, like speed or fuel or anything, so that it couldn't be abused. Not sure if that's easier to code than the rails or dry-dock.
Please, let us know if you need any help
That might be a bit eye candy, but it would also be a nice wink(is that the right word?) to the Minecraft mechanics. =P
Also, it would be neat to see a propulsion system based on pistons in Minecraft, I mean, if redstone is implemented some day, which I'm sure it will, and if pistons can actually move inside the ship, seeing that you can make a motor out of it would be nice. Of course, I would understand that it is not powerful at all, because redstone is an infinite source of energy, a flowing input of some magical program leak (perhaps it is in fact the visible form of dark energy?), but it would be neat to see something like this.
I had always advocated multiblock structures for anything because despite its programming difficulty, the gameplay is always improved a lot, you can always optimize better the installation if it is mutliblock, rather than if you have a magic box doing all the stuff you want... But I think that my engineer spirit is digressing right now...
So, I would imagine that pistons would be in a squarish pattern, and would push a bar around an axis, on which it would be attached, providing a circular force. =)
Not sure somebody can understand what I am imagining. Perhaps I'm too far away in my imagination. =D
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =)
Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Oh, right. Water in Minecraft doesn't really fill holes. It just flows into them. I guess those mechanics would make a dry dock impossible. Maybe there's a mod out there that implements a lock system. That might let you implement a dry dock.
Until then, I guess that leaves us with rail solutions, or finding a way to drag ships across land. I'd prefer the rail solution I think. I'll have to think about how it should work.
The only thing i can think of off the top of my head is Thaumcraft's Arcane spa. Its a single block filled with water, and upon activation can fill a 1x5x5 area with water.
Or a mod like Buildcraft, that through its close gate can place water blocks, combined with the alpha Realistic Fluids Overhaul. :-)
That would work. You would just have to get some pistons pushing blocks to close the dry dock. Then you pump all the water, it is dry, build your ship, you can use the flood gates to fill it back up, the RFO mod will ensure that the water level is the same everywhere.
Ask the pistons, thanks to an ingenious system to open the gate, you're done.
:-)
For Petlahk1, there are 3 ways to accelerate a ship:
1) Newtonian physics: more force = more acceleration
2) Again, thank Newton: less mass = more acceleration
3) Common sense: less drag = more overall push = more acceleration
These are the only ones I can think about.
:-)
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =)
Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Yes, you can. =)
Rather than have to implement everything in Ships Mod, it would be nice if special blocks like chairs just worked correctly on ships. It's a goal, but it may take me a long time to get there. It will probably mean I can to create some kind of Ships Mod API so that other mod blocks can tell if they're on ships or not and do the right thing. This kind of thing might be handled better in the mod loader I'm working on, so I may save it until then.
It's not to accuse you about your current position regarding compatibility, because I'm on your side, but I think that this problem could also slow down everything....
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =)
Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
Absolutely. Making mods compatible is always extra work. The trick is to not make one modder do all of that work. The ecosystem works better if the inter-mod compatibility work is spread among multiple modders. This is the reason for the API. The API is a way for one modder to say, I really do care about compatibility, so I'm going to do some extra work to let other modders add compatibility more easily if they want. The API lets multiple modders add compatibility by sharing the workload and meeting somewhere in the middle, rather than forcing one modder to do all the work.
The most realistic way to launch would be with rollers, However the best in terms of your time management it would be to implement air ships. xD cant wait.
Although having said that about which is easier i would like to point out that i wouldn't know how the collisions are done, like would it be possible to for ships blocks to detect it u were on rollers rather that water and if so to ignore buoyancy?
If it was that simple then heck i could do it
Be involved in the Survival of Modding in the Post-Notch Era. Enigma + M3L + LiteLoader/API + BlazeLoader {ALL Open-Source!}
Maybe recording a video would helping diagnose where your problem is?
A Rocket Science tester and engineer. Well, at least when it will be released. =)
I'm French so English is not my native language. Please correct me when I make a mistake and don't worry for me, it will be even better. Thanks in advance! =)
Current number of corrected posts/things: 7
I certainly want to implement air ships before I spend too much time working on land-based launching. And propulsions system too. =)
Unfortunately, ship collision still isn't perfect. It's still sometimes possible to walk through walls while the ship is moving towards you. I'm guessing this is what you're talking about. It's a tricky bug, but I should eventually fix it.
Whatever floats your boat! But again, wouldn't this special "tow" block work? It could use only part of physics engine that normal ship blocks use. For example, slow speeds, no rotation, no advanced collision checking. Just enough to make it crawl on the ground until it reaches water.
Speaking of this, I am now testing your mod compatibility with the famous TerraFirmaCraft mod. These two seem to be compatible on most things, but there are things, like chests that crash the game (I know, non-vanilla GUI's cause that) and detailed blocks of TFC (tile entities) which do not have correct weight (for example, in TFC stone and wood stairs have the same ID. Even wood stairs and slabs have the same ID too). I have talked with TFC devs, and they said that if you'd release API, it would make it much easier to make these two mods compatible.
I know, this isn't on your priority list, and I respect that. But if you wish, please take a look at that discussion. Although I don't know much of modding, I offer my help with testing to reduce your workload should you choose to consider at least somewhat compatibility between those mods in future releases.
Please, let me know what you think
It's nice to hear that Ships Mod is almost compatible with TFC. Maybe it's about time I make an API that can let Entities and TileEntities know they're on ships if they want. I don't mind adding compatibility features as long they can benefit everyone and not just one specific mod. It's officially on the todo list now. =)