Minecraft Forums

These are all great answers. But the bottom line is, boats will always be this way. Mojang is completely aware of how bad they are, and they know how to fix them. They just don't. They are trolling us. Every time they read about how bad boats are they just laugh at us. Well played, Mojang... well played...

Stackable boats sounds good to me.

The main problem with boats is that they just doesn't feel right within the Minecraft universe. They just doesn't move and behave like you would expect them to in a block based game. In Minecraft the boats doesn't actually float in water, they hover over water, so their behaviour feels more like you are in a hovercraft than in a boat.

It would be very cool if the boats could be built with blocks just like other structures, but I doubt that will be possible.

So the quick fix would be to let the boats behave more like a floating vessel, make it slow to turn while fast when going straight.

And make them bigger so that you can add a chest in them.

Also you should be able to secure the boat with a lead, that way we might loose the annoying thing that happens when you go ashore and the boats just drifts away in the opposite direction.

What I would change on boats:

- Add a durability bar, and increase a bit the durability

- Add boats of different colours according to the wood that was used to craft it (acacia, dark oak, birch, etc.)

- Iron or Obsidian boats, that are more durable

- Add a space for a chest, just like donkeys.

There is nothing wrong with making them invulnerable. Nothing else in the game explodes into shrapnel when it hits a wall, so why should boats? This property is purely obnoxious and serves no real practical purpose. And I'd love to have a personal boat that's all mine, and that I could name and use personally without it exploding every time it so much brushes past some sand.

Wood boats - keep as is

Iron boats (or maybe gold, since the boat recipe with iron instead of wood is a minecart) - squids don't break them, won't break against shore except perhaps to drop as an item

Obsidian boats - Sailing in LAVA

No matter WHAT you do to boats, the need to first and foremost take hits better.

Landfall is impossible, and even hitting a lillypad is a 50/50 crapshoot of survival.

WHY?

Have you EVER seen a boat irl that has EVER broken on a lillypad?

Some things should just be stronger, even in the logic of a videogame, and a boat should be stronger than a LILLYPAD.

Durability would be a great improvement, especially considering how impossible making landfall without breaking it is now.

Seriously, did Notch think about boats at ALL?

I can't even land a boat on a fully sand shore without it shattering like cheap dishes on hardwood flooring.

I know I made the boat orgiginally out of wood, not rice paper.

Once 1.9 is good and settled, the next serious update needs to fix everything oceanic, because the oceans are the last

fairly raw, beta-esque remains of a test game.

Boats right away need to be usable.

Between the size of some ocean crossings, and the neccesary exploration of Deep Oceans needed to find Ocean Monuments, boats are essential.

At the full speed of a boat, sometimes squid spawns happens so close in front of you, bumping them is inevitable.

At least let me bounce off a couple, especially when they spawn below me.

Boats that carry 2 or 4 people would be nice too if you're traveling in groups.

You know what else destroys boats? Your friends boat you're traveling with that made a sharp turn unexpectedly or stopped faster than you could.

Not cool.

Make it so I can take a boat, combine it on a crafting table with a second boat, and it makes a 2 person boat or pontoon boat or something.

The person who enters the boat first sits in the front, and only they have control; the other is along for the ride.

Have a bigger party?

Stick 2 canoes together for a 4 person boat or raft.

Again, user 1 controls, the rest enjoy the ride.

Another issue is boating weapons.

Epecially if the game would expand the role of the ocean in the game (and I hope they do, sailing can be boring), you need a defense.

Have you ever shot an arrow from a boat?

The aiming isn't exactly accurate.

Maybe harpoons, something that only fires from the boat?

OH! And while I'm on the subject of using items from a boat, why is fishing so awkward if you're in a boat?

The one place you should be able to fish best, and the slight bobbing motion makes fishing hard to control.

Not only allow me to fish from a boat (instead of stuck on the shore), but maybe make better fish catchable in the deep sea.

Setup Deep Ocean so you have better random fish.

However, even ancient tribes of people were capable of fishing from boats.

If we consider Minecraft similar to a Meieval, magic and knights era, boat fishing should already be second nature.

To make this already long post short, the next major update after 1.9, at least by 1.9.5, needs to make the oceans worth using.

Minecraft: The Pirate Update!

I love boats and I love using them for exploring and map making in survival. Having said that they do suck, and could really use an overhaul.

Some version of durability or repairability or both would be the first and necessary improvement.

It would be lovely if i could put a chest in my boat or another player. Provided that we arent going to die in a fireball of planks and sticks when we bump into a lily in the middle if our circumnavigation attempt.

PE boats with oars are adorable but woefully slow. So perhaps if we are going with oars we could add sails for speed? Just a thought.

A repairable, nameable boat, that doesnt shatter at the slightest glance from aquatic flora. With a chest and room for a companion. Perhaps with a sail and oars. Maybe different look depending on wood used, as doors. The owl and the pussycat would like to explore. 😊

Simple. Just bring Pocket Edition boats to PC.

The two biggest changes necessary to make boats much more functional would be:

• Raise their durability a bit more to make them less fragile.
• Allow the rider to right click the top of a block within a 2-3 block range to dismount onto it.

Quote from rodabon»

• Allow the rider to right click the top of a block within a 2-3 block range to dismount onto it.

THAT would be an excellent idea.

Also, if boats didn't run away like crazy or could be tied down on something, that would be good too.

I still miss boat elevator. =(

How about a sturdier boat crafted with the original boat and iron bars that doesn't break?

Some really good ideas coming up here, my favourite notion is to treat boats like aquatic minecarts:

• Remove breaking by collision completely, as no other entities are subject to this.
• Still take damage from player, arrow, mob or cactus damage, so they can be broken to be picked up again.

Though if Mojang are insistent in keeping collision damage on I'd like to see tiered damage like that of anvils. So you'd start with a pristine boat, 1 collision will change the entity to a "damaged boat", repeating for a few iterations until it finally shatters. If this is reflected in the model, say it gets chunks taken out, or rides lower in the water each time, we can predict when we're losing our boat, and plan / repair accordingly. Repair could be like that of tools, either with wood or an equally damaged boat.

Now onto extra features I'd like to see, which may be slightly off-topic:

Boat with Chest - Aquatic version of minecart chest, can be moved around with water currents or pushing, won't take collision damage (so you don't lose all your stuff).

Leads on Boats - So you can link together and drag conga-lines of boats. Either for large player trips, or transporting boats with chests across oceans. Obviously the problems with servers and boats would have to be fixed first, so this may be an SSP exclusive on a practical level.
Obsidian Boats - Already commented on this thread, but it's a brilliant idea. Work on lava as boats do on water. However the player would have to have fire-resistance, the boat itself will not protect the riding entity.

And while they're at it, Mojang should add bigger sailing ships with storage, ballistas/cannons, and room to walk around.

I don't know whether or not I want more durability, but enchantment would be awesome.

Add Eff. V and zip around at the speed of sound! Add Unbreaking III and never be bothered by squid again! Add Power V and decimate those Guardians!

Add Lure and automatically drop a line! Add Knockback and send those aquatic Creepers flying! Add Fire Resistance and take a ride through the Nether! Add Looting and you can make a aquatic Wither Skelly farm! No, that wouldn't work, the coal would melt in water...

I want boats to have the same collision/breaking mechanics as Minecarts- except instead of being proficcient on tracks, they're proficient in water. In other words, they don't break upon collision with blocks, but they will break AND DROP A BOAT ITEM when they are blown up by TNT, hit with a projectile, or punched by a player.

The dropping boats instead of sticks and wood is the best solution in my opinion.

I like the idea of having tiered damage like an anvil. It makes sense and adds continuity within Minecraft's internal logic.

Iron or gold or whatever boats though? Eh, I'm not really feeling it. I don't know about other players, but when I go exploring, I don't make my boats ahead of time or bring stuff like iron with me. Generally, when I need a boat, I'll stop, cut down a tree and craft a couple on the spot, so I would never really use all the fancy boats people are suggesting. Maybe if they added a storage boat you could change my mind though.

As far as desync goes, this is the biggest issue. Minecarts and horses work (decently) well, so why do my client and the server disagree about where I am by like 200 blocks. It's really frustrating when you have to swim the last 50 blocks of your journey because your boat broke before land was spotted on the horizon.

How about boat enchantments? You have the obvious one, Unbreaking, which decreases its chance to break on impact. Maybe put the fishing rod enchants in there as well. The chances increase when you're in a boat with the same enchantment. I dunno, I think boat enchantments could turn out interesting.