Boats? yeah... Boats. Or ships

So I had this idea while looking at some of the gameplay. Naturally, I thought of minecraft at first before I really understood that this game had an entirely different appeal to it. The concept of blocks may be similar, as well as building… But not on this scale. And then the introduction of the Pirates, Ninjas, and Politicians It got me thinking. Will their be boats? Sure, One could build boats and make settlers live in them, but making them move is an entirely different story.

The idea is to be able to build the boat or ship and make it however you like… The trick would be to turn it into a moving thing. The issues would obviously be about ramming into land and weather the boat would take on water but without those kinds of physics I feel like being able to create a fleet of ships that could possibly trade with ports that your main town has, with other towns over seas that you create or if we reach the co-op goal on kickstarter with your friends. Now even just one boat alone would be fine. The questions come up though…

1) How would you control it?

2) Would it need a captain or any crew?

3) Could it be damaged or burned down?

4) Should there be a size limit?

As far as my thoughts have gone I can say this much:

1) The controls should be simple. Click on the ship, click where you want it to go (If possible to add cannons - click to attack) Same as people controls. I think that what would be great is if you build the ship, and then at the top install a wheel (That would be the key to turning into a boat/ship) When you click on the wheel it gives you control over the built structure of the ship that it’s connected to.
The problem? What if you create a wheel and attach it to the earth? the game explodes because it’s trying to move the earth like a boat.
The possible solution? Perhaps, much like you draw out on the ground where you can stock materials, or how you can place a ground, there would be a “Ship Base” options of sorts that you can draw out. Only a Base made using that can move using the wheel.

2) I don’t think it should need a captain or crew BUT… Since were going through the trouble of making it have a wheel and possibly cannons. You might as well have a Captain that can steer the ship (that when levels up has better control and speed over the ship). You should have crew manning the cannons… and of course what would a proper vessel be without her cook. That should pretty much be the crew, if not for the chef then at least a captain and cannon crew.

3) I don’t think damage is necessary. Even if there are the additions of cannons, simply have them damage the crew. But if the option of damage to the structure of the hull is there, then I have no idea how to go about doing so feel free to throw in ideas.

4) Absolutely there should be a size limit. I can only imagine it would be a strain to move a massive object… However, Large ships are also very very awesome so that depends on how the development team could fidget with that issue.

This is all I have now, but feel free to throw in your ideas. I did not think this out as thoroughly as I would have liked. In all honesty I am so excited for this game to come out that I just had this idea pop into my head and I just had to throw it out there. Please, give advice, input and if you guys think it’s a good idea then keep this threat rolling so hopefully one day we can see the addition of moving functioning ships in the game. All though lets be honest, making non moving ships in this game will still be cool.

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I’m not sure this game is going to be as free-form as you think it is. It is like Minecraft in that it has a voxel look to it, but that is probably where the similarities end. I imagine you will be able to choose the look and feel of things, but you will probably be building specific structures in-game.

I don’t doubt they are thinking of seafaring vessels. They have mentioned that the game will have continents before. Continents would imply bodies of water between them and you’ll need some way to traverse that water to get to the other side. If there are boats I’m sure they’ll just be point and click.

I do not know to what degree, but @Tom said in a livestream that boats will be in the game.

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A boat could be an entity like a person

I know, A friend of mine mentioned that but I guess i should have said what I would like to see was boat construction. Aside from perhaps a pre-determined ship model, we could customize our own in game, without the use of a mod.

I don’t see any reason why ship construction couldn’t use a modified form of the building design engine; very similar principles.

-Will

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if a trade system is implemented a trade route would be quite easy to set up. boats will be in the game, and if not -> mods ftw :smile:

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I don’t think you should directly be able to control the ships. I like the idea of having crew and a captain and all that. But I think you should tell them what sorts of things to do. Like trading and exploring. So you tell them to explore in a certain direction, they go off and explore for you. I like the idea of these guys looking up to as being in charge but not actually being you. That way they get more personality and we get more attached to them.

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I find it an very interestin idea.
Will there be battleships with cannons or mybe merchants could be able to arival with them.

Reminds me of the auto explore feature in Rise of Nations where scouting units would go off and explore and alert you if they found something interesting. But more on topic of boats and ships-- I’d love to see the ability to build a navy say… if the map you landed in had lots of water as opposed to land.

Well I would hope there were cannons =]

And of course the main reason would be for trading.

Had always kinda hoped for the ability to mod in some kind of airships… with like, cannons and bombs and stuff. Would be cool…

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Something that I just thought about was boats! In the Kickstart video(1:47) you can see a Ocean between to contenets. Maybe your favorite module lies over the ocean.Will we have to make some kind of harbour or giant workshop, to make these boats? Will there be Pirates? Will we have to make a giant bridge? Leave your ideas below!

By the power vested in me by the Stonehearth deities MERRRRRRGE

Boats, I believe, won’t be in the game until post-post-release. The timeframe, if I can remember correctly, was something like “before year 2018” or something like that. I’m pretty sure that they won’t have any sort of use/interaction with water for quite a while after release.

hahaha… i hadnt heard that quote, but i suppose its possible… :smiley:

here’s a mention of water (no boats however) from @Geoffers747’s Q&A thread

Answering questions regarding water and water physics.

“Re water: We’re working on it! Water is…hard. There will certainly
be water in the game, and we want it to behave in water like way, with
flow, dams, etc.”

Ive heard that sea exploration might be post release but I would like to develop the Idea of ships and the building of it. For building ships I think there should be categories of ships that you can build on trading ships, frigates man of wars or roman ships or Japanese ships, the viking longship and also the famous log boat a log with a hole in it. and then it depends on how skilled the shipwright/ship builder is and how many you have to build and speed up the process but you can edit them to advantages for you with rams more cannons etc.) then the classes which upgrade from a carpenter it becomes then a ship builder after a lot of upgrading a shipwright who makes frigates man-of-wars and advanced armed trade ships(cannons and stuff) Feedback would be appreciated

  • Gridnick

I have played Stonehearth for a while now, and I recon it could benifit having bigger, vaster oceans that, after sailing through, you can find awesome islands covered in magical/dangerous things with big loot. I think it would improve the game as it would make a more “adventurous” style to the game, and encorouge people to step outside the saftey of there own town, and venture through the unknown. You could add boats, docs and cannon ships. Also, you could have sea battles, with Goblin ghost ships trying to go and kill you. But it cpuld require bigger maps though, but I think it could be something intoresting and coll to add.

:grinning: Please comment what you think about the idea!

I remember Tom talking about this on the streams and was generally thought of as something post release probably in some sort of expansion.

I would very much love to see this, though from the latest i heard from the streams the world/map size as it is now is still tweaked so we may be lucky and get something earlier but who knows.

what if there were like, customisable boats? like, building an entire boat with enough rooms and beds and supplies and things for the journey? that would be awesome

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