Following Seas - A sinking feeling

Описание к видео Following Seas - A sinking feeling

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Stability.

I get that this is a big topic, and I'm no marine engineer so I can't speak authoritatively about this, but I know that stability is hugely important, and I feel it's often neglected in games of this type.

Every part of this is in a high degree of testing, so there's a number of issues, but I want to outline the new components that have been implemented.

Firstly, variable metacentric height. The roll point of the hull can now vary significantly across three axis's. This can be influenced by changes of mass, and the position in which that mass is placed. For example, adding cargo in the hold will increase draft, but also lower the metacentric height.

Secondly, and tied closely with the above is ballast. Ship hulls have been made considerably lighter, with the difference made up through a variable amount of ballast. This can be controlled by the player to allow more flexibility when it comes to cargo. Reducing ballast without any other mass in the hull is a great way to speedrun the development of submarines.

Third, there are multiple significant changes made to flooding. Water entering the hold increases the hull mass considerably, but unlike cargo it has an opposite affect upon stability. The aim of this is to simulate the free surface effect, so if flooding is not kept under control you will either swamp due to ever increasing draft, or roll. Partial self draining due to scuppers and limited flooding due to closed hatches is planned, but not currently implemented.

Separate to stability, there have been numerous changes made to ship handling. Ship inertia has been altered and dampened -- so ships accelerate far more slowly than before, but also maintain speed better during turns or when wind direction changes. The effectiveness of steering has been altered to depend on hullspeed through water, so the slower the ship is travelling, the less effective the rudder becomes. Get used to kedging. Lastly, forces surrounding heel have been largely rewritten. The hull should roll more smoothly under rudder input, and will no longer roll into the turns like a modern speedboat.

There's some more minor work done as well. I've added pallets to make it clear where cargo is allowed, added hatches and UI elements for ballast - and have made numerous small changes to the Junk and Caravel. Quite a few additions have been made on land as well, and I've added numerous props, tools, and bedding meshes.

On a technical and performance end, I've added mipmap streaming to most textures, which results in moderate performance gains, and major improvements to texture clarity.

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