Suggested Ship physics

Skully

New Member
Hi.
So, I'm a huge, huge fan of minecraft and I even manage a minecraft roleplaying network for golden age of pirates ship battle-type stuff. But, minecraft doesn't naturally let you build any sort of ship larger than one block, so we need to use horribly inefficient and buggy serverside software to actually do anything.
I spent a very, very long time trying to figure out how to build a better one. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but it's well beyond my programming capabilities.
Then I discovered Terasology. Off the bat I support it cuz it's open source and I'm into that. But also, because it's open source I could actually work on making the game engine simulate ships themselves instead of cutting and pasting everything to give the illusion of movement.
Anyway. My actual proposal:

1) Decently accurate ship physics
Calculated bouyancy from the weights of the blocks that make up the ship and the air inside the hull.
Collision detection for the ship actually exists​
2) Freely built ships
I can drop a block in the water and it will sink or float. I can then build off of that block and added blocks will effect the weight of the whole ship​
3) Movement on the ship
Even while the ship is moving the player (or players) can still move around the ship.​
4) Movement *of* the ship
You should be able to make the ship move around, preferably controlled from some sort of helm.
For my purposes I want sailing, possibly even with actual wind physics, but I'm willing to just use engine-like movement.​
5) The ability to damage and break blocks
Placing a block shouldn't just add it to the model, you should be able to remove individual blocks from a ship as a player
Hopefully eventually be able to break blocks with weapons. (cannons? *crosses fingers*)​
6) Saving player location on the ship
On pretty much every attempt to do this, either in minecraft or in similar games, if a player logs out while on a ship, when they log back in they spawn at their global coordinates, not where the ship they want to be on is.​

I really, really, *really* want to do this. And a big part of me want to try it myself. But I'm still a pretty newb programmer and I'm very busy with personal stuff and work. I want to see if there's anyone who's willing to lead this project.
Thanks! :love:
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
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Hi @Skully and welcome! That is an awesome goal and I believe some/most/all? is achievable, but certainly a challenge. It has certainly come up, similar stuff like airships or just plain old vehicles as well.

If you're curious to begin looking at code and possible small pieces that may relate and help achieve the goal we can certainly help you get started. I agree that it might eventually take a mentor of some sort to lead up deeper design, but you never know, if you're familiar with MC modding and the bad way of doing things you might end up discovering it isn't as hard as imagined! :)

We've done a few related things before. Once upon a time in the early days of physics a DynamicBlocks module existed with a block you could place in water and essentially surf around on. We've also got a Rails module that @SkySom has nearly finished repairing with some advanced features (larger rails) also sitting around broken waiting for assistance. We have multiblocks that admittedly act as one bit thing and mini-chunks that can be copy pasted from existing terrain complete with its own lighting. Lots of the pieces are there.

There's also a neat little video of a moving computer:

 

Skully

New Member
That's interesting. Watching that video a few times makes me wonder if that's a block with fractional coordinates or whether it's becoming an animated two block structure when it's moving. Can't really think why it would matter but it's late and that's what I'm pondering right now.
 

Skully

New Member
But I had a fabulous conversation earlier today. I was like: hey, I got it so that we can fire the cannons wherever you click so you don't need to set the angle manually and all the staff freaked the pony out. It's like: dudes. This is only impressive because of how minecraft doesn't give us *anything* to work with for this.
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
Design
Logistics
SpecOps
But I had a fabulous conversation earlier today. I was like: hey, I got it so that we can fire the cannons wherever you click so you don't need to set the angle manually and all the staff freaked the pony out. It's like: dudes. This is only impressive because of how minecraft doesn't give us *anything* to work with for this.
Hehe, I see you met the sneaky little forum word filter :D It triggers so rarely! Is funny when the context is just right :)

Yes the achievements of the modding community in Minecraft is nothing short of amazing considering the tools you have. Just imagine what could be possible in an open source version build for extensibility from the ground up! :coffee:

As for the computer I think it is just cheating with a two-block approach + animation. @Marcin Sciesinski did it and would know. There are also conveyor belts in @Josharias Survival :)
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
Design
Logistics
SpecOps
I don't know what you mean about the word filter thing. Lol.
Well, unless you actually wrote it this way :D

Skully said:
and all the staff freaked the pony out
Silly little word swap implemented shortly after we set up the forum ages ago. It triggers so rarely and is sometimes funny so it has been kept it around :)
 

Skully

New Member
Oh. Lol. Guess I shouldn't curse too much. That might be an issue. :oops:
Wait, why are there so many pony emoticons? O_O
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
Design
Logistics
SpecOps
Oh. Lol. Guess I shouldn't curse too much. That might be an issue. :oops:
Wait, why are there so many pony emoticons? O_O
It was another time back then ... ;)

(I was having some fun with @Kai Kratz ages ago)
 

Anthodeus

Member
Contributor
@Skully don't forget about the pegasisters, they're also having a blast :fluttersquee:

Anyway, regarding the ships, you mentioned that minecraft doesn't have proper multiblock ships, but I do remember seeing some vids on the matter (on that I found on the spot would be this one. It seems to be working pretty well and I'm thinking we want something about the same as this.

Other than that, the ideas seem to be pretty solid, and from my current knowledge of the engine should work in Terasology pretty well :D.

all the staff freaked the pony out
Loved this part of the thread too :rainbowlaugh:
 
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