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Baltimore Steam Propulsion Laboratory

In that case, the naming competition is still on :3

Wait a second, we basically can do steam conversions for any ship with the addition of a deckhouse and steam pipe. Maybe the removal of all cannon around the converted machinery spaces.

Handling wise, a steam assisted ship simply has no vices and is unaffected by points of sail, to the limitations of the game engine as there are glitches when you try extreme values.
 
Give me a couple minutes about the steam engine sound effect, i already have it.
The looping necesity is indeclinable, but there are two ways to change the sound based on the revolutions, one is to pitch the same sound, since the difference is not gonna be that big between full or idle. The other way is to have several sound samples.
1 just steam poping every while (engine is hot and ready, but not working)
2 low revs
3 1/3 power
4 2/3 power
5 full power, combined with steam

About the speed... maybe it was'nt THAT different, i think the speed difference on full sails compared to full sails and steam should be no more than a couple knots, now on adverse wind, the speed would be of a couple knots, but not that fast, maybe something equal to a +/- 45º front wind on full sails. I imagine this early steam engines where not too efficient (or reliable... there should be a manteinance for it in the shipyard, maybe in a couple big cities since it's a new technology, also there should be a failure factor... maybe you can copy the way the cannons fall off the ship when they are too stressed), i dont know why i say this, i have no knowledge about the topic, but i would expect something like that...
What would be greate is to have the engine independent from the sails... (maybe R and F keys to speed up and down?)
Coal price should shoot up because of the increased demand (even tough it does not exist ingame yet :cheeky)... in order to keep the steam engine usage somewhat realistic.
If this independence from the sails is possible then i'll try looking up some info about what's the coal consumption for such engines...

In coding as in modeling, the more prolix the result, the more time the creator worked on it...
Why don't you do a quick sketch of what you need for the tentacles and i'll see what i can do... it's quick and easy to create a simple tentacle model, but if you plan on animating it (make them bend or something similar) that's a whole different story...
 
Snow White Sorrow said:
I'll need your help to fix the smoke generator on the X axis, as right now the location counter-rotates around the ship.
Click to expand...
Certaily. :yes

Iron Roger Flint said:
I'm already working on those tentacles. They should be ready today or tomorrow.
Click to expand...
BRILLIANT! Thanks a lot! :woot
All we need are the tentacles, nothing else. They'll be put at sea as floating goods (I know, crazy, but it works! :razz ).
No animation needed (wouldn't work anyway). Just a couple of different-looking tentacles for variety's sake.
And probably I need some of them rotated, because it appears floating goods always point in the same direction:
kraken_attack.jpg

So we'd need a differently angled Kraken tentacle model depending on the location of the tentacle relative to the ship.
 
SuperChango said:
The looping necesity is indeclinable, but there are two ways to change the sound based on the revolutions, one is to pitch the same sound, since the difference is not gonna be that big between full or idle. The other way is to have several sound samples.
1 just steam poping every while (engine is hot and ready, but not working)
2 low revs
3 1/3 power
4 2/3 power
5 full power, combined with steam
Click to expand...
I don't know how we can take a sound file and make it pitch up in the game.
I think we'd need three sound files: one for no power, one for half and one for full.
Of course the steamship is coded in the game as a regular sailing ship that happens to be less affected by wind direction than others.
But everything's still the same as on any other ship, including controls and W/S keys for increase sail and decrease.
There's not even backwards propulsion.

My experiments in the past with manually setting ship speed in 3D sailing mode always failed.
So we're basically doing what we can within the limitations of the game engine for now.
Maybe once we have that source code, we can make them REALLY work properly.
 
Oh dear Pieter I can assure you the boat works rather well, despite engine limitations.
 

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She does behave quite steamer-like for something that's still a sailing vessel. This is turning out quite nicely! :woot

I also fixed the code further:
Code: 
CreateParticleSystemX("steamer_smoke",fX - gX*cos(fAY) + gZ*sin(fAY), fY + gY, fZ + gX*sin(fAY) + gZ*cos(fAY), Whr_GetWindSpeed()*sin(Whr_GetWindAngle()), 10*Degree2Radian(90.0), Whr_GetWindSpeed()*cos(Whr_GetWindAngle()), 0);
Smoke now IS affected by wind direction and speed and changing the X values works properly too. :doff
 
The B . S . P . L . is proud to announce completion of the USS Hudson, soon to enter a series of US Navy acceptance trials. This new "destroyer" type frigate featuring state of the art steam auxiliary propulsion is optimised for littoral combat in adverse wind conditions; territory formerly dominated by fore-and-aft rigged vessels favoured by pirates and their ilk.

The B . S . P . L . would like to thank certain foreign investors for their selfless dedication to progressing the noble maritime tradition;

Pieter Boelen - R&D and maritime affairs expert
SuperChango - Astillero de Naval
Napoleon - Diplomatic Support (well you wanted a steam ship, didn't you! There is a French version as well)
Carmen A. - Commissioner
 

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a magnificent sight - but i can't see the chimney anywhere. i assume that's still to be added? also, what's the white plume next to the black? steam from an air vent? i love the splashing water, by the way.
 
:woot It looks great! When do you reckon it will be ready for public usage?

Oh and Snow White Sorrow. I am no longer Napoleon, so I can't be the Diplomatic Support. :(
 
And I was wondering, where did the great Napoleon Bonaparte go to LOL.

It's actually ready for public testing but I'd like the "US Navy" (Pieter) to have a shakedown cruise in her first. Chain of command you know.

To minimise complications we will likely bundle this together with the full Build Beta milestone release due 21 Jan or earlier. If we are lucky I'll be able to commission a huge and very much historically accurate Spanish Galleon of over 2,000 tons displacement within the next few days. Consider that a bonus ship.
 
They both seem to be working quite nicely!
And to think that a few days ago, we hadn't even started on this yet! :woot
 
Oh yes and how could we forget ZarethPL for this excellent ship model to base our "future" US frigates on :)

Oh and since the USS Valiant has to make way for her historical counterpart:
 

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